Emory Law is pleased to welcome Katherine M. Koops as the assistant director of its nationally renowned Center for Transactional Law and Practice. An experienced corporate attorney, Koops is currently an adjunct professor at the Law School, and she has been teaching a Deal Skills course in that capacity since 2011. Koops also coached the Transactional Law Program Negotiation Team to victory in the national LawMeets transactional competition at Sullivan & Cromwell in 2015, where Emory’s team swept the awards for seller-side teams: Best Draft, Semi-Finalist and National Champion honors. She is the immediate past co-chair of the Business Law Education Committee of the American Bar Association's Business Law Section.

Before coming to Emory, Koops was in private practice for 26 years, most recently at Taylor English Duma LLP, and previously at Bryan Cave (formerly Powell Goldstein). In private practice, she represented community banks, private investors, and other entities in a variety of corporate transactions.

Koops earned her BA in physics from Hope College, after which she served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Naval Reserve. She earned her JD with honors from the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where she was the senior research editor for the Florida Law Review and a member of Order of the Coif.

As assistant director of the Center for Transactional Law and Practice, Koops will share the administrative duties associated with running one of the largest transactional law and skills programs in the United States. In particular, she will lead the charge in further developing the curriculum for Deal Skills – one of Emory Law's signature transactional skills offerings.

Koops will also serve as faculty advisor for Emory Law's Transactional Law Program Negotiation Team, will be responsible for the creation of several new capstone courses for the transactional law program, and will host the Southeast Regional LawMeets Competition held at Emory every other year.

"I am honored and excited to accept this leadership position with the Center for Transactional Law and Practice," Koops said. "I look forward to applying my teaching and private practice experience to further advance Emory Law's position as a national leader in transactional legal education." 

This expansion of the Center for Transactional Law and Practice program staff was made possible by a $1 million challenge grant by Charles Howard Candler Professor of Law Emeritus William Carney and his wife, Jane.