QUICK LINKS: Columbia Law School Columbia University Deals Workshop Syllabus Fellowship in Transactional Studies David Schizer's Bio Victor Fleischer's CV
For an overview of the Deals Program at CLS: Deals: Bringing Corporate Transactions into the Law School Classroom
Email Comments/Questions/Suggestions to: Victor Fleischer, Research Fellow in Transactional Studies, vef2@columbia.edu
Announcements:
Deals Workshop Spring 2003
Section One: Monday 6-8, JG 546, Victor Fleischer
Section Two: Tuesday 6-8, JG 546, Kelli Turner, Allen & Co
Section Three: Wednesday 4-6, Little Warren 304, Arthur Kaufman, Fried Frank
Section Four: Thursday 6-8, JG 501, Ilan Nissan, O'Melveny & Myers
Syllabus -- (Sections 2, 3, 4 should also check w their instructors)
The Deals Class
The Deals class (a.k.a. "Deals: The Economic Structure of Transactions and Contracting") was created by Ronald Gilson and Victor Goldberg. David Schizer and Victor Fleischer have also taught the class. See course description here. The class explores the concept of the business lawyer's role in creating value through "transaction cost engineering." Through a combination of lecture and case study of real world deals, the class identifies recurring deal problems and examines how lawyers can manage business risks through negotiation and contractual solutions.
Deals Workshop: The Art of the Deal
Victor Fleischer, Kelli Turner (Allen & Co), Arthur Kaufman (Fried Frank), and Ilan Nissan (O'Melveny) are each teaching sections of the Deals Workshop, a skills-oriented seminar which applies the theory of Transaction Cost Engineering to a series of case studies and simulated negotiation and drafting exercises. Exercises may include the sale of a coffee shop, a music industry recording contract, an employment agreement, and a venture capital investment. Significant emphasis is placed on developing writing and drafting skills as well as negotiation. Link to seminar homepage here.
Deals Resources
Academia
Ron Gilson, Victor Goldberg, David Schizer, Jeffrey Gordon
SSRN (to search for relevant papers or case studies)
News Media
Wall Street Journal, New York Times, TheDeal.com, M&A Review, IPO.com
Dealbook (a daily email service of the NYT) is an easy way to keep up-to-date.
Managerial Rent Extraction: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/gewelch1.html
Venture
Capital
VentureWire, Red Herring, Venture Capital Journal, PWC Survey, Silicon Alley, Private Equity Online
Negotiation Beyond Winning, HLS Program on Negotiation
Robert Mnookin's book Beyond Winning is an excellent resource on "value creating" negotiations.
Carol Liebman leads a negotiation workshop each spring.
Popular
Culture
Recent (and not-so-recent) pop culture treatments of Deals-related topics include:
Startup.com, an excellent documentary about the founders of an internet start-up; used as a case study in Spring 2002 Deals Workshop
Wall Street, Oliver Stone's classic
Barbarians at the Gate, a 1993 "docucomedy" (based on Bryan Burrough and John Helyar's book) describing the largest ever leveraged buyout, KKR's $25 Billion LBO of RJR Tobacco.
The New York Observer often has columns about Wall Street culture and dealmakers, often displaying an interesting and contradictory mixture of jealousy and above-it-all cynicism.
Socially Responsible Investing
Columbia University's advisory committee on socially responsible investing
Some individual SRI mutual funds: Domini, Calvert, Citizens Funds
Rational Exuberance Slides
© 2003 Victor Fleischer