Five reasons why assets and structured finance is interesting

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Assets and structured finance (A&SF) is one of Watson Farley & Williams LLP's (WFW) largest groups and is one of the practices for which it is best known. The group primarily covers transactional work (eg, sale, purchase, newbuild contracts) and financing (eg, through loans or finance leases) of transport assets – this includes ships, aircraft, trains, buses, and oil rigs.

Here are five reasons why A&SF is so interesting, and five trainee tasks you'll be doing as a trainee in this area.

1.       International elements

Nearly all A&SF deals will have a multi-jurisdictional element. This means that, on a day-to-day basis (and particularly as a trainee), you could be liaising with people in places such as Singapore, the British Virgin Islands, Dubai and New York. As a result, there's plenty of exposure to different cultures and different ways of working. This encourages you to think beyond the immediate environment in the UK, including considering the practical issues faced by, and the preferences of, clients/transaction counterparts in different countries.

Reflecting the international nature of A&SF work, WFW offers all trainees an international secondment, including to Paris, Dubai, Singapore, and Athens, to help trainees immerse themselves in a different culture and experience working with local clients. Roughly half of the firm's secondment opportunities are directly related to A&SF.

2.       Sector focus – 'big' assets

The work you do tends to be in relation to large, exciting assets including cruise ships, container ships, private jets, commercial airplanes, and even fleets of buses. The subject matter of your work is something that you can physically go and see or, in some cases, travel on! Additionally, many of your colleagues have a deep interest in their sectors, so it's exciting to be able to talk to maritime colleagues about sailing or see your aviation colleagues show off their 'private jet top trumps cards'.

3.       Fast pace

The sectors which A&SF are aligned with can be fairly fast paced at times, which keeps the office atmosphere lively and ensures a lot of variety from day to day. Unlike other practice areas, where matters may routinely take months from start to finish, some deals in A&SF can go from an initial discussion to closing in a matter of days, which allows you to very quickly see and develop a better understanding of the transaction lifecycle.

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4.       People

Most deals in A&SF will have three or four lawyers working on them, and it's truly a team effort; as a trainee, there's a lot of responsibility to keep on top of the transaction status and get involved with different aspects. Trainee responsibilities can include corresponding with international lawyers, sitting in on calls with clients, drafting documents, and liaising with ship/aircraft registries. Working on a variety of tasks means coordinating with lots of different people, both internally and externally, so you'll very quickly build a wide network.

5.        Relevance

Because the sector focus is heavily aligned with transport, which is an industry that affects many people globally, it's exciting to be able to see the impact of your work. For example, in completing an aircraft delivery and then seeing the aircraft enter passenger service shortly afterwards. It's equally thrilling to see how ongoing global events directly impact your transactions. In particular, the maritime industry is very reactive to ongoing events. A transaction may suddenly be impacted or delayed due to a collision, typhoon, or strong winds. As such, even when you're sitting at a desk in London, you can have a connection with events on the other side of the world, which means that every day can be full of surprises!

Five typical trainee tasks in A&SF

1. Conditions precedent management

Nearly every transaction will have some form of 'conditions precedent' – these are conditions that need to be satisfied before an event (eg, the advancing of funds under a loan or the transfer of ownership of an asset) can happen. One of the earliest steps in each transaction will be preparing a report to track the status of these conditions, and it's an ongoing process to review what has been provided and to check that the items that are provided satisfy the condition. In practice, this could be doing anything from reviewing vessel registration certificates to liaising with insurance brokers.

2.       Liaising with local counsel

Most deals will have an international element, and often more than one international element! Where this is the case, 'local counsel', meaning other WFW offices, or law firms in countries where we don't have offices, may need to advise on certain documents. As a trainee, you will often get involved in discussing these documents with local counsel.

3.       Liaising with registries

Most of the assets we deal with will need to be registered with a country's registry. Ahead of completing transactions, for example, registering a mortgage or transferring ownership of a vessel, trainees will generally be in contact with the registry to ensure that the relevant forms are ready ahead of time.

4.       Drafting

Trainees are generally involved in drafting documents such as security documents (eg, mortgages and assignments) and notices and letters. Working across a range of assets is helpful in quickly developing your drafting skills, because it's useful to be able to see how repeating concepts are dealt with in relation to a ship, compared with in relation to an aircraft, for instance. This will help you to see that there are lots of different ways of achieving the same goal but adapted to the particular commercial situation.

5.       Managing signing processes

Once documents are agreed between the parties, trainees will typically get involved in preparing the documents for execution. This would typically mean completing the relevant administrative details relating to the assets, identifying where the parties need to sign, preparing signing instructions, and then checking that the documents have been appropriately signed.  

Jack Oldbury is a trainee for the General Counsel at WFW, having completed two seats in A&SF and a secondment to the firm's Dubai office (undertaking A&SF and disputes work).