Corporate Law Practice

Introduction to Corporate Law Practice

This course is recognized by the National Skill Development Corporation, a PPP under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship of the Government of India. You will receive a certificate cobranded by NSDC and Skill India on successful completion.

Key Highlights

360 degree exposure to different areas of the corporate law practice. Simulation exercises covering transactions such as preparing term sheets and scheme of amalgamation, drafting commercial contracts, NCLT petitions etc. In depth discussion on transactions like Mergers and Acquisitions, Contract Drafting And others under the Companies Act and IBC. Live drafting sessions for contract drafting and drafting of petitions.

Date and Time

Course Fee: INR 3,000

Course Duration: 1 month

Access to study materials: 3 months

Class timing range8 pm on Saturdays

Limited Seats

Class frequency: Once per week

Class duration: 1 - 1.5 hours

Our Learners

Mugeera Patel Final Year Student at V E S College of Law, Mumbai University, India

Zal Shroff Law Student

For Law Students Only

Are you interested in learning about corporate law?

Do you want to know more about the different areas of work in a corporate law firm?

Do you want some exposure to corporate work, before deciding which area to specialize in, or before committing to a career in corporate law?

Do you want to be prepared with some new skills before your next corporate law firm internship?

Do you want to build a rejection-proof CV for a corporate law firm internship or job?

Are you facing any of the following challenges currently?

Do you want to apply for corporate internships, but find the roadmap to develop skills unclear?
Are you concerned about how you can build your CV to effectively secure corporate internships?
Do you sometimes wish that law school taught you how to prepare for a career in corporate law?
Does a lack of response or rejection to job and internship applications demotivate you somewhere?
Do you sometimes wonder what else you can do to secure a career in a corporate law firm or a company, apart from participation in moots, conferences, writing articles and working as hard as you can?
Have you faced difficulty in asking seniors at a law firm to give you more challenging work, or to train you?
Do you feel that despite having the willingness to work hard, you don’t have enough opportunities to prove yourself?

The real reasons why law students struggle with corporate law

#1 - Corporate law is abstract and not relatable

Think about an area of law that you are interested in. It may be criminal law, family law or constitutional law, public international law, or another subject.

Now, recall how you developed an interest in this subject.

Usually, it is because of one or more of the following reasons:

You can relate to the subject, and understand the motives of the parties involved. Case laws are readable and understandable. For example, It is understandable if someone is going through a divorce, or being arrested for something.
You may have read deeply about the subject, maybe for a moot court competition, or for a conference, or published an article, which made you understand it more deeply and even develop an interest in it.
You may have been appreciated by your peer group. For example, when you represented your college in a moot court competition, and maybe your team performed well. You may have experienced a sense of camaraderie with your team.

It is not so easy to relate to corporate law or to understand it.

For example, how should one comprehend a cross-border M&A transaction?

What is the purpose of regulating an IPO?

Why do lawyers need to undertake diligence?

How does working on a multi-million dollar loan make a difference in the grand scheme of things?

If you cannot relate to it, you will not be interested in it.

You will not be able to pursue it deeply.

You will struggle to excel.

#2 - Company law textbooks do not explain the work performed by lawyers in law firms and companies

Companies Act textbooks and case laws do not examine and explain commercial deals and transactions, or the motivations of different parties.

Instead, they explain the provisions of the Act and how they were interpreted, without really explaining the context. They do not explain the work performed by corporate lawyers every day.

That is why despite a lot of hard work and sincere efforts, thousands of dedicated law students are unable to make progress by reading corporate law textbooks.

#3 - There is insufficient guidance from seniors and faculty related to law firm jobs and internships

Our law school faculty has the mandate of teaching us the subject - not professionally coaching and mentoring us to get law firm or corporate jobs.

If you are fortunate, you may find excellent faculty for teaching you Companies Act, Banking Regulation Act, the SEBI Act, or Arbitration and Conciliation Act.

Unfortunately, the study of the statutes and case law is quite different from everyday work.

Now, it will be unfair to expect your law school faculty to teach you how to perform the work in a law firm or in a company.

The college syllabus does not require that.

In fact, such teaching may even deviate from your college syllabus.

Every law student does not take up law to work in a law firm or a company, either.

Some colleges organize guest lectures with practitioners. Often, interactions are usually too limited and unstructured to learn the requisite number of necessary skills.

#4 - Those who succeed attribute their success to vague reasons such as ‘common sense, ‘hard work’, ‘internships’ or moots that do not offer you concrete action plans for your life

When you ask your seniors about how they cracked law firm internships or secured law firm jobs or advice on interview preparation, they may attribute their success to one or more of the following factors:

Hard work
Participation in a lot of moots
A ‘good’ CV
Good seniors
Common sense
Some luck

You might hear an excellent narrative from a senior, but does it provide you with the direction or a roadmap necessary to apply to your life?

By the way, an astounding number of law students do not get access to law firm jobs and internship opportunities, despite ALL the above accomplishments!

You will be surprised to know that none of the following reasons can damage your prospects...

If you are not from an NLU
If you are a first-generation lawyer
If you have not studied company law in college, or if you couldn't understand it or found it boring
If you studied arts or science in Class XII and not commerce
If you do not understand accounts, or if you were petrified of maths in school
If you have not pursued a corporate internship so far
If you are not a batch topper

If you are a law student and you follow the 6 steps below, you can significantly increase your preparedness and progress towards a corporate internship or law firm job in a practice area of your interest, which offers recognition, growth opportunities and a good salary.

Our 6-step method to identify your interest and prepare for a corporate career

#1 - Conscious approach: Get exposure to the work performed by the different practice areas of a law firm through live classes, study materials and templates

The first step is to understand the work performed by different departments of a law firm. What is the daily work in each practice area? What does a client want from the law firm?

What if you could learn about at least one or two kinds of transactions performed by four different practice areas of a law firm?

This step builds understanding and relatability with the subject, and also makes it relevant. You will learn about these through four live classes, study materials, templates and exercises.

#2 - Focus on problem-solving vs. analysis or passive learning: Attempt the work keeping in mind the client’s commercial intent

What is a client’s commercial intent with the other parties involved in the transaction? How does a corporate lawyer take care of it?

What are the activities that must be performed to serve the client? What does the corporate lawyer’s output to the client look like?

No amount of studying and reading case laws or advice from seniors can explain this.

You will need to go through the ride, to be able to grasp this aspect.

Attempting 8 practical exercises in a month will give you an experience of what serving a corporate client feels like.

How is this different from what you have already been doing?

This method is very different from an approach of reading or analysis of case law. This is a problem-solving approach.

Because it is extremely difficult to imagine these situations on one’s own and try solving them.

In fact, it can take a few months or even years in law school to learn what you can learn in a month.

You must be wondering whether you can learn this in internships?

Rarely.

The real problem statements faced by partners and associates seldom trickle down to the intern. You get to work on a minuscule portion of the problem.

We curate the situations and training to give you an experience of the most important skills, and that is why you are able to quickly make progress.

#3 - Improve your capabilities with feedback and practice

Feedback is the most important aspect to improve performance. However, it is rarely provided in our education system.

While you obtain marks after passing an exam or submitting a moot court memorial, there are limited opportunities to identify where and how you can improve.

Where it is available, feedback is extremely generic, and you may not receive concrete action points and corrections.

What if someone took the trouble to read your draft in detail and give you in-line coaching in writing on how to improve?

What if they were willing to discuss any doubts you face while attempting the problem or questions on the feedback that you have received?

Would that enhance your learning?

Would that prepare you better for an internship, or an interview, or a job?

This step is a huge differentiator. It enables you to quickly make progress and march ahead of those who have been reaching and studying for months or even a few years.

#4 - Execute an advanced strategy based on an informed decision

After you have exposure to the work performed in different practice areas, you are finally in a position to make an informed decision about whether corporate law interests you or not, or which area to specialize in, based on your interest.

Guess what? It will take you only one month to arrive at this point.

From here onward, you can identify the top few players in that area, and as you acquire more skillsets, you can build a portfolio of work, publish articles and apply to them for opportunities over a period of time.

This step will ensure that your preparation is very focused. Every step that you take will make you progress by leaps and bounds, in comparison to others in your peer group, simply because of conscious and focussed effort.

Those who are interested will also have the opportunity to pursue in-depth learning in their chosen field of interest through our Executive Certificate and Diploma courses and build further expertise.

#5: Learn how to share your work online and apply for opportunities

Every week, we will also guide you on how to share your learnings in your professional network, and how to reach out to seniors and mentors.

This will expand your professional network and also increase your credibility.

Many of our students have been able to secure work or internship and job opportunities because of persistent outreach efforts.

#6: Obtain placement assistance

Once you have done some focussed skill-acquisition on corporate law, it is time to seek out opportunities!

You will have access to placement assistance from our placement cell for obtaining internships. They had successfully guided 50 law students in securing internships in under two months of lockdown!

Please note that we are offering support from our placement cell. Actual internships and placements are not guaranteed, and a lot depends upon your own effort.

You will need to complete all the course work to be eligible for support from our placement cell. You may be asked to acquire additional expertise as well on a subject, or expand your portfolio of work, to ensure that your applications are appropriately customized for the firms that you want to work at.

In some cases, the placement cell may advise you to improve upon basics, such as written English or grammar.

Certification

Below is how the certificate from LawSikho will look:

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This is how the certificate from NSDC and Skill India will look as per the current applicable format (may change as per the approval authorities):

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Syllabus

module name

Module 1: Concepts for Frequently Performed Company Law Work in Law Firms and In-House Jobs

Chapter: Types of companies: OPC, private and public
Chapter: How to draft a memorandum of association
Chapter: How to draft articles of association
Chapter: How to alter memorandum and articles of association
Chapter: Types of securities
Chapter: Appointment of directors
Chapter: Different types of directors
Chapter: Independent directors
Chapter: Rights issues
Template: Letter of offer
Chapter: Private placements of securities
Template: Offer cum application form
Chapter: Transfer of shares

Module 2: How to act for a company: Resolutions and authorizations for board and shareholder meetings

Chapter: Decision making in companies: Board meetings
Chapter: Shareholder meetings: legal and governance aspects
Chapter: Related party transactions under the Companies Act, 2013
Chapter: Appointment, Resignation and Removal of Directors
Checklist: Holding board meetings by videoconferencing
Checklist: Holding an annual general meeting

Module 3: Introduction to M&A structures and transactions

Chapter: M&A structures and how to choose and optimal structure
Chapter: How to draft an Asset Purchase Agreement
Template: Asset Purchase Agreement
Chapter: How to draft a Business Transfer Agreement
Template: Business Transfer Agreement
Chapter: How to draft a scheme of arrangement for mergers
Template: Scheme of Amalgamation
Chapter: How to obtain dispensation from conducting meetings of members and creditors
Chapter: How to draft a petition for approval of scheme of arrangement
Template: Application to NCLT for dispensation form holding meetings of members and creditors
Template: Petition to NCLT for approving a scheme of arrangement

Module 4: Handling investment transactions

Chapter: Introduction to share acquisitions
Chapter: Stages of raising investment
Chapter: All you need to know about term sheets
Template: Term sheet
Chapter: Steps in due diligence of an M&A transaction
Template: Requisition list for an M&A transaction
Chapter: Role of lawyers, bankers & compliance professionals in an M&A transaction
Chapter: Shareholders Agreements
Template: Shareholders Agreement -1
Template: Shareholders Agreement - 2
Chapter: How to draft a share purchase agreement
Chapter: How to draft a share subscription agreement
Template: Share Purchase Agreement
Template: Share subscription agreement

Module 5: Introduction to Contract Drafting

Chapter: Employment Agreements
Chapter: Understanding Non- Disclosure Agreements
Template: Employment Agreement
Template: Non- Disclosure Agreement

Module 6: How to raise debt finance

Chapter: Types of Standard facilities
Chapter: Financing documents
Chapter: Security documents
Template: Single Bank Loan Agreement
Template: Syndicate Loan Agreement
Chapter: Introduction to IBC
Chapter: Recovery litigation under RDBA
Chapter: Recovery litigation under SARFAESI
Note: How to decide whether to invoke SARFAESI, RDBA or IBC

Bonus Module: Competition law

Chapter: Introduction to merger control regime in India
Chapter: Types of combinations
Chapter: Key terms of merger control regime
Template: Form I
Template: Form II
Chapter: Concept of control
Chapter: Concept of relevant market
Chapter: Concept of appreciable adverse effect on competition

Class

Class 1: Introduction to M&A Work

Types of M&A transactions
Investment work

Exercises:

Identify key commercials from a term sheet
Review a scheme of amalgamation
Draft an application to NCLT for approval of an existing scheme

Class 2: How to draft an Employment Agreement and a Non- Disclosure Agreement

Exercise:
To learn how to draft and negotiate an Employment Agreement
To learn how to draft and negotiate a Non- Disclosure Agreement

Class 3: How to raise debt finance

Exercise:
Review a loan agreement from a lender’s perspective
Identify the corporate compliances (filings, approvals and resolutions) for perfection of security (to help lenders)
Advise creditors on recovery strategies in the case of a default

Class 4: Appointment, Powers and Liabilities of Directors and Related Party Transactions

Exercise:
Learn how directors are appointed in a company;
Learn about what are the powers directors can exercise and what are the restrictions on those powers;
Learn about who is an ‘officer in default’ and the liabilities of directors under the Companies Act, 2013 and other legislations
Learn about related party transactions

Course Plan

Above prices are inclusive of all applicable taxes and charges.

Standard

RS. 3000 incl. of all charges

View details

Join the waitlist

INR 3,000 (inclusive of all costs) Course Duration: 1 month

Access to study materials: 3 months

Class frequency: Once per week

Class duration: 1 - 1.5 hours

Class timing range :8-9 pm on weekdays or Saturdays, or on Sundays

Join the waitlist

Here are some of our faculty members

Komal Shah

Co-founder and Chief Knowledge Officer, LawSikho, former in-house counsel and company secretary with over a decade of experience in securities, funds and capital markets

Shweta Rath

General Counsel, Novopay, ex-LawSikho, ex-Trilegal

Yash Vijayvargiya

Content Head, Lawsikho & Advocate, Madhya Pradesh High Court. Worked as in-house counsel in BPCL & represented in several arbitration matters.

Aniket Aggarwal

Commercial litigator, Ex-LawSikho

Chinmay Lenka

Associate, Lawsikho

Irene Abraham

Associate, Lawsikho, Former Litigator

Sneha Sharma

Associate, Lawsikho

Patricia Gonsalves

Associate at LawSikho, Practicing Advocate

Note: This is an indicative list of our guest faculty members and not an exhaustive list. We may change the faculty members at any point based on availability.

What does a LawSikho Certificate look like?

FAQs

Who can enrol for the LawSikho Courses?

We recommend that you should have completed your Higher Secondary / Class XII from a recognized Board / University. In the case of foreign nationals, you should have completed the equivalent of Higher Secondary in India in your respective country. You should also be comfortable with the English language and using a computer. However, we have no formal pre-qualification requirements because we are not a University or college. Anyone who wants to learn is welcome to join our courses.

How do I figure out if the course covers a specific topic I want to study?

A person can visit the official website of LawSikho and find the relevant course and see the course syllabus, learning objectives and even a list of weekly exercises. You can also subscribe for free sample material. If more clarification about the course is needed, feel free to chat with our online chat specialist. You could also call us on our landline number, +91 11 40845203 for further assistance.

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