Mergers and acquisitions involving private companies include several legal issues. To navigate the selling and buying process, it is essential to understand these issues and dynamics that are likely to rise during the deals. What are the routine duties of the top law firms in India involved in these deals? The following points are going to highlight them:
Starting a typical day
For M&A lawyers, a day begins with a combination of shuffling the documents and communicating with the clients and colleagues. However, the variation depends on the stages of the transaction they are dealing. Usually, corporate lawyers are involved in more than one deals. During the early stage of acquisition, the counsel of the buyer conducts the procedure of due diligence and prepares the initial drafts of the documents that are necessary. Revision and negotiation of the documents for taking on the issues detected during due diligence and impact the business deal between the parties are the next. When the deal comes to close, the attorneys need to spend the time to analyze and finalize the documents, obtain the signatures, and ensure that the closing conditions are fully satisfied.
People to work with
In the private practice of law, the top corporate attorney is usually the senior partner responsible for managing the workflow of the M&A deal with the help of a team. The junior partners and the associates within the team work with different groups such as the people of the business that are involved in the deal, the in-house counsel, and the other professionals offering advice on the transaction including the accountants and the bankers. The corporate lawyers who are part of the deal also associate with the in-house lawyers specializing in those areas of the law that are relevant to the transaction. The other people who contribute to the deal are the attorneys with expertise in tax, environment, real estate, intellectual property, finance, employment, and antitrust of the top mergers and acquisitions law firms. In the cross-border deals, the people involved in the corporate legal services also associate with foreign or local counsel to make sure that the deal concludes in compliance with the laws that are applicable.
Apart from this, the team members of the corporate entity interact with the counsel of both parties in the deal to negotiate the documents and close the deal. Often, the consent of the third party or the regulatory approvals is also needed to conclude the transaction for which the people offering advice must also interact and negotiate with the lawyers of the third parties or the regulators.
Analyzing the career
Within the company offering legal service, the corporate attorneys with skills to handle the mergers and acquisitions deals take the same path when compared with the attorneys specializing in the other areas such as the senior and junior associate or the partner. Due to fewer chances of becoming partners, several attorneys are averse to becoming partners and choose an alternative career path that is offered by several of the large firms.
Interesting elements of practice
Even when the M&A lawyers in India work on different types of transactions through the entire career, the nuances are likely to vary from one deal to another. Although the structure of the deal may remain the same, the variations arise from the complications in the industry and its size, the power of negotiation between the parties, or whether the deal is made strategic by the financial sponsors or between the competitors. Working on a deal between two companies with national recognition is one thing and the deals between the regional and the small companies is another thing.
Experiencing burnout in the profession
The corporate practice involving the transactions are typically speedy and demanding. Eventually, the volume of work the attorney needs to handle relies on different factors such as the complexity of the transactions, the staff, the time within which the deal is to be closed and catering to the expectations of the clients. Understaffing in those transactions with fast-paced timelines increases the burnout of the attorneys.
