Eligibility and Course Requirements


Eligibility for the Transactional Law and Skills Certificate begins with a formal submission (>>click here).  Students must also contact Professor Payne to discuss course selection and other matters.  There are no other prerequisites to becoming eligible to receive a Certificate, only course requirements for its receipt.

Note: Contract Drafting is a prerequisite for Deal Skills, and those two courses are prerequisites for most of the capstone courses and field placements that count as a capstone course. Check the prerequisites for any capstone course you want to take because it may have additional prerequisites.

Required Courses

  1. Accounting in Action or Analytical Methods (can be waived if equivalent course previously taken)
  2. Business Associations
  3. Contract Drafting
  4. Corporate Finance
  5. Deal Skills
  6. Fundamentals of Income Taxation
  7. Federal Income Tax: Corporations or Federal Income Tax: Partnerships (Fundamentals of Income Taxation is a prerequisite unless waived by the professor.)
  8. Capstone course or an approved field placement

Capstone Courses 

  • Commercial Lending Transactions
  • Commercial Real Estate Transactions Workshop
  • Complex Restructurings and Distressed Acquisitions
  • The General Counsel in Negotiated Transactions
  • Mergers & Acquisitions Workshop
  • Negotiated Corporate Transactions
  • Private Equity
  • Transactional Intellectual Property Law Practice
  • Venture Capital

Field Placement - Contract Drafting and Deal Skills are prerequisites for a field placement to qualify as a Capstone Course fulfilling the Certificate requirement. (Not all of these placements are available each semester.   Please check with Professor Shalf for an updated list.)

  • Coca Cola
  • Federal Reserve Bank
  • GE Energy
  • Internal Revenue Service
  • Securities and Exchange Commission
  • Scientific Atlanta (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cisco Systems, Inc.)
  • UCB, Inc.

Electives - Students may  consider taking the following electives in addition to the courses required for the Certificate.  

  • Bankruptcy
  • Banking Law
  • Commercial Real Estate
  • Commercial Law: Sales
  • Copyright Law
  • Corporate Crimes
  • Deferred Compensation
  • Economic Analysis of Law
  • Employment Discrimination
  • Employment Law
  • Franchise Law
  • Intellectual Property
  • International Business Transactions
  • International Tax and Business 
  • Intellectual Property
  • International Tax
  • International Tax Topics (Seminar)
  • International Trade Law 
  • Labor Law
  • Licensing
  • Mergers and Acquisitions
  • Negotiation
  • Real Estate Finance
  • Real Estate Loan Restructuring (Seminar)
  • Regulation of Nonprofit Organizations
  • Secured Transactions
  • Securities Regulation
  • Trademark Law
  • Worker’s Compensation