Inside Foley's Inaugural Deal Academy: Strengthening Deal Skills Through Collaboration
In September, Foley welcomed 48 mid-level associates and senior counsel from its Transactions Practice Group and Health Care Transactions team to Chicago for the inaugural Foley Deal Academy: A Transactional Skills Workshop. This two-day program is designed to strengthen the practical skills attorneys use throughout the deal process.
The workshop gave participants a hands-on opportunity to put their deal skills into practice in a collaborative setting. Working in small teams, they moved through a realistic transaction scenario, developed key work product, and received practical guidance and real-time feedback from partner facilitators. The program also gave attorneys from across offices an opportunity to exchange perspectives, learn from one another’s experiences, and strengthen the skills essential to effective deal execution.
The program focused on several core deal skills:
- Developing transaction strategy and client recommendations, using client objectives and deal materials to guide decision-making.
- Assessing key business and legal risks, with an emphasis on focused due diligence planning.
- Evaluating purchase agreement strategy and key deal terms, including identifying material issues and preparing client-facing recommendations.
- Preparing practical deal work product, including term sheets, due diligence request lists, and issues lists.
- Collaborating effectively across deal teams, leveraging diverse perspectives and approaches to transactional work.
The exercises followed key stages of the deal process, including transaction structuring, due diligence planning and risk assessment, and purchase agreement review. Partner-led feedback sessions provided practical recommendations, work product feedback, and opportunities for discussion, helping participants connect the training to their real-world transactional practice.
The opportunities to engage with colleagues were just as important as the formal programming. Through networking and small-group discussions, attendees built relationships, exchanged perspectives, and strengthened connections that can support future collaboration across the firm.
We asked participants to share their key takeaways from the program. Here’s what they had to say:
“I really enjoyed the program. I found it beneficial and a great learning opportunity.”
“Well-constructed training. In addition to the substantive learning points, it also provided a good opportunity to practice delegating and coordinating with a sizeable deal team.”
“There was immense value to being able to see my colleagues from other offices in person and I think the format of the training was a great way to bring us together.”
“I enjoyed the whole thing and thought it was a great opportunity to learn, not just about transactions, but also about leadership.”
These reflections underscore the program’s impact and Foley’s continued commitment to providing meaningful professional development opportunities that combine practical skills training, collaboration, and experiential learning while supporting attorneys throughout their careers.
Explore Foley’s other tenure-based attorney programs to learn how the firm supports professional growth at every stage of a lawyer’s career.
