As many readers already know, I teach Corporate Finance in the fall semester as a three-credit-hour planning and drafting seminar.  The course is designed to teach students various contexts in which valuations are used in the legal practice of corporate finance, the key features of simple financial instruments, and legal issues common to basic corporate finance transactions (including M&A).  In the process of teaching this substance, I introduce the students to various practice tips and tools.

As part of teaching M&A in this course and in my Advanced Business Associations course, I briefly cover the anatomy of an M&A transaction and the structure of a typical M&A agreement.  For outside reading on these topics, I am always looking for great practical summaries.  For example, Summary of Acquisition Agreements, 51 U. Miami L. Rev. 779 (1997), written by my former Skadden colleagues Lou Kling and Eileen Nugent (together with then law student, Michael Goldman)  has been a standard-bearer for me.  In recent years, practice summaries available through Bloomberg, LexisNexis, and Westlaw (Practical Law Company) have been great supplements to the Miami Law Review article.  In our transaction simulation course, which is more advanced, I often assign part of Anatomy of a Merger, written many moons ago by another former Skadden colleague, Jim Freund.  Just this past week, I came across a new, short blog post on the anatomy of a stock purchase agreement on The M&A Lawyer Blog.  Although I haven't yet given the post a review for teaching purposes, it is a nice summary in many respects and makes some points not made in other similar resources.

I will be revisiting my approach to the M&A part of my Corporate Finance course in the coming weeks.  I am curious about how others teach M&A in a context like this–where the topic must be covered in about three-to-five class hours and include practice points, as well as a review of doctrine, theory, and policy.  I am always interested in new materials and approaches that may reach more students better.  I invite responses in the comments that may be useful to me and others.