As the first round of negotiations came to an end, Charleston School of Law 2L John Kesterson turned to his teammate and said, “I could do this all day.”
At the beginning of the Fall 2025 semester, members of the Transactional Law Team (TLT) at Charleston Law had the privilege of mentoring law students at St. Thomas College of Law in Miami, Florida.
“The transactional law team at Charleston School of Law is unique in that there are not a lot of schools that offer something like this, and it really is one of the primary ways to get exposure to transactional law and practice,” said Sam Lipman, a 3L at the Law School. “Both contract drafting and contract negotiation are intangible skills that are hard to teach in a classroom; they require a lot of doing.”
“We really wanted to learn more about the structure of the competition. The level of rigor and specificity that would be required for the contract,” said St. Thomas law student Kayle Smith. “They really worked with us to workshop our individuality and leverage our individual personalities to have a fruitful negotiation.”
“The only way to experience and have as much exposure to those scenarios is by doing,” said Charleston Law student Madison Blanton. “We’re doing things that first-year practicing attorneys aren’t able to do. We have the opportunity of practicing and doing that.”
“The Charleston Law team essentially helped build a foundation for us,” added Kayle Smith. “I would describe my experience as one of the most vital and valuable opportunities that I’ve had in law school.”
Over the summer, Itai Fiegenbaum, Assistant Professor of Law at St. Thomas, noted that he had admired the Charleston program and took the opportunity to introduce himself to Professor Jean Steadman at last summer’s Southeastern Association of Law Schools (SEALS) Conference.
When Fiegenbaum asked Steadman if she could offer any resources, the St. Thomas College of Law professor got more than he could ever imagine. “I thought Professor Steadman would send me some links to resources, but she did more than that; she offered to teach our law students through the process,” said Professor Fiegenbaum.
“We saw it as an opportunity not only to help a fledgling program or to help a school create its own transactional law program,” said Lipman. “We also saw it as an opportunity for Charleston Law students to get exposure to coaching, observing, and for some of our newer students to get additional practice in negotiations.”
The two law schools began planning. With only a couple of weeks left before St. Thomas was scheduled to participate in their first-ever Transactional Law competition, Charleston Law hosted a two-day mock negotiation via Zoom.
“The experience allowed me to understand exactly what certain provisions are for in contracts,” said Kesterson, who negotiated and served as a judge in the mock competition. “I will be able to apply what I learned, not only in the drafting but in the negotiation. I can’t wait to work on it and get better at it.”
The Transactional Law Team at Charleston School of Law facilitates and promotes the development of practical skills, including negotiating and drafting binding transactional law instruments such as contracts. TLT fulfills this purpose through practice and participation in internal and external competitions throughout the United States.
“The transactional law team has given me an abundance of opportunity to do both and to really learn negotiating skills, get comfortable working within a contract, and understand the different pieces of a contract,” said Lipman. “When I worked over the summer, I was hungry for contract work. I really feel like I can excel without much instruction.”
“TLT has done an amazing job at preparing me for life after law school,” said Charleston Law 3L Kiana Barber. “It has taught me how to draft a multitude of different types of agreements that you’ll see in practice and how to negotiate those and communicate with clients. The preparation is evident in the work I’ve done as a law clerk over the past two summers.”
Charleston School of Law is an ABA-accredited law school committed to preparing students to provide public service while pursuing their passions in various areas of the law. For students interested in practicing transactional, corporate, and business law, the Center for Business and Transactional Law provides an opportunity to learn everything from contract basics to the complexities of modern business law transactions.
Charleston School of Law will be in attendance at the Brigham Young University Law Fair on Wednesday, October 22 from 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Charleston School of Law will be in attendance at the Florida State University Grad & Law School Fair on Wednesday, October 22 from 11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
