On January 14, 2024, Kevin Escalona (UT Law ’24) won The Closer, the nation’s most challenging transactional law competition. The Closer is hosted by Baylor Law School in Waco, Texas.  Each year, Baylor Law invites fourteen law schools to compete. Unlike most competitions, each school can send only one student. Each competitor is given only 24 hours to digest their client’s extensive files and prepare to negotiate a deal.

“The tight timeframe aims to mirror the realistic pressures that transactional lawyers face in practice, forcing students to identify critical legal issues and negotiate creative solutions to serve their client’s goals,” explains Professor Krumm, who has served as UT Law’s coach each year of the competition.

Since The Closer started in 2017, a UT Law competitor has been a top finisher (either first or second place) six times.

Escalona was a student in the Transactional Law Clinic in the spring of 2023. “Kevin was selected to represent UT Law in The Closer because he demonstrated a sophisticated ability to solve problems and think quickly on his feet in working with his clinic clients,” says Professor Krumm.

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Kevin Escalona Wins Transactional Law Competition The Closer