Contract Drafting

Teaching Contract Drafting Conference
July 20 – 21, 2005

Conference Highlights

Why Today's Law Schools Should Teach Contract Drafting
How Contract Concepts and the Business Deal Affect Contract Drafting
Essential Guidelines for Competent Drafting
Stand-Alone Drafting Courses
Merging Drafting Instruction into Substantive Courses
Teaching Methods and Practical Advice

Law schools already prepare future attorneys to think like lawyers, but today's law students and their prospective employers also increasingly want law schools to teach students how to do the work of lawyering. Law students and employers alike view drafting skills education as critical to a lawyer's career development and success. While law schools traditionally have focused on teaching litigation skills, they are just now beginning to develop curricula to teach drafting skills. This conference is designed to help law schools provide that education critical to future business lawyers.

View Faculty Bios (pdf) | Conference Brochure (pdf)

Program Schedule
All sessions and luncheons will be presented at Northwestern University School of Law, 357 E. Chicago Avenue, Chicago, Illinois.

Wednesday, July 20

12:30 - 2 p.m.
Registration, lunch, networking

2 - 2:15 p.m.
Welcome
Judith A. Rosenbaum, Clinical Professor; Director of Communication and Legal Reasoning, Northwestern University School of Law

2:15 – 2:45 p.m.
Keynote Address
“Why Teach Contract Drafting at Law School?”
Richard K. Neumann Jr., Professor, Hofstra University School of Law

3 - 5 p.m.
Workshop
“The Nuts and Bolts of Contract Drafting”
George W. Kuney, Associate Professor and Director, Center for Entrepreneurial Law, University of Tennessee College of Law
Tina L. Stark, Adjunct Professor, Fordham University School of Law

5:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Reception

Thursday, July 21

8 - 9 a.m.
Breakfast

9 - 10:45 a.m.
Workshop
“Drafting Rules, Adding Value to the Deal, and Ethical Issues in Contract Drafting”
Scott J. Burnham, Professor, University of Montana School of Law
George M. Kuney, Associate Professor and Director, James L. Clayton Center for Entrepreneurial Law, University of Tennessee College of Law
Tina L. Stark, Adjunct Professor, Fordham University School of Law

11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Workshop
“Teaching Contract Drafting to Upper Level Students”
Robin A. Boyle, Assistant Legal Writing Professor and Assistant Director of the Writing Center, St. John's University School of Law
Thomas P. Brown, Adjunct Professor, Northwestern University School of Law; partner, Sidley Austin Brown & Wood LLP
Eric Goldman, Assistant Professor, Marquette University Law School

12:30 - 1:45 p.m.
Lunch and Presentation
“The Legal Employer's Perspective”
Stephen Armstrong, Director of Career Development, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP; co-author, Thinking Like a Writer: A Lawyer's Guide to Effective Writing and Editing (PLI 2003)
Charles M. Fox, Partner, Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP; author, Working with Contracts: What Law School Doesn't Teach You (PLI 2002)

2 – 3:30 p.m.
Workshop
“Teaching Contract Drafting to First-Year Law Students”
Speakers
Scott J. Burnham, Professor, University of Montana School of Law
Christina L. Kunz, Professor, William Mitchell College of Law
Helene S. Shapo, Professor, Northwestern University School of Law

3:45 - 5 p.m.
Workshop
“Teaching Techniques”
Susan J. Irion, Clinical Assistant Professor, Northwestern University School of Law
Richard K. Neumann, Jr., Professor, Hofstra University School of Law

5 - 7 p.m.
Reception
Joint Sponsor: Association of Legal Writing Directors

Tuition
Tuition for the Contract Drafting Conference is $250, which includes all session and materials, two lunches, one breakfast, two evening receptions, and coffee breaks A discount of $25 is available for those who plan to cross-register for both the Contract Drafting Conference and Association of Legal Writing Directors Conference (ALWD). Registrations must be accompanied by payment.

Northwestern University School of Law will accept registrations and payments only for the Contract Drafting Conference. Payment and registration for the ALWD conference must be submitted to ALWD, per separate registration materials that ALWD will supply. For more information, visit the ALWD Web site.

Cancellation Policy
Full refunds for cancellations at the Contract Drafting Conference will be given for all written cancellations received before July 1, 2005. No refunds will be given for any cancellations received after June 30, 2005.

Accommodations
Special hotel rates for conference participants are available at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Downtown Chicago, 511 N. Columbus Drive. Subject to availability, single rates are $119 and double rates are $139.

Contact the Embassy Suites at (866) 866-8098, or visit their Web site.

To obtain the reduced conference rates, identify yourself as a participant at the Northwestern University School of Law Conference on Teaching Contract Drafting. For online registrations, use this code: NWU. If you also are attending all or part of the ALWD conference, you also must identify yourself as a participant of that conference, using code: ALW.

Conference Organizers
Susan J. Irion, Northwestern University School of Law
Richard K. Neumann Jr., Hofstra University School of Law
Judith A. Rosenbaum, Northwestern University School of Law
Tina L. Stark, Fordham University School of Law

Conference Sponsors
Northwestern University School of Law thanks the following for serving as sponsors of the Conference on Teaching Contract Drafting:

ABA Publishing
Aspen Publishing
Carolina Academic Press
Latham & Watkins LLP
Seyfarth Shaw LLP
Thomson West