The rising significance of commercial lawyers in London.

There are various books and movies such as The Firm and The Devil's Advocate exhibit the corporate lawyer's life as one loaded with wealth, power, and respect–not to mention the potential for disgrace and corruption. While corporate law isn't fairly as glamorous as Hollywood makes it appear, the impressive salary, chances for high-profile work, and relative job security during times of economic turbulence keep it among the hottest practice areas for JDs.

If you’re interested in deal negotiation and working with banks and businesses large and small, this is the domain you should go in. But do keep in mind that the wheeling and dealing may be a long way off for the newly-minted corporate associate, especially at a big firm: Be prepared to spend many hours rifling through documents and drafting boilerplate agreements for partners and senior associates before you get to lead the deal team.

A majority of firms, irrespective of their size, break corporate practice into a range of smaller areas. Although these areas vary from firm to firm-and distinctions between them are sometimes rather arcane-here are some of the more common subsets:

·         Banking and Structured Finance. Commercial lawyers in London assist banks and other financial institutions on just about every aspect of the business, from management and operational matters to the lending transactions themselves. Attorneys advise clients on securitizations and perfecting security interests, and also help clients through the complex web of banking regulation.

·         Project Finance. When a client needs to build a power plant, erect a dam, or start some other major infrastructure project, attorneys help secure and document the financing, advise on potential liability issues, and draft and negotiate contracts.

·         Mergers and Acquisitions. Traditionally a major component of most corporate practice, M&A has grown considerably with the trend toward consolidation in the business world. Lawyers lead corporate and financial clients through mergers, joint ventures, takeovers, leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations, roll-ups, and stock swaps.

·         Securities. Securities lawyers lead business clients through the process of going public and other securities law matters. Few firms are expanding in this area, given the sluggish economy. But most commercial lawyers in London can expect to deal with these issues in other areas of corporate practice, such as drafting annual reports and proxy statements for publicly held companies.

·         E-Commerce, Media, and Technology. Don't expect a lot of expansion in this area in the wake of the dot-com crash, but firms with tech practices already in place advise their surviving e-clients and financers with capital markets transactions.

·         Corporate Finance. This area involves advising underwriters and issuers in financing for equities and initial public offerings. The economic slowdown has affected this area considerably as well, and very few firms are hiring in corporate finance departments.

Corporate lawyers in London are team players. Contrary to litigation, the primary objective of corporate practice is not to win, but rather to craft deal terms that please everyone. One third-year associate who has worked in both litigation and corporate explains the distinction: "Litigators look at the world as an adversarial process. There is a winner and a loser. At the end of a corporate deal, however, you want to have two winners.

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Created on May 12th 2018 02:11. Viewed 475 times.

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