Hi. Starting a job as an A0 in the Project Finance/ Project Infrastructure Team of a mid size/ small size firm.
Could I please get some leads as to how to go about it/ what should k read before the job begins and any other details that may be helpful? Thank you for all the help (need it urgently though)
Project finance lawyers have relatively less scope when compared to banking and finance lawyers. M&A, PE and Capital Markets lawyers have immense scope.
Collect DD reports from your team on each sector and make it weekend reading.
You will know what sector has what stakeholders, agreements, approvals, issues etc. You will pickup how to present those and what mitigants to offer.
If you are in a half decent place, walk up to a senior in their free time- say you read the DDRs in your free time and want to discuss/understand. You will learn and at the same time also earn brownie points.
The suggested books above are also a good start.
Once you do all of the above- send in your job application to us. :-)
I've been an associate for more than 3 years now at S/CAM and I recently went back to my college's study module on Project Finance (I'm from NUJS) - it genuinely changed how I work.
The things PAs and Partners usually grill you on, or things they say on call that seem pretty impressive/based on years of experience - they're all fundamental things you can get from reading a basic principles book.
The way I analyze and the quality of comments I leave on agreements has significantly improved since I read those basic things. I don't understand why law firms don't take just one month teaching these things instead of making associates work on billables from day 1/or showing them lame powerpoint presentations.
I'm glad I finally did though - I feel 5x more knowledgeable. And I hope younger associates pick up on the resources on this thread. All the resources mentioned seem great - it doesn't matter much which you read as long as you read any one basic book.
Read Graham Vinter's book. For Indian aspects, Srivastava's, though it's not as good. Other than that, read up related primers and articles from iclg, mondaq etc. Go through sample contracts available online. Practise being thorough in document review. That should be good enough for a beginner.
Hi! I have an Assessment Internship with the Energy, Projects & Infrastructure Team of a reputed law firm. I have no prior experience in this sector but also, since i don't have other options in hand i decided to take this up. What preparations should i make from my end? How is this aspect of law to work in? What is the scope of growth? Any and every insight regarding the same would be really helpful.
In that case, the teacher is called Shouvik Guha. He's an alum too, not sure from which batch though. @R: If naming the guy is against LI rules, then please moderate that part.
LI is unlikely to have anything against naming for giving credit (as opposed to naming to shame). If you're putting a teacher's reading list up, you should say where you got this from.
Hi, I am the person who had made comment no. 5. This was at NUJS. The teacher was an alumnus. I don't know if other law schools have similar or equivalent courses too. Probably they do. I don't know if the course is still being continued though. The teacher is still at NUJS last I checked. I am not naming the person because LI has got some rules against personal names I guess.
Which law school was this that offered a course on PF? The reading list seems to be fairly comprehensive to me. It's good to know that there are people in law schools who can and do offer such courses.
I had a teacher in law school who had offered an introductory elective paper in law school on Project Finance. These are the books that he had recommended (and I found these to be quite useful too when I interned and later at work).
1. Project Finance: A Legal Guide by Graham D. Vinter 2. Project Finance in Theory and Practice: Designing, Structuring, and Financing Private and Public Projects by Stefano Gatti 3. Corporate and Project Finance Modeling: Theory and Practice Book by Edward Bodmer 4. International Project Finance: Law and Practice by John Dewar 5. Principles of Project Finance Book by E. R. Yescombe 6. The Principles of Project Finance by Rod Morrison 7. Project and Infrastructure Finance: Corporate Banking Perspective by Vikas Srivastava and V. Rajaraman 8. Law Relating To Infrastructure Projects by Piyush Joshi 9. Financing Large Projects: Using Project Finance Techniques and Practices by MFK Khan and RJ Parra 10. Projects: Planning, Analysis, Selection, Financing, Implementation and Review by Prasanna Chandra
Apart from these, ICLG Guides and Mondaq contain several useful pieces in the Indian context. Hope this helps!
I can recommend 2 books that I have found immensely useful. 1. Law relating to Infrastructure projects by Piyush Joshi and 2. Investing in India's Infrastructure and Energy sectors by Prashanth Sabeshan.
Prashant's book is recent, so that should be your first read, and will give you some idea on what Projects lawyers do in law firms and can be a little life boat, than the law firm model that believes in just throwing people in deep sea.
After getting a decent idea from these books, you can do an advanced reading by looking at some SECI PPA, RFP and NHAI concession agreement on the web, to understand how the theory applies in commercial contracts.
From my understanding, I have always thought that being a good Projects lawyer requires some bit of imagination and visual thinking. Imagine you are doing a DD for a solar power project, it would be useful to look at a picture of the plant or a video to understand why those approvals are required, who are the entities, why is a specific clause provided in PPA. That would help in understanding the discussion better.
Hope this helps. I've been there and I can understand your predicament. But if you have interest in the area, the DDs won't look so drab to you.
Check out Graham Vinter's book on PF, there are also several country specific law firm pieces talking about the projects scene. KCO had come up with one back in 2019.
I really want to get good at this practice but I am finding the law firm model of deep sea diving to learn swimming quite jarring. Would appreciate if experienced guys could share sources (books, articles, subscriptions? any resource actually) to better understand the sectors involved if not the practice itself. I am looking for things like what should a commerical lawyer look for say in a PPA or a concession agreement; how do investors view these contracts; typical risks involved (better if India specific) etc. I do understand transactions can be different and most of the learning comes with experience, but I'd really like to speed things up a bit. Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance. Cheers.
Any advice/ help would be appreciated.
Could I please get some leads as to how to go about it/ what should k read before the job begins and any other details that may be helpful?
Thank you for all the help (need it urgently though)
Hope this helps!
You will know what sector has what stakeholders, agreements, approvals, issues etc. You will pickup how to present those and what mitigants to offer.
If you are in a half decent place, walk up to a senior in their free time- say you read the DDRs in your free time and want to discuss/understand. You will learn and at the same time also earn brownie points.
The suggested books above are also a good start.
Once you do all of the above- send in your job application to us. :-)
The things PAs and Partners usually grill you on, or things they say on call that seem pretty impressive/based on years of experience - they're all fundamental things you can get from reading a basic principles book.
The way I analyze and the quality of comments I leave on agreements has significantly improved since I read those basic things. I don't understand why law firms don't take just one month teaching these things instead of making associates work on billables from day 1/or showing them lame powerpoint presentations.
I'm glad I finally did though - I feel 5x more knowledgeable. And I hope younger associates pick up on the resources on this thread. All the resources mentioned seem great - it doesn't matter much which you read as long as you read any one basic book.
A clueless Final Year Student.
@R: If naming the guy is against LI rules, then please moderate that part.
It's around Rs. 4K.
A few other doubts - what's the international scope of work for a Project Finance Lawyer? Can he/she work abroad?
Should a Projects Lawyer also know Real Estate and Environmental Laws?
1. Project Finance: A Legal Guide by Graham D. Vinter
2. Project Finance in Theory and Practice: Designing, Structuring, and Financing Private and Public Projects by Stefano Gatti
3. Corporate and Project Finance Modeling: Theory and Practice Book by Edward Bodmer
4. International Project Finance: Law and Practice by John Dewar
5. Principles of Project Finance Book by E. R. Yescombe
6. The Principles of Project Finance by Rod Morrison
7. Project and Infrastructure Finance: Corporate Banking Perspective by Vikas Srivastava and V. Rajaraman
8. Law Relating To Infrastructure Projects by Piyush Joshi
9. Financing Large Projects: Using Project Finance Techniques and Practices by MFK Khan and RJ Parra
10. Projects: Planning, Analysis, Selection, Financing, Implementation and Review by Prasanna Chandra
Apart from these, ICLG Guides and Mondaq contain several useful pieces in the Indian context.
Hope this helps!
1. Law relating to Infrastructure projects by Piyush Joshi and
2. Investing in India's Infrastructure and Energy sectors by Prashanth Sabeshan.
Prashant's book is recent, so that should be your first read, and will give you some idea on what Projects lawyers do in law firms and can be a little life boat, than the law firm model that believes in just throwing people in deep sea.
After getting a decent idea from these books, you can do an advanced reading by looking at some SECI PPA, RFP and NHAI concession agreement on the web, to understand how the theory applies in commercial contracts.
From my understanding, I have always thought that being a good Projects lawyer requires some bit of imagination and visual thinking. Imagine you are doing a DD for a solar power project, it would be useful to look at a picture of the plant or a video to understand why those approvals are required, who are the entities, why is a specific clause provided in PPA. That would help in understanding the discussion better.
Hope this helps. I've been there and I can understand your predicament. But if you have interest in the area, the DDs won't look so drab to you.