Message from the Director
This spring we celebrated another year of accomplishments in educating and preparing our students for future careers in transactional practice. I am filled with gratitude for our alumni and program supporters who make the Transactional Lawyering Institute uniquely impactful to Loyola Law School students.
Each summer offers the opportunity to reflect on all that transpired over the past year, to reenergize and to set new goals and priorities for the future. It is also a time for transitions. With this newsletter, I am writing to share that I have accepted an offer to join the legal team of Inari Medical, Inc. beginning on June 26.
I am incredibly grateful to have served as Director of the Transactional Lawyering Institute for the past eight years. It truly has been a privilege. We have accomplished so much together and I look forward to seeing all that this program achieves in the future.
To highlight a few of the Institute’s accomplishments in the years since I became Director:
- We have expanded the bench of corporate attorneys who teach Business Planning: Financing the Start-Up Business and Venture Capital Financing, bringing a variety of practitioners from diverse backgrounds to campus.
- The Transactional Negotiation Team (TNT) continues to provide students with an opportunity to hone their negotiation skills while being evaluated by experienced alumni and other attorneys. TNT now also features a mock negotiation between alumni with decades of experience in mergers and acquisitions and teaches students about evolving deal terms in the M&A market.
- We developed a new and innovative course on the role of in-house counsel. Exploring the Role of In-House Counsel has brought over a dozen senior legal executives to campus to teach students how to analyze and respond to a broad range of matters impacting private and public companies.
- In collaboration with the Admissions department, we launched the Business Law Fellows program, which offers a select group of incoming 1Ls the opportunity to network with alumni, access mentors and attend exclusive workshops and panels. Loyola Law School will welcome its sixth cohort of Business Law Fellows in fall 2023.
- We provided pro bono opportunities for Loyola Law School students to educate underserved high school students on the role of business lawyers.
- We published the third and fourth editions of the Business Planning: Financing the Start-Up Business and Venture Capital Financing casebook, which is widely adopted at other law schools.
The connections I made and the relationships built during my time here are most memorable and will stay with me long after I set out on my next adventure. Our community of alumni and other attorneys have supported us financially and programmatically, including by mentoring students, guest lecturing, judging TNT, teaching Business Planning and Exploring the Role of In-House Counsel, hiring or facilitating job placements for students, raising the profile of TLI and more. Our students inspire me as future lawyers and leaders. Loyola Law School’s staff and faculty pour their hearts into making our community a very special place for educating students on how to be successful and ethical business lawyers.
I want to close by especially thanking Leonard Cohen Chair for Law and Business Therese Maynard for establishing the Transactional Lawyering Institute, for inspiring me to enter corporate law practice, and for giving me the chance to join her as a colleague and faculty member. I am confident that the next leader of TLI will guide the program to new heights and hope you all will continue to be involved with it in the future.
Warmly,
2022-2023 YEAR-IN-REVIEW
Adjunct Faculty Spotlight for Business Planning Course
We offered six sections of Business Planning: Financing the Start-Up Business and Venture Capital Financing, with four sections taught by practicing attorneys, including Scott Ehrlich (Sklar Kirsh LLP), Daniel Kim (Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP), Nancy Avedissian ‘99 (most recently of Volt Information Sciences) and Robert Kehr (Valensi Rose, PLC).
Exploring the Role of In-House Counsel Course
In Fall 2022, Exploring the Role of In-House Counsel featured a number of guest lecturers, including Kendra Jones JD/MBA ’99 (Epson America), Nancy Avedissian ’99 (Volt Information Sciences), David Lee ’99 (Tri Pointe Homes), Dawn Haghighi (PCV Murcor Real Estate Services), Tess Elconin ’92 (University of California) and Phillip Gharabegian ’99 (Sinclair Broadcast Group). To celebrate the end of the semester, we hosted a panel and networking event with Sujata Wiese ’13 (Amazon), Sean Montgomery ’13 (The Wonderful Company) and Kyle Funn ’13 (Lendistry).
Fall 2022 Speaker Series
Fall 2022 also included a speaker series, featuring Tammy Brandt (Creative Artists Agency) on the topic of taking a company public via SPAC in her former role as Chief Legal Officer of FaZe Clan; and a panel on different areas of business law practice featuring Serineh Baghdasarian (Sklar Kirsh LLP), Nick Feldman ’15 (Gunderson Dettmer LLP) and Alice Yuan (Massumi + Consoli LLP). The Business Law Fellows joined with the Entertainment Law Fellows for a Hollywood Dealmaking Workshop led by Lee Straus ’96 (North Road Company).
Spring 2023 Speaker Series
Spring 2023 brought additional speaking engagements to our students, including Andy Beal ’12 (Forta) discussing his career path and current work in crypto and blockchain technology, Jeff Marks ’95 (Alliance Legal Partners) sharing his entrepreneurial experiences and insights on striking a healthy work/life balance and James Parker ’08 (Boston Celtics) exploring how his exposure to a variety of practice areas in law firms led him to his current role as General Counsel of a major sports organization. Dawn Haghighi (PCV Murcor Real Estate Services) also provided a workshop on how to interview effectively.
Spring 2023 Transactional Negotiation Team
Continuing with tradition, the year concluded with a fantastic turnout for the Transactional Negotiation Team Finals and Reception. Finalists Tatyana Akbarian ’23 (TNT Champion) and Rachel Smaler ’23 negotiated a letter of intent for the proposed acquisition of a pet product and services retailer by a large, publicly traded buyer. Tremendous thanks to our judges who volunteered time throughout the semester to coach and evaluate the students: Scott Alderton ’85 (Stubbs Alderton & Markiles LLP), Jeffrey Sklar ’01 (Sklar Kirsh LLP), Brent Armitage ’18 (Gunderson Dettmer), Trent Benson ’19 (K&L Gates LLP), Alex Camarella ‘20m (Palmieri, Tyler, Wiener, Wilhelm & Waldron LLP), Bob Conca ’97 (Shustak Reynolds & Partners LLP), Daniel Dubyak ’21 (Buchalter LLP), Jacob Dunlap ’20 (Safarian Choi & Bolstad LLP), Scott Ehrlich (Sklar Kirsh LLP), Nick Feldman ’15 (Gunderson Dettmer), Kyle Funn ’13 (Lendistry), Daniel Garber ’19 (Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP), Mark Goshgarian ’19 (Latham & Watkins LLP), Dawn Haghighi (PCV Murcor Real Estate Services), Jon Krane ’15 (Massumi + Consoli LLP), Scott Lochner (Foundation Law Group), Breana Love ’18 (Amazon), Liana Minassian ’22 (O&A PC), Sean Montgomery ’15 (The Wonderful Company), Geoffrey Moore ’97 (Hyundai), Yavonna Morris ’06 (Hyundai), Jose A. Ortiz ’18 (Stubbs Alderton & Markiles LLP), Kevin Pasternak ’16 (Davis Wright Tremaine LLP), Fiammetta Piazza ’17 (Polsinelli LLP), Jacob S. Reichman ’19 (Kirkland & Ellis LLP), Goli Sarange ’16 (LeaseLock), Kelly Siobhan Laffey ’13 (Stubbs Alderton & Markiles LLP), Troy Sugg (Sugg Law Group), Ryan Urban ’20 (Mintz Levin LLP), Elizabeth Wang ’18 (Moog), Graham Wardle ’19 (Sheppard Mullin LLP), Sujata Wiese ’13 (Amazon), Jordan Yallen ’20 (Meta Tope), Andrew Yang ’20 (O&A PC).