Corporate

Our work encompasses mergers and acquisitions, private equity and other high-level corporate finance activities – and we look after some of the world's most complex commercial transactions, with cross-border dimensions, for household names.

Our Corporate practice is the largest of any law firm, with more than 900 lawyers and a strong presence in all the major financial centres of Europe, the Americas, Asia and the Middle East. This area is primarily concerned with big business and we have a number of groups dedicated to different types of work. These include:

• Mergers & Acquisitions

• Private Equity

• Private Funds

• Communications, Media & Technology

• Insurance/Financial Institutions Group

• European Competition and Regulation

• Commercial Business Group

Partners apply a creative, business-focused approach, leading teams of lawyers in working closely with clients to access the full breadth of our comprehensive intellectual and logistical resources.

Typical work

Corporate work can be both transactional and advisory. It usually involves complicated legal investigations and reviews, detailed negotiations and multi-faceted documentation. The range of work is diverse and includes:

• Public and private mergers, acquisitions and disposals

• Demergers, takeovers and stock market flotations

• Public offerings and private placings of company stock

• Advising on company formations, restructuring and reorganisation

• Private equity investments

• Advising international insurers, banks, exchanges and asset managers on corporate finance matters and all manner of business issues

• Commercial contracts

• Acting for fund managers seeking to raise investment capital and for investors looking to place capital under management

• Negotiating, regulatory and transactional work involving public and private organisations in the broadcasting, telecommunications and technology sectors

• Advising on regulatory issues involving EU and UK competition law and relating to mergers, takeovers and joint ventures; market, sector and cartel investigations; state aid and public procurement

Most deals are high value and the practice combines technical expertise in cross-border and domestic deals with leading regulatory, anti-trust and commercial capability.

Notable deals

• Candover's acquisition of a 40 per cent stake in Technogym

• Advising a European consortium on the acquisition of Endemol group, global leader in television and audiovisual entertainment, valued at EUR 3.6 billion

• Advising Barclays on its recommended exchange offer for ABN AMRO Holding NV

Awards

• M&A Law Firm of the Year and Private Equity Buyout of the Year (Acquisition Monthly Awards 2008)

• Private Equity Law Firm of the Year (European Venture Capital and Private Equity Journal Awards 2007)

• Best Law Firm for Deals in Europe, for the seventh year in a row (Private Equity International and PrivateEquityOnline.com Global Private Equity Awards 2007)

• Law firm of the Year (The Financial Times and merger market M&A Awards 2007)

What you might do

As you would expect, the range of tasks for trainees is broad and will vary according to your group. You could spend your time drafting ancillary documents; coordinating the team of lawyers from different departments and offices involved in a single transaction, or taking responsibility for all the data and documentation it requires; undertaking legal and company research; writing articles on recent case law or legal issues; dealing with clients; carrying out essential proofreading, verification, business analysis or legal review; or doing due diligence work.

Whatever your responsibilities, you will have a good deal of exposure to large corporate transactions. Liaising with numerous other departments and offices is commonplace so you will certainly have the opportunity to widen your network and learn about the expertise and capabilities available elsewhere in the firm.