Corporate lawyers structure and implement deals that businesses are putting together in a wide range of scenarios. You could be involved in:

• raising capital from private equity funds for a new start-up business
• acquiring strategic companies and businesses
• acting for private equity funds in realising their investments by a trade sale or flotation on the stock markets
• raising more capital on the stock markets for publicly quoted companies
• forming joint ventures and strategic alliances for businesses with complementary ideas.

An understanding of the markets in which each business operates is key to understanding why businesses are doing deals and the nature of those deals.

Corporate lawyers learn to understand their clients’ businesses and markets, becoming not only experts in their field of law but also specialists in a particular industry sector.

What you can expect

A corporate trainee’s contribution to transactional work varies. Depending on the size of the deal, you can be one of a large team on a huge transaction, moving to becoming the number two or three on a much smaller deal.

You will be involved in the due diligence process for a buyer, evaluating and reporting to the client on the issues arising in the business being acquired. For example, will any of the key contracts terminate as a result of the deal?

On the seller side, you will be responsible for assisting management in responding to a buyer’s due diligence queries, ensuring the seller is adequately disclosing information while at the same time protecting the confidentiality of key information.

As the contract negotiations commence, you will be asked to sit in on those meetings, understand the dynamics of the negotiations and possibly draft certain parts of the contractual documentation.

At completion of the transaction, you are given primary responsibility for ensuring that all documents are finalised, ready for execution and that all signatories are available for signing at the requisite time. You will also partake in all the celebratory dinners that follow a transaction!

The workload is heavy when you are in the midst of a transaction, sometimes requiring round-the-clock working, but then you can expect quieter periods between deals.

Skills for corporate lawyers

You will need:

• the ability to organise, lead people and work within a team
• negotiation skills
• drafting skills
• the ability to deliver commercial solutions.