Hi, I am a third-year law student, and I have decided that I want to learn about M&A. Can you please guide me on how to start? Which books should I read? What laws should I be proficient in? Lastly, if I want to write articles on it, which sites do I need to follow?
Atleast intern at a T2 or boutique firm specializing in M&A/GC Advisory post which you can make an effort to first understand the nature of due diligence conducted. You can then interlink aspects of the DD while assessing the broader scope of compliance pursuant to any said developments pertaining to the same. Lastly, reading the development as against the erstwhile regime will sometimes (if not always) raise and leave unanswered questions which shall form the subject matter of your argument in the paper. Once you figure out this structure, writing articles will be a cakewalk.
Proficiency in The Companies Act, 2013 (for the most part will be required in M&A); adjusting for an end to end reading of underlying aspects pertaining to tax, anti-trust, restructuring and disclosure norms across other practice areas.
Jindal has a series of videos on M&A that's kinda nice. Get familiar with the business landscape, keep up with the news and look out for the legal angle in every headline you see: how would this deal have gone through?
I don't understand what is this fascination to write on everything that you don't even have the basic understanding of. Considering you are in early half of your law school and have not done decent corporate internships before (assuming from your question); I would suggest you to first start reading about the market in business. What is going on , who are the big players across various sectors, biggest M&A deals in recent past plus ongoing along with major concepts of corporate law. Once you have basic idea about business and in-depth understanding of concepts of the same + business law then you will be in a better position to critically assess or analyse any M&A deal. Now, there can be generally two types of articles you may choose to write- first analysis of contemporary issues in M&A (mostly regarding recent deals/transactions or an intersection with other laws such as Tech/ IPR/ Competition etc), another could be choosing to write on the jurisprudential part of the subject (theories, evolution and your suggestions)- this is more academic in nature.
Proficiency in The Companies Act, 2013 (for the most part will be required in M&A); adjusting for an end to end reading of underlying aspects pertaining to tax, anti-trust, restructuring and disclosure norms across other practice areas.
Sites to follow:
1) Taxmann
2) IndiaCorpLaw
3) MoneyControl
4) BQPrime
5) Business Standard
6) NDA Blogs
7) Khaitan Ergo Updates
8) IndusLaw Publications
9) S&R Publications
10) CBCL, NLIU Bhopal