In cooperation with Gessel, a well established law firm, ALP is launching a workshop on negotiating corporate transactions. The topic is acquisition of shares in a company. Students made up 2 teams that can work with lawyers from JU, from the law firm, and with business consultants from CambridgePython. The draft contract is provided by Gessel. Students have one month to work on it, and prepare the strategy for the simulated negotiation in which they will try to close the deal. The project is managed by Mr. Wojciech Jarosinski. Read more here.

Update after the first meeting:

On Monday, March 31 the Negotiation Workshop officially begun. Lawyers from Gessel law firm (Beata Gessel, Arthur Masny, Maciej Kożuchowski and Marcin Huczkowski) introduced the contract to participants.

The subject of negotiations is an acquisition agreement in which the buyer is a private equity fund.

By the end of the meeting, participants were asked to form two groups of sellers and buyers. Sellers are supported by Beata Gessel and Maciej Kożuchowski, while advisers in buyers group are Arthur Masny and Marcin Huczkowski. Negotiators also can count on Krzysztof Oplustil and Marcin Spyra, scholars from JU law faculty, who will provide guidance on the legal complexity of the contract.

Finally, teams met their business principals from Cambridge Python, whose role is to increase reality of the project by creating pressure of lawyer – client relationship.

This week meetings of teams are scheduled. Hard work begins.

Update – first week of struggle:

First week of the Workshop was marked with a further development of the project. Teams were joined by additional JU scholars. Sellers by dr Arkadiusz Radwan and buyers by Agata Wacławik-Wejman. Extended legal advice was of course welcomed.

The project also was observed by The National Association of Legal Advisors (Krajowa Rada Radców Prawnych). The Council willing to support innovative educational ideas and decided to cover costs of a negotiation training that is to be performed by Gary Lachman. More information soon.

In meanwhile, negotiators basing on statements of interests issued by their business clients divided tasks, conducted profound legal research and started to discuss main provisions of the contract.

Negotiation Workshop & Gary Lachman:

This week, negotiators are to be trained by a world-class negotiator: Gary Lachman. He will stop in Krakow for only 40h and give an intense training in negotiations to participants of our Workshop. Moreover, he will also find time to meet with American Law Program students and acquaint them with challenges of his profession.

This event would not be possible if not for the involvement of The National Association of Legal Advisors (Krajowa Rady Radców Prawnych) which is keen on introducing new and practical educational methods to Polish law schools. The Association sponsors Mr. Lachman visit.

Hotel Eden at Kazimierz also helped us in making this event possible by sponsoring Mr. Lachman stay in Krakow.

Here you can read about our guest.

Mr. Lachman’s lecture – new approach to law school education standards

Giving three long and intense lectures to a demanding and curious public, during a two-day stay in Krakow can be found challenging. For Gary Lachman it was a regular workday.

Negotiation training started soon after Mr. Lachman’s plane landed in Krakow. First part was an open to public event. Mr. Lachman gave a fascinating lecture on cross cultural communication, founding his conclusions and advices on a notable experience that he collected in every part of the world and following them with awesome stories from practice.

Even though, students were amazed and willing to hear more, the two lectures, that followed cross cultural communication were closed. Mr. Lachman focused his attention on teams preparing to Negotiation Workshop. His attempt was to show depth and complexity of a negotiation session. He underlined importance of preparation, gave clues on methods of assembling a team and helped to understand relationships that occur within a negotiation team and their effects on negotiation process. Mr. Lachman also explained a number of negotiation techniques using contract from the Workshop as a background. Having students acquainted with basis of well known strategies, Mr. Lachman unveiled his famous Lost in the Swamp Technique.

The training was greatly appreciated by participants of Negotiation Workshop. It gave them an insight to a thrilling profession and definitely thought, that in this area practice is an utmost value. Moreover, it proved that idea of learning by practice is worth further development. The outcome of Mr. Lachman’s lecture – negotiation skills, will not fade away or become out of date like much of the statutes memorized in law school. We appreciate that The National Council of Legal Advisors recognized importance of this issue and helped to take the first step in setting new standards in law education.

The Final:

On Friday, May 9, after one and a half month of preparations and anxieties, negotiators finally had the opportunity to make the deal. But it was not 11am at the top level of Warsaw Towers that the actual negotiations begun. It was 6.55am, platform 5 of Cracow’s train station where negotiators took a train and started to examine strengths and weaknesses of counterparty playing well a role of negotiator. Then, at 11am the session started. Talks went through every possible stage. Beginning with overwhelming statements, that were supposed to intimidate opposite party, passing stage of fierce disputes, teams finally broke the ice and continued negotiations in accordance with professor Mnookin’s guidelines introduced during Mr. Lachman’s training. In order to make negotiations more efficient, partners discussed a couple of complicated issues within smaller, specialized groups. Ultimately, after four hours of noble struggle negotiators agreed on the most important provisions of contract and closed the talks in accord.

During a lunch that followed, negotiators listened to comments made by professor Sarah Duggin (CUA), Arthur Masny Esq. (Of Counsel, GESSEL), Maciej Kożuchowski (GESSEL), Agata Wacławik-Wejman and dr Krzysztof Oplustil (JU), who expressed their admiration to the effort and profound preparation made by both teams, as well as pointed flaws that still need attention.

The utmost outcome of the Workshop is however still to prove its value. Organizers strongly believe that experience acquired during the Workshop will not fade, moreover they hope that it will become an highly beneficial asset for participants on the path of their career.