Commercial awareness resources: collated list of pros and cons

[Coralin96]

Thanks guys!

 

[Felicia]

Hi guys,

I've just come across the book 'Know the City' by Chris Stoakes. The book was published in 2015 so somewhat out of date but does provide a very good overview of financial markets which would be key for City firms. It's on amazon for just under £10.

 

[Hazal]

Hi guys,

I've just come across the book 'Know the City' by Chris Stoakes. The book was published in 2015 so somewhat out of date but does provide a very good overview of financial markets which would be key for City firms. It's on amazon for just under £10.

Thanks Felicia, I completely forgot about these!

I think this is a good book to start you on your journey to becoming commercially aware. I have the 2013 version but after reading reviews, found the two versions don't differ much and there aren't any/many updates that bring it up-to-date in terms of how the global economy is doing currently.

Also by Stoakes is "Commercial Awareness". Very similar to Know the City but I think, even nicer for beginners. It covers the basics of business, mainly, and not so much financial markets.

Here are their contents pages to compare (with Commercial Awareness 2013/2014 on the left and Know the City 2013/2014 on the right):

https://dochub.com/hazalk/NQ2bvn/20181101_153057?dt=p5zzdhMybGT_qsMrnqAt

 

[Shane]

Hi guys,

Didn't know what thread was appropriate to post this in, but here I go anyways.

I am applying to Clyde and co and I have picked their incredible capability for dispute resolution in emerging markets as a reason of why I am interested in applying to the firm. I would just like to get your opinions on why it is more challenging to to resolve disputes in emerging markets and why such work may be more interesting than maybe in mature markets.

I originally was thinking that factors such as political instability and governmental interference into the judicial process would be a challenge. However, this would only be regards litigation and most of these disputes are usually arbitrated.

I want to be able to answer why "I" would enjoy working on multi-jurisdictional disputes involving emerging markets.

 

[Salma]

Hi guys,

Didn't know what thread was appropriate to post this in, but here I go anyways.

I am applying to Clyde and co and I have picked their incredible capability for dispute resolution in emerging markets as a reason of why I am interested in applying to the firm. I would just like to get your opinions on why it is more challenging to to resolve disputes in emerging markets and why such work may be more interesting than maybe in mature markets.

I originally was thinking that factors such as political instability and governmental interference into the judicial process would be a challenge. However, this would only be regards litigation and most of these disputes are usually arbitrated.

I want to be able to answer why "I" would enjoy working on multi-jurisdictional disputes involving emerging markets.

Hi Shane,

I think you need to align your experience (work exeprince or particular modules at uni) to answer why you’re interested in working on cross-border work.

I think once you figure that out, it will be easier for your to answer ‘why’!

I hope this helps

 

[Jaysen]

Hi guys,

Didn't know what thread was appropriate to post this in, but here I go anyways.

I am applying to Clyde and co and I have picked their incredible capability for dispute resolution in emerging markets as a reason of why I am interested in applying to the firm. I would just like to get your opinions on why it is more challenging to to resolve disputes in emerging markets and why such work may be more interesting than maybe in mature markets.

I originally was thinking that factors such as political instability and governmental interference into the judicial process would be a challenge. However, this would only be regards litigation and most of these disputes are usually arbitrated.

I want to be able to answer why "I" would enjoy working on multi-jurisdictional disputes involving emerging markets.

Hi Shane, I think your points about political instability/gov interference are great. No doubt they are still factors for lawyers to consider when defending clients in emerging markets.

 

[Shane]

That's great I'll include those points so. Also thank you @Salma for the advice. Will definitely keeping those points in mind when structuring my answer.

 

[Hazal]

Hey guys!

Realised I was using a bit of a loophole to read the FT and wanted to share it (at least I think it's one)

If you haven't done so before, sign up to their 4 week £1 trial. Once signed up, sign up to all the newsletters that interest you. For us aspiring lawyers, Due Diligence is a must. It talks a lot about M&A, private equity etc. Lex has been recommended by many also as it's a really good analysis of recent stories/developments. I also have FirstFT.

Once you're subscribed, even after you cancel your trial, you will have access to these newsletters. The loophole part is that usually these newsletters don't just contain links to the articles (where the paywall will stop you), but provide a lot of information in the body of the email itself. I get due diligence every day and I don't pay a penny for it.

Don't know if this is a well-known fact or not but thought I'd share it!

Edit: If you HAVE already used their trial, a weekly subscription is only 5.90 something. Not too bad, and just cancel when you're done.

 

[Martika]

Hi Hazal, do you have any other suggestions for newsletters to follow?

Hey guys!

Realised I was using a bit of a loophole to read the FT and wanted to share it (at least I think it's one)

If you haven't done so before, sign up to their 4 week £1 trial. Once signed up, sign up to all the newsletters that interest you. For us aspiring lawyers, Due Diligence is a must. It talks a lot about M&A, private equity etc. Lex has been recommended by many also as it's a really good analysis of recent stories/developments. I also have FirstFT.

Once you're subscribed, even after you cancel your trial, you will have access to these newsletters. The loophole part is that usually these newsletters don't just contain links to the articles (where the paywall will stop you), but provide a lot of information in the body of the email itself. I get due diligence every day and I don't pay a penny for it.

Don't know if this is a well-known fact or not but thought I'd share it!

Edit: If you HAVE already used their trial, a weekly subscription is only 5.90 something. Not too bad, and just cancel when you're done.

 

[Hazal]

Hi Hazal, do you have any other suggestions for newsletters to follow?

Hi Martika,

The other ones I'm subscribed to are:

CityAM - easy to understand, covers all the essential stories, uk oriented

Finimize - you've probably heard of this one but such a quick read and very informative. Covers things that are important but sometimes other newsfeeds don't mention

Bright network commercial awareness update - released weekly. Provides the past week's biggest stories and gives you questions to prompt you to think about why they matter

Also recommend, if you want something to listen to instead, FT news briefing which I access on Spotify. It's a podcast, released every morning, and rounds up the most important news.

 

[Helena]

Hey guys!

Realised I was using a bit of a loophole to read the FT and wanted to share it (at least I think it's one)

If you haven't done so before, sign up to their 4 week £1 trial. Once signed up, sign up to all the newsletters that interest you. For us aspiring lawyers, Due Diligence is a must. It talks a lot about M&A, private equity etc. Lex has been recommended by many also as it's a really good analysis of recent stories/developments. I also have FirstFT.

Once you're subscribed, even after you cancel your trial, you will have access to these newsletters. The loophole part is that usually these newsletters don't just contain links to the articles (where the paywall will stop you), but provide a lot of information in the body of the email itself. I get due diligence every day and I don't pay a penny for it.

Don't know if this is a well-known fact or not but thought I'd share it!

Edit: If you HAVE already used their trial, a weekly subscription is only 5.90 something. Not too bad, and just cancel when you're done.

Thank you Hazel this is so useful !

 

[Mimi]

Hey all, a useful way to identify commercial awareness topics of interest to firms you're applying to is to look on their website as some of them send daily/weekly emails direct to your inbox!

 

[bronson]

If anyone is interested in a podcast or two, Bloomberg's 'Odd Lots' provides some really interesting global economic analyses of different topics.

Some of my favourite:
'Saudi Arabia's IPO Drama'
'What Will China's Economy Look Like in 10 Years'
'This Is How The Unicorn Bubble Will Burst' (very interesting take from a leading economics practitioner/ professor in the US)

 

[Anaya]

I also use this magazine! In terms of strategies @Coralin96 they are dotted throughout the main magazine and it's kind of hit and miss which firms they interview and what is covered. E.G. a brilliant issue covered Osborne Clarke's sector-specific strategy and the benefits they saw by moving to that focus.

Hey Hazal - do you by any chance remember what issue this was!? Thanks

 

[Anaya]

Hey Hazal - do you by any chance remember what issue this was!? Thanks

No worries - found it - Sept 2017 for anyone wondering!

 

[Army]

Hi guys,

I’ve noticed there have been a lot of sharing between the members on helpful commercial awareness resources. But it took me a long time to find out about them – I had to access thread titles that seems relevant and scroll through all the comments. I thought other people may also face similar problem so I collated a list of resources here, detailing the pros and cons (based on my personal experience and what I’ve gathered from TCLA members’ discussion) so you can make an informed choice of which source to go for. As some people have already advised, trying to read all of these can be extremely overwhelming!


Email subscriptions:

· Finimize (my personal favourite!)

o Pros: FREE daily emails (except for Sunday) of prominent financial/business deals and events, short yet fairly insightful read (3-4 minutes), serve as perfect starting point for further research. Finimize glossary page also gives simple, easy-to-understand definition of financial/business jargons - https://www.finimize.com/wp/glossary/

o Cons: quite short, requires further research to really understand all the issues

· Bright Network Commercial Awareness Updates:

o Pros: FREE, thorough and comprehensive summaries of key financial/business events (about 3-4 stories each update), weekly publication so focuses on macro events/deals that has wide industrial/market impact à Finimize is better if you wish to keep up-to-date with micro business events, suggest questions you should ask yourself at the end of each summary which you can try to answer to test how well you understand the issues

o Cons: relatively short, you have to create an account with Bright Network, check your spam inbox as sometimes the updates just go there

· Lexology:

o Pros: FREE, collection of law firm’s published insights of new case law and legislative developments, you can select the sectors and practice areas you prefer to receive updates on

o Cons: often discuss very technical legislative/ procedural issues so you have to do extra research on the background in order to understand the materials thoroughly

News outlet:

· BBC, The Guardian, Business Insider

o Pros: convenient everyday go-to for news updates, easy-to-understand, some people find it useful to read these sources for background then move onto The FT for more technical stuffs

o Cons: broadcast general news, state and explain the facts more than providing analysis, should use in combination of The FT and/ or the Economist

· The Economist:

o Pros: my all-time favourite magazine, weekly cover of all prominent political, social and economics events, easy-to-understand, very insightful, articles are categorised by world regions so you can select which to focus on, their special reports are amazing as they usually cover prominent industrial trends that gives you well-rounded information on the covered topics, gives a lot of opinions but be careful as you may very well treat them as facts! (I always have to remind myself to be critical when reading The Economist)

o Cons: Paid subscription required, otherwise you can only access up to 3 articles every week, but I think the £12 for 12 weeks deal first-time subscription for students are quite good. After that it’s £53 every 3 months (I think it‘s really worth the money!)

· The FT:

o Pros: daily coverage of all important financial and business news (it’s in the name isn’t it), contains insightful expert analysis and opinions, seriously the best resources that everyone should familiarise to in order to bolster commercial awareness. I've gatehred that some TCLA members have found the FT Due Diligence Newsletter quite helpful but they are limitted to Premium Subscription

o Cons: very technical, can be hard to understand initially but it’ll get better once you grow more accustomed to it. Best advice I can give is to pick and force yourself to read 3-4 FT articles everyday and use BBC for background info, and increase the number of articles as it starts to make better sense to you!

· The Principle:

o Pros: catered-to-student legal updates so very easy to understand

o Cons: focus specifically on legal rather than business news, published monthly so not a go-to for frequent updates, you have to subscribe to Allaboutlaw.com as they are the publisher of this newspaper

· Forbes magazine:

o Pros: I love Forbes magazines because they feature articles and discussions on trendy commercial, technology and social issues, but from rather original perspectives. Not only good to bolster commercial awareness but your general knowledge too!

o Cons: provides analysis rather than news coverage, discuss interesting but sometimes irrelevant topics to your commercial awareness interests

Websites

· Law Gazette, The Lawyer, Lawyer2b, Legal Week

o Pros: all good resources for updates on newest legal developments and law firms’ news

o Cons: the level of technicalities of these sources (with the exception of Lawyer2b) sometimes make me feel like they are more useful for qualified lawyers and partner levels rather than law students wishing to become trainees; The Lawyer require very expensive subscription lawyer2b is free and but updates are too infrequent in my opinion.

· For Legal tech: Legal Geek and Legaltech

o Pros: keep you updated on all latest legal tech trends

o Cons: can be quite difficult to understand especially when you do not have a tech background

Books:

· All You Need to Know About Commercial Awareness by Christopher Stoakes: very thorough, comprehensive introduction, the author puts commercial awareness into perspectives, which really helps me to start thinking about how this skill comes in to help solicitors add values to their client works. I recommend this book over Christopher’s first edition All You Need to Know About the City which to me is more of a technical guide to the Finance and Banking practice area.

I hope this help! And please feel free to add to the list guys! I’ll appreciate sharing of helpful podcasts (this is the one source I have yet tried out, would be helpful to play it while cooking or bathing)

Thank you very much, very useful information !

 

[Karin]

I can also recommend something that is relatively new - Mogul is an app that gives you access to numerous Financial Times, the Economist, Telegraph etc. articles, provides daily briefings, and also splits some stories into "topics" with a lot of articles on the given topic! It's quite expensive (£9.99/month), but I found the trial week that I just had very useful!