explaining interest in a recent deal?

[awatling1]

Hi everyone!

I'm in the process of applying for the Linklaters Get Ahead scheme, but I'm first doing an application for their LinkUp event that has its own application questions. The first is basically why linklaters/why you, but the second question is to talk about a recent deal that interested me and what practice areas would have been involved. How can I go about approaching this? I find it difficult to articulate genuine interest in an M&A deal, or something in mining, energy, etc. even if I actually do find it interesting. I guess I'm struggling with really analysing the deals and extrapolating what makes them interesting/unique, and all I see is big company X acquired big company Y. Can anyone give me some advice on this?

@Amma Usman @Andrei Radu @Ram Sabaratnam

 

[Andrei Radu]

Hi everyone!

I'm in the process of applying for the Linklaters Get Ahead scheme, but I'm first doing an application for their LinkUp event that has its own application questions. The first is basically why linklaters/why you, but the second question is to talk about a recent deal that interested me and what practice areas would have been involved. How can I go about approaching this? I find it difficult to articulate genuine interest in an M&A deal, or something in mining, energy, etc. even if I actually do find it interesting. I guess I'm struggling with really analysing the deals and extrapolating what makes them interesting/unique, and all I see is big company X acquired big company Y. Can anyone give me some advice on this?

@Amma Usman @Andrei Radu @Ram Sabaratnam

Hi @awatling1 I definitely empathize with your struggles here - I used to find researching and discussing a deal to be one of the most difficult parts of writing an application. However, I now think I was making it more complicated that it needed to be. On the one hand, at a very macro level, no M&A deal you will find will be truly unique. When all is said and done, this will be a process where a business buys a part of another company, and the deal documentation will end up using the same tried and tested contractual terms for allocating risks. On the other hand, at a very micro level, every deal will be unique, as there will be always be different companies involved agreeing on terms stipulating obligations with a different scope.

Your job is just to find a deal which is in some way or another tied to a pre-existent thing you have an interest in. There is a wide variety of ways you this can be done, but I will provide you with a few examples:

• Deals which have an impact on the wider economy: as you will argue you have an interest in commercial law, you should have a natural interest in the economy and thus be interested in what affects it. Here, an example that comes to mind is the recent Vodafone/Three merger, which forms one of the biggest telecommunications companies in the world and arguably makes the market more competitive.
• Deals which have an important impact on one area of law: Some transactions are very consequential in setting a precedent in an area of law you could have a prior interest in - for instance, the Microsoft/Activision Blizzard deal for competition law.
• Deals which have an important impact on one economic sector: an example I can think of is Comcast's purchase of Sky a couple of years back, which was a significant move in the media and entertainment space as it marked the entry of one of the biggest US players in the European market.
• Deals involving companies you had a prior interest into: for instance, by keeping up with the news you might have formed a natural interest in the world of gen AI and thus in the company that started it all - Open AI. This might justify an interest in learning about Microsoft's investment into it.
• Deals demonstrating firm expertise: Since you presumably have an interest into the firm, deals that show the firm has significant expertise in a particular area can naturally be relevant. For instance, their advisory roles on the Nord Anglia acquisition shows Latham's, Debevoise's and Ropes & Gray's expertise in PE.
• Deals demonstrating successful implementation of firm strategy: If the firm's strategy appeals to you, a mandate that the firm managed to win can illustrate it. For instance, Freshfield's role advising on Johnson & Johnson’s $13bn takeover of Shockwave Medical shows the firm's growing reputation in New York, something it has been chasing and invested into for years.

To ease your research, I advise you look up the firm's name and some different combinations of key words in your Google searches and then browse through the 'News' section. Try to read on the deals that are published in the wider global press, as they are likely to be the more important and impactful ones. It is also good to read articles in the wider press because they will give you a better overview of the commercial motivations and implications of the transactions than the reports on the firm's website. Finally, you might want to have a look on the firm's website/LinkedIn and see if there are any deals that it has received awards or other types of recognition for, as once again those are likely to be more impactful.