Legals in PE
Long-time reader, first time poster.
I'm an analyst at an MM PE shop in London, current fund c£500m. Enjoying the job and all going well but have noticed that a particular weaknesses is my knowlegde of the relevant legals around transactions. This is tough to learn on the job as the only exposure I get to them is in the latter stages of a process and my office only does 2-3 deals a year (and I'm not necessarily involved with all of them). Any suggestions of how to get myself up to speed quickly by other means??
When I first started in PE, I was a bit overwhelmed by some of the legal stuff. I would buy an intro to M&A law book, something an attorney would have covered early in school. That will lay out the basics and give you a bit more confidence.
From there, I think it's really the most important to understand the commercial terms that get negotiated during a transaction. Pull old transaction docs from deals that your fund has already done. Read through them, highlight what you think the key points are. If someone is willing, try to sit down with an Associate / VP that was on that deal. Take an hour and ask some questions about things that you saw, ask them what the big negotiating items were and why, etc.
Some law networks or larger corporate law organizations occasionally host seminars discussing relevant M&A topics geared towards individuals on the buy-side (e.g., potential future clients)...maybe spend a bit of time looking around to see if there are any happening in your area.
But to echo saconsult3 above, I think a lot of the learning will have to come from you being proactive internally. Maybe start by reading through an issues list on a past deal that your company's counsel drafted prior to doing a full markup of an SPA - that usually gives a helpful multi-page summary of what people focused on.
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