LibGuides: Transactional Drafting: Tools and Forms: Communication and Negotiation

Communication and negotiation skills are important to transactional lawyers. They include the communication with clients, communication with team members and communication with counterparties including their attorneys. A lot of time transactional lawyers also need to negotiate to seal the deal.

Communication:

Clients seek attorney service as a professional service, attorney need to represent clients for the purpose of their best interests in ethical way and professional way. Communicate with clients with patient explanations on laws and work with clients to figure out the best solutions for them.
Transactional attorneys might work with other attorneys in big projects. In daily work, they might also need to work with paralegals, assistants and administrative staff. Respect their work, respect diversity and respect different working styles are the key to a successful teamwork.
Counterparties are never the enemies especially in business world. Parties get together to achieve the win-win situation, a future cooperation plan, a partnership, or a great end of one business relationship. In addition, not every communication is a negotiation, when you communicate with counterparties and their attorneys, keep the above in mind and communicate clearly and concisely.

Negotiation:

Negotiation involves two or more parties attempting to reach an agreement. Negotiations generally involve the parties exchanging something they have, for something they want. The exchange need not involve physical items; services or statuses can be exchanged just as easily as objects.
There are many skills on how to negotiate. Different negotiation style focus on different areas: power, cooperation or collaboration. Switch them depending on the situations. If you work toward a long-term business relationship, focus on collaboration and cooperation is the best way.
The parties involved in negotiating terms and conditions will often go back and forth and talk freely about their needs and differences, in order to come to the best possible agreement for all involved. If you are preparing to enter negotiations, it is important to consider what it is you want to achieve with the negotiation, and what you have to offer the other party in return.
While in the preparation phase, each party should consider their individual practical business concerns. This largely includes having a clear understanding of what the actual objective of the contract is (this relates to the research, please refer to Research in transactions tab in this libguide). Each party should also consider what they are willing to compromise over, in order to reach that objective. If the parties involved have negotiated contracts with each other in the past, knowledge of those prior contracts could prove useful in terms of negotiation strategy.
When all parties are in agreement with each other, they may proceed to having a contract drafted to establish all the terms of the agreement in writing. You may want to refer to Draft of Agreements tab in this libguide.

International Business Transactions in a Nutshell by Ralph H. Folsom; Michael P. Van Alstine; Michael D. Ramsey
Call Number: K3943 .W54 2020
This work examines the law and practices relevant to the principal forms of international business and commercial transactions. It includes chapters on negotiating business transactions; the law governing international sales of goods; structuring international sales transactions; the function and substance of international commercial terms; the law governing the international transportation of goods; financing international business transactions, especially through letters of credit; electronic transactions and the protection of data privacy; technology transfers; the initiation, operation, and termination of, as well as the limitations imposed on, foreign investments; property takings, including the options for protecting against and remedies for such actions; the extraterritorial regulation of international business; anti-corruption law; and the resolution of international disputes, whether through litigation in domestic court or through international arbitration.
Legal Negotiation in a Nutshell by Larry Teply
Call Number: KF9084.Z9 T46 2016
ISBN: 9781634597623
Publication Date: 2015-12-22
Follows the entire process from opening negotiations to settlement. Text first introduces negotiation in law practice and representing a client in legal negotiation. Covers the basic types of legal negotiations, case evaluation, and preparation. Also addresses the types of legal disputes that should not be negotiated. Examines negotiating styles and strategies, as well as the stages of legal negotiation.
Negotiating and Structuring International Commercial Transactions by David N. Goldsweig (Editor); Mark R. Sandstrom
Call Number: K1005 .N44 2002
ISBN: 1590310950
Publication Date: 2003-06-03
Transactional Lawyering Skills by Richard J. Neumann
ISBN: 9781454822325
Publication Date: 2012-12-11
The highly respected author of Transactional Lawyering Skills has written and co-written some of the top-selling books in the field. Designed to supplement Contract Drafting and Transactional Skills courses, his concise, straightforward explanation of professionalism covers working with transaction clients; problem-solving and problem-prevention; and transactional interviewing, counseling, and negotiation. Professional responsibility issues are fully integrated throughout the material. Going beyond simple theory, the text provides a succinct explanation of the lawyer-client relationship as well as the mechanics of transactional lawyering. Transactional Lawyering Skills can be used to help add a third credit to a 2-credit contract drafting course. Features concise, straightforward explanations of professionalism working with transaction clients problem-solving and problem-prevention transactional interviewing, counseling, and negotiation highly respected author has written/co-written top-selling books in the field integrated coverage of professional responsibility issues clear and succinct discussion of lawyer-client relationship covers the mechanics of transactional lawyering goes beyond simple theory can be used to help add a third credit to a 2-credit contract drafting course

Harvard Negotiation Law Review
Negotiation, not adjudication, resolves most legal conflicts. However, despite the fact that dispute resolution is central to the practice of law and has become a "hot" topic in legal circles, a gap in the literature persists. "Legal negotiation" -- negotiation with lawyers in the middle and legal institutions in the background -- has escaped systematic analysis.

The Harvard Negotiation Law Review works to close this gap by providing a forum in which scholars from many disciplines can discuss negotiation as it relates to law and legal institutions. Unlike Negotiation Journal, which has a general audience of negotiation scholars and practitioners, the Harvard Negotiation Law Review is aimed specifically at lawyers and legal scholars. The premier issue (spring 1996), explored interdisciplinary academic perspectives on such topics as decision analysis, litigation settlement, and the variety of mediator roles, strategies and tactics. Subsequent volumes have expanded on these topics, and included additional discussion of the lawyer's role as a problem solver, reconsideration of legal education in light of negotiation, and a range of case studies of innovative negotiation and mediation systems around the world.
Negotiation Journals in SSRN
If you are interested in below journals and more, check this link out:
The Pros and Cons of Getting to Yes - Shortcomings and Limitations of Principled Bargaining in Negotiation and Mediation
Negotiation via Email
The Importance of Communication Skills in Negotiation: An Empirical Study
What Do People Value When They Negotiate? Mapping the Domain of Subjective Value in Negotiation
Negotiation Analysis: Between Decisions and Games
The Role of Culture in the Negotiation Process

Improving Negotiation Skills: Rules for Master Negotiators
This article on Findlaw introduce negotiation process, attitude, communication skill, step by step, from planning to closure.
Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation
Daily blog by Harvard Law School, contains numerous fantastic articles.
Collaboration and Negotiation
The article introduces collaboration and negotiation, which heavily rely on Emotional Intelligence and communication skills, especially listening. Being collaborative means that you effectively work with others and are willing to listen and accept others’ points of view even if they differ from your own. Negotiation uses collaboration and communication to reach consensus and make group decisions.