Haynes and Boone CDG, LLP

The Legal 500 Future Lawyers verdict on Haynes and Boone CDG, LLP

Haynes and Boone is relatively new to the London trainee market but its growth has been rapid and impressive. Trainees at the Dallas-headquartered firm are ‘almost guaranteed seats in contentious, finance and asset management’, which gives them a well-rounded training experience. The modest size of the London office makes it ‘easy to get to know everyone’, and ‘colleagues are all approachable and easy to work with’. Trainees benefit from working closely with US offices and colleagues too. Being part of a small intake and small teams mean that recruits ‘can get a lot of responsibility early on, if we’re up to it’. ‘Working closely with a partner to close a leveraged finance deal and taking on a lot of responsibility’ is one such example. Training is ‘mixed – it is very on the job, which is good, and in busy spells you learn a lot’. The downside is that ‘due to a lack of more formal training, when it is quieter you can be sat at a desk all day with little to do’. That there are ‘no assigned supervisors’ also means that trainees sometimes have to be a bit more proactive in seeking out their own training. Respondents were disappointed with the ‘lack of transparency around remuneration’. Also, because Haynes and Boone is ‘new in the market’, some trainees feel that the firm ‘lacks established practices’ in some areas. Overall though, trainees are ‘exposed to a lot of client-facing work’ and they ‘feel we have a good work/life balance in comparison with other trainees at our stage at other firms’. For a combination of high-end work, market-leading clients and a great culture’, take a closer look at Haynes and Boone.

A day in the life of... Zainab Al-Qaimi, trainee, Haynes and Boone

Departments to date: Investment management (includes venture capital and hedge funds); Corporate/finance; Contentious

University: University of York University of Law

Degree: Law LLB (second class honours: division one); LPC with MSc in Law, Business and Management (Distinction)

I am currently undertaking a split seat across corporate and finance. This means that I am working across a range of matters and a wide breadth of work. The corporate team is quite varied in the work they undertake, acting for buyers and sellers on acquisitions and placings. On the finance side, the finance team in London predominantly focuses on lender-side fund finance.

6.15am: If I haven’t worked too late the night before, I like to go the gym in the morning as I find it really sets me up for a productive day in the office – Pilates classes are my go-to.

8.45am: I start heading into the office at this point of the morning. On the way in, I listen to the FT News Briefing – a ten-minute podcast which provides a daily update of the key global business stories making the deadlines.

9.15am: Our office has an open seating plan, so when I arrive in the morning, I normally have a catch-up with my colleagues.

9.30am: On the finance side, most borrowers are funds which are based offshore and in different time zones (locations such as Luxembourg, the Cayman Islands and the Channel Islands). This means that I typically start my mornings working through any emails that have come in overnight.

10.00am: At the timing of writing this article, I am working on an acquisition with the corporate team, which is near completion. We are acting for the buyer and the seller’s lawyers have just sent through a mark-up of the sale and purchase agreement (SPA) and disclosure letter. I set up a call with the client later in the day so we can take instruction.

10.30am: On the finance side, a trainee’s key role is to manage the conditions precedent checklist (CP checklist). As is often the case with finance work, there are many parties involved, meaning there can be a lot of communications and documents flying around. It’s essential to keep on top of these and to ensure that the CP checklist is up to date throughout the transaction and to save the various iterations of a document onto our document management system. This morning, I spent some time doing this as there was quite a bit of movement on CPs among local counsel overnight (US and Cayman counsel in this case). Afterwards, I shared this with our local counsel and the borrower’s onshore council, alongside lists of outstanding items from each respective party. I also emailed the client with a list of points that we are awaiting instructions on.

12.00pm: We have a call with the client on the corporate acquisition to discuss various points raised by the other side in the most recent mark-ups of the SPA and disclosure letter received from the other side. We take their view on commercial points so that we can update the drafts accordingly.

1.00pm: After the call, I grab some lunch with a couple of the other trainees and associates. Our office is just off Chancery Lane, which means that the food market on Leather Lane is right on our doorstep. We normally go for a stroll through the stalls and grab a bite, before heading back to the café in our office.

2.00pm: Revised corporate authorisations have just come through on one of my finance matters. The associate asks me to take a first look. I send through my comments for her review and await sign-off before I share these with the other side.

4.00pm: The partner and associate have updated the SPA and disclosure letter and ask me to review their amendments before we send these back to the other side. Since we are pushing towards a close on this transaction, we want to get these back to the other side today to close out the remaining outstanding points. I flag any issues and discrepancies I pick up on review. I then run redlines against the versions previously circulated ready to go back to the other side. On key documents my role normally consists of this review. Having worked on another acquisition earlier this year where we were acting for the sellers, it’s interesting to see it from the other perspective. When it comes to the ancillary documents, I am usually given the chance to produce first drafts based on precedents.

5.00pm: I spend the rest of the afternoon actioning any other tasks on my to do list; this includes responding to various emails (both internal and external), running company searches and updating CP checklists for other finance transactions I am working on.

6.30pm: Before leaving the office, I file all my emails and ensure that my time for the day has been recorded. I leave the office to meet a friend for a drink, keeping an eye on emails throughout the evening. With a couple of closings due to take place later this week, I enjoy my evening knowing that I will likely be busier and working longer hours in the coming days.

About the firm

The firm: The London office of Haynes Boone has experience serving the corporate, debt capital markets, energy, finance, insolvency, international dispute resolution, investment management, project finance and development, real estate and shipping sectors. The firm boasts a team of commercial and dispute resolution lawyers with deep industry knowledge in their core sectors. Many of our lawyers have international backgrounds; our lawyers are fluent in 19 languages.

The clients: Investec Bank plc; BNP Paribas; Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation; Bank of America; The Hellenic Gas Transmission System Operator (DESFA) S.A.; Stena LNG Holding Sweden AB.

Senior partner: Taylor Wilson (USA)

Managing partner: William Cecil (UK)

Other offices: 16 offices in the USA, Mexico City, Shanghai

Who we are: With decades of experience, our lawyers provide clients with broad English law capabilities. These include an experienced litigation and international arbitration team that has handled numerous claims in the English High Court and before major arbitral bodies, and transactional teams that have guided clients through such diverse matters as mergers and acquisitions, IPOs, financing, conventional and alternative energy projects, and maritime and offshore operations and projects. Our London office links clients operating in the world’s interconnected energy and finance markets.

What we do: Haynes Boone is an international commercial law firm. London’s practices comprise contentious, corporate, debt capital markets, energy, finance, insolvency, investment management, project finance, real estate and shipping.

What we’re looking for: A strong and consistent academic record and to be on track for, or have obtained, a 2(1) degree minimum; to take on responsibility and have commercial awareness, commitment, energy and spark; and to have a sense of community and enthusiasm to participate.

What you’ll do: Each contract will comprise four seats of six months’ duration each. Trainees in those seats will work with different teams across the range of the firm’s practice areas within the relevant group during each seat. Practical training will be given with plenty of support and feedback. You will be closely supervised and mentored by the training principal, and a partner mentor.

Perks: Private health insurance, group income protection, group life assurance, group personal pension, season ticket loan, gym membership subsidy, employee assistance programme.

Sponsorship

Haynes Boone offers full sponsorship of the SQE study route as well as an annual maintenance grant of £10,000 per year of study.

Seat options

Finance/corporate; investment management; contentious; energy/shipping.

Tips from the recruiter

1. When completing the application form, it is important to be specific and informative when answering the questions.
2. Meet the advertised deadline – the recruitment cycle is run on a very tight schedule so extensions cannot be granted.
3. Do the appropriate research before answering the questions.

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