Academic

On May 30 and 31, 2008, Emory???s Center for Transactional Law and Practice hosted a conference on the teaching of drafting and transactional skills.  If attendance is a measure of success, we were a hit.  We had about 170 registrants from more than 90 law schools.  We also had registrants from law firms and Germany.  Topics ranged from how to incorporate transactional skills into first-year doctrinal courses, to the grading of a drafting exercise, to the creation of a full-semester, simulation capstone course.

One of our goals was to get as many people as possible who teach transactional skills all in the same room at the same time.  And we did that.  But that was also the conference???s failing:  We were preaching to the converted.  Most who attended needed no encouragement to teach a transactional skills course or add a transactional skills component to a doctrinal course.  But the professors we really needed to reach were not there.  My guess is that the AALS June 2009 conferences on transactional law and business associations will reach a broader audience.  That???s only for the good, as it will certainly increase attendance at Emory???s 2009 conference.