This course aims to provide students with an introduction to the legal practice of banking and finance. In particular, this course is designed to give students a flavour of what life is like as a transactional lawyer working on a general banking transaction. Over the weeks, students will be walked through the lifecycle of a fictitious watered-down financing transaction. As the transaction progresses, students will gradually be introduced to the various financing legal documents (eg, term sheets, loan facility agreements, corporate authorisations) and their key clauses. Crucially, students will also step into the shoes of lender’s counsel and be given several opportunities to “hold the pen” – students will be tasked to take instructions from their clients and draft/review certain financing legal documents.
Finally, students will participate and lead an all-parties call to iron out the outstanding issues blocking the transaction from closing. Through this course, students will have the opportunity to both gain insights on transactional lawyering, as well as learn practical skills that will better prepare students to transition to their upcoming lives as practice trainees and junior associates. Moreover, while this course is conducted in the context of banking and finance, the practical skills taught in this course will nonetheless be largely applicable to other fields of transactional law, including but not limited to mergers and acquisitions, investment funds, capital markets etc.