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Spring 2023

6364 Contract Drafting - TOEDT- 16781

Professor(s): D.C. Toedt III. (OTHER FACULTY)

Credits: 3

Course Areas: Business and Commercial Law 

Time: 6:00p-7:30p  MW  Location: 310 

Course Outline: This simulation course's goal is to help a new lawyer impress his- or her first supervising attorneys with how knowledgeable the new lawyer is about the ways that businesses use contracts to work together.

We will draft a series of contracts for a small tech company, "MathWhiz," including for its dealings with a giant corporate customer, "Gigunda Energy." Along the way, we will study the following, among other things."

• key legal doctrines that could cause big future problems for clients if not dealt with properly

• business planning, a.k.a. R.O.O.F.: Rooting Out Opportunities for [Failure]

• watching out for SPP, i.e., S[tuff] People Pull

• creating contractual incentives for good behavior to help head off disputes

• specific techniques for drafting contracts that can be quickly reviewed and negotiated

• spotting and eliminating ambiguities, which can be a leading cause of contract-related disputes

• how not to get taken advantage of in contract negotiations

• avoiding jail time for both clients and lawyers

• earning a reputation as a deal-maker, not a deal-breaker

• positioning the client for future litigation without spooking the other side

While this course no longer satisfies the upper-division writing course requirement, students will still get considerable practice in drafting workable, readable contract language.
Class sessions spend a lot of time brainstorming and war-gaming typical real-world business situations.

Socratic method is used extensively, but in a modified form: Most questions are posted in advance; when a question is posed in class, students are asked to turn to their neighbors and discuss, then the question is discussed by the whole class.

Course Syllabus: Syllabus

Course Notes: (Face-to-Face)   The UH registration system instruction mode for this course is listed in parenthesis. After student registration opens, there may be instruction mode changes to this course up through two weeks before the first day of classes for the term, but notice of such changes will be sent to then-registered students. For this instruction mode, instructors and students are expected to normally be physically present in the classroom. If the course has a final examination, it will be in a classroom requiring your physical presence. Other assessment, such as a mid-term exam, may also be in a classroom. Whether this instructor will offer “remote presence” (starting a zoom meeting from the podium computer to enable student remote access on an occasional basis) for part or all of the semester is not known, but students should not rely on an expectation that remote presence will be available.

Quota = 16

Prerequisites: Yes  1L Contracts. (We will review key contract-law doctrines along the way.) A business background is helpful but not required — all necessary business information will be covered in class and/or in reading materials.

First Day Assignments:

Final Exam Schedule: 05/03 6-7pm  310    

This course will have:
Exam:
Paper:


Satisfies Senior Upper Level Writing Requirement: No

Experiential Course Type: simulation

Bar Course: No

DistanceEd ABA: No

Pass-Fail Student Election: Conditional Availability (not for required credits)

Course Materials

Special Case

Free online course materials, see syllabus for details.