245.9S sec. 001 - International Business Negotiations (Summer 2025)
Instructor: Jay Gary Finkelstein (view instructor's teaching evaluations - degree students only | profile)
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Units: 1
Grading Designation: Credit Only
Mode of Instruction: In-Person
Meeting:
MTuWTh 2:00 PM - 5:10 PM
Location: Law 170
From June 30, 2025
To July 03, 2025
Class Number: Click to show Class Number
Enrollment info:
Enrolled: 4
Waitlisted: 0
Enroll Limit: 30
As of: 04/07 01:14 AM
This course is structured around a simulated negotiation exercise in which half of the students in this class will represent a multi-national pharmaceutical company (KJH Pharmaceutical Corporation) and the other half of the students will represent an African agricultural production company (Malundian Cassava Corporation). The two companies are interested in working together to exploit a new technology developed by KJH Pharmaceutical that uses the cassava produced by Malundian Cassava Corporation. The form of their collaboration could be a joint venture, a licensing agreement, or a long-term supply contract. The negotiations will take place through written exchanges and through live negotiations. The purpose of the course is to provide students with an opportunity (i) to experience the sequential development of a business transaction over an extended negotiation, (ii) to study the businesses and legal issues and strategies that impact the negotiation, (iii) to gain insight into the dynamics of negotiating and structuring international business transactions, (iv) to learn about the role that lawyers and law play in these negotiations, (v) to give students experience in drafting communications, and (vi) to provide negotiation experience in a context that replicates actual legal practice. The thrust of this course is class participation and active involvement in the negotiation process. Students are expected to spend time outside of class, working in teams, to prepare for class discussions involving the written exchanges as well as to prepare for the live negotiations. Class discussions will focus on the strategy for, and progress of, the negotiations, as well as the substantive legal, business and policy matters that impact on the negotiations.
Jay Gary Finkelstein, a partner at DLA Piper LLP (US), has practiced corporate and securities law for over 30 years, focusing on international and domestic negotiated transactions, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, securities offerings, corporate structuring, strategic contractual relationships, and general corporate law. His practice has involved matters in a wide variety of industries, including defense, hospitality, financial services, real estate, franchised businesses and high-tech and emerging growth enterprises. He also represents numerous nonprofit organizations. He works closely with DLA lawyers in international offices throughout the world to coordinate the delivery of legal services for international transactional matters.
In addition to Berkeley, Mr. Finkelstein is a member of the adjunct law faculties at Stanford, Georgetown and American University. He has been a guest professor at Addis Ababa University Law School (Ethiopia), Baltic Federal University (Russia), Tel Aviv University (Israel), and Sun Yat-Sen University (China).
He is the co-author (with Prof. Daniel Bradlow) of Negotiating Business Transactions: An Extended Simulation Course (Wolters Kluwer, Aspen Coursebook Series, 2013) and “Training Law Students to be International Transactional Lawyers – Using an Extended Simulation to Educate Law Students about Business Transactions,” Pepperdine Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship and the Law, 2007.
He is also the author of “Practice in the Academy: Creating ‘Practice Aware’ Law Graduates,” Journal of Legal Education, Vol. 64, No. 4 (May 2015), and “Barriers to Entry: Putting it Together, School by School,” Journal of Experiential Learning, Vol. 2, No. 1 (forthcoming, Fall 2016).
Mr. Finkelstein is a graduate of Princeton University (A.B., 1975, magna cum laude) and Harvard Law School (J.D., 1978, magna cum laude). He is a member of the Virginia and District of Columbia Bars.
Exam Notes: (P) Final Paper
(Subject to change by faculty member only through the first two weeks of instruction)
Course Category: Business Law
This course is listed in the following sub-categories:
Negotiation and Dispute Resolution
Simulation Courses
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