General, Commercial Stories themes for AC discussion

[dosblancos7]

Hi guys!

I've been reading FT/Economist articles, prepping for an AC and wanted to cover a lot of bases for the case study. In my previous interviews, I really enjoyed bringing in external knowledge to further improve my answers. I've created this thread to discuss , or be further exposed to, relevant, and contemporary stories/underlying themes that is in the commercial sphere. (If there is a previous/similar thread , please lock or disregard this )

Some suggestions that I have are :

Covid-19 and its impact! This is quite broad, but I like considering the impact of Covid on several industries(for e.g, hospitality industries)

The death of the High Street(which I was actually asked about earlier in a interview)

US-China Trade war etc.

Feel free to contribute your own ideas/discussions, as I'd enjoy reading or learning more about different topics

 

[IntrepidL]

Sounds like a fantastic idea!

 

[dosblancos7]

Sounds like a fantastic idea!

Thank you!

 

[Jaysen]

Here's a few additional commercial topics I’ve seen come up in interviews recently (late 2019 - 2020). Many of these are firm specific:

- The regulation of big tech firms (competition concerns/whether social media should be better regulated etc.)
- Recent companies entering administration/restructuring (e.g. Thomas Cook)
- The automobile industry and issues surrounding driverless cars
- Whether all companies should report their gender pay gaps
- The current situation with oil prices
- Cybersecurity

The business of law firms:
- Where a law firm should open up a new office
- Where a law firm should open up a new practice area
- Whether a law firm should act for a particular client (e.g. in a jurisdiction such as North Korea)
- How to differentiate a firm for its clients
- How does a firm stand out from its competitors

 

[dosblancos7]

I think one way to stand out commercially would be to (if you get an opportunity) bring up a topic that you're particularly interested in. For example, at one of my VS ACs, I got asked about a recent deal. I spoke about the Froneri-Nestle USA deal but within that I spoke about a fund restructuring that had occurred and why I found that area of PE interesting. I then tied it into the market backdrop at the time (pre-covid thankfully!).

To add to the comments above - there will be overlap between Big Tech and US-China tensions. There is a great article on Microsoft's potential acquisition of Tik Tok in the FT this morning, and last month there was an article on how the Big Tech companies could navigate the HK security law.

Also within restructuring, it is worth considering the recent changes to UK insolvency law (the new act is called the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act).

Will check up on the new Act- thanks!

Here's a few additional commercial topics I’ve seen come up in interviews recently (late 2019 - 2020). Many of these are firm specific:

- The regulation of big tech firms (competition concerns/whether social media should be better regulated etc.)
- Recent companies entering administration/restructuring (e.g. Thomas Cook)
- The automobile industry and issues surrounding driverless cars
- Whether all companies should report their gender pay gaps
- The current situation with oil prices
- Cybersecurity

The business of law firms:
- Where a law firm should open up a new office
- Where a law firm should open up a new practice area
- Whether a law firm should act for a particular client (e.g. in a jurisdiction such as North Korea)
- How to differentiate a firm for its clients
- How does a firm stand out from its competitors

Thank you Jaysen! The administration topic is one that greatly interests me!

 

[Holly]

The importance of ESG for investors is quite a good topic.

On the one hand, you can see the impact of this on boohoo’s share prices falling following the reports of poor conditions in their Leicester factory.

On the other hand, with oil prices falling (resulting from covid and Russia-Saudi Arabia war), companies need good reason to turn to renewable energy when oil is currently a cheap alternative (at a time where companies are looking to reduce costs).

These are just two subtopics there’s much more you can include!

 

[Karin]

Here's a few additional commercial topics I’ve seen come up in interviews recently (late 2019 - 2020). Many of these are firm specific:

- The regulation of big tech firms (competition concerns/whether social media should be better regulated etc.)
- Recent companies entering administration/restructuring (e.g. Thomas Cook)
- The automobile industry and issues surrounding driverless cars
- Whether all companies should report their gender pay gaps
- The current situation with oil prices
- Cybersecurity

The business of law firms:
- Where a law firm should open up a new office
- Where a law firm should open up a new practice area
- Whether a law firm should act for a particular client (e.g. in a jurisdiction such as North Korea)
- How to differentiate a firm for its clients
- How does a firm stand out from its competitors

Further on the regulation of big tech, I think it may be useful to know about the issues of taxing big global on-line retailers like Amazon (just in general). I got asked about it in my most recent interview and while they didnt expect me to know much about it (and I knew nothing) it would be nice to have some idea!

 

[D]

A brief pointer from my own experience - I've gone through three interviews recently. Every single firm asked me to introduce a topic to them to talk about and I was grilled on it. Therefore, I still advocate the same strategy when thinking about commercial issues in interview - Know a couple of topics well, and have an opinion on them!

 

[CarinaH]

Something else that’s been talked about quite a bit recently is merger control in times of Covid and also in regards to sustainability goals! I haven’t seen a single case study that didn’t have an antitrust element to it, so that’s quite an easy one to bring in!

 

[Jen E C]

Something else that’s been talked about quite a bit recently is merger control in times of Covid and also in regards to sustainability goals! I haven’t seen a single case study that didn’t have an antitrust element to it, so that’s quite an easy one to bring in!

Do you mind explaining what you mean in terms of merger controls and sustainability goals? I am not picking up on the link. Is it that mergers might be approved/disapproved depending on how 'green' they are?

 

[CarinaH]

Do you mind explaining what you mean in terms of merger controls and sustainability goals? I am not picking up on the link. Is it that mergers might be approved/disapproved depending on how 'green' they are?

It’s quite an interesting subject. Basically there have been discussions on mergers that would normally not necessarily be approved due to anti-trust issues that might be worth approving still with environmental factors becoming increasingly relevant in the merger control assessment.

https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/sites/files/oxlaw/simon_holmes.pdf

https://www.linklaters.com/en/insig...nability-goals-is-competition-law-cooperating
https://www.linklaters.com/en/insig...nability-goals-is-competition-law-cooperating
https://www.linklaters.com/en/insig...stering-green-deals-via-merger-control-policy

 

[dosblancos7]

I have a question about a news article I saw recently, where TikTok threatens legal action against Trump's US ban. I wonder, this obviously involves law firms, but does this only concern their litigation/disputes department?

 

[dosblancos7]

I have a question regarding Restructuring at law firms!

A lot of posters mention how due to Covid-19, a lot of law firms need to invest in restructuring departments . This is something I can understand, it makes sense that restructuring/insolvency department would be very busy in times of downturn. My question is, how would they invest? I know firms with , say, a tier 3/4 restructuring department can laterally recruit partners and thus bolster their restructuring practise, but other than that, I am lost!
Any guidance would be appreciated

 

[Romiras]

I have a question regarding Restructuring at law firms!

A lot of posters mention how due to Covid-19, a lot of law firms need to invest in restructuring departments . This is something I can understand, it makes sense that restructuring/insolvency department would be very busy in times of downturn. My question is, how would they invest? I know firms with , say, a tier 3/4 restructuring department can laterally recruit partners and thus bolster their restructuring practise, but other than that, I am lost!
Any guidance would be appreciated

• Firms can lateral hire to fill in 'gaps' at certain expertise levels (trainee, associate, partner or in between).
• Firms can take on more homegrown trainees in their restructuring departments.
• Firms can shift lawyers in fairly aligned departments (like corporate/finance) to work on restructuring matters.
• Firms can lateral hire a particular partner (and his team) or an entire department from another law firm.

 

[dosblancos7]

• Firms can lateral hire to fill in 'gaps' at certain expertise levels (trainee, associate, partner or in between).
• Firms can take on more homegrown trainees in their restructuring departments.
• Firms can shift lawyers in fairly aligned departments (like corporate/finance) to work on restructuring matters.
• Firms can lateral hire a particular partner (and his team) or an entire department from another law firm.

Thank you so much! This is insanely helpful!

 

[dosblancos7]

Hi everyone- recently Walmart has partnered with Microsoft to acquire TikTok, and to fend of Oracle from acquiring the same.

My(maybe technical) question is, how can two companies partner and bid for another? Wouldn't one company in the end be able to acquire TikTok, or can MS/Walmart share the asset?

 

[Ellisha]

Hi everyone- recently Walmart has partnered with Microsoft to acquire TikTok, and to fend of Oracle from acquiring the same.

My(maybe technical) question is, how can two companies partner and bid for another? Wouldn't one company in the end be able to acquire TikTok, or can MS/Walmart share the asset?

did you ever find out the answer to this? i'm very curious!

 

[dosblancos7]

did you ever find out the answer to this? i'm very curious!

No

 

[lawless]

Hi everyone- recently Walmart has partnered with Microsoft to acquire TikTok, and to fend of Oracle from acquiring the same.

My(maybe technical) question is, how can two companies partner and bid for another? Wouldn't one company in the end be able to acquire TikTok, or can MS/Walmart share the asset?

When the company, A, decides to acquire a target company, B, it can do so by either asset acquisition or stock acquisition. Asset acquisition is fairly simply A can take the desired assets of the target company and B can run on its own without any loss of control to its structure. So, for example, if TikTok sold its algorithm to Microsoft, the threat to national security would still exist because people would still be using the app, and that data would still be "sold" to China. Stock or share acquisition is basically buying the shares from existing equity shareholders (the shareholders that have decision making powers on a company's management). It's up to A whether it wants a 50% stake in B, or share the ownership with another company, C, where C takes the remaining 50%, as long as the existing equity shareholders are willing to sell their shares. Walmart/Oracle/TikTok is a merger because they are creating an entirely new entity in which Walmart has 7.5% stake and Oracle has a 12.5% stake whereas Bytedance holds 80% of the stake. In short, Walmart has acquired (literally speaking) a very small part of TikTok. By majority, ByteDance is still somewhat the owner of TikTok Global.