M&A Resource for Young Lawyers

So maybe you’re a newly minted JD studying for the bar.  Have you given any thought to what you might want to read on your now extended bar trip?  I mean, when you show up for your first day of work in … January, it would be nice if you had read something useful.  For generations past that might have meant James Freund’s Anatomy of a Merger, but that’s out of print and only available in pricey law-library editions.  So what to read?  Now there’s a nice modern take on the merger anatomy for young associates – William Carney’s Mergers & Acquisitions: The Essentials. 

OK, I’ll admit that it lacks some of the folksy stories that made Freund’s book a really enjoyable read.   But it makes up for that in being direct and covering a variety of useful topics including logistics of doing a deal, structuring transactions, due diligence and the important provisions in the merger document.  However, it’s just the essentials, so don’t think that reading this book will be a better idea than taking an M&A class.  But, if you are going to be a first year associate doing M&A and you have time on your hands after the bar (who doesn’t these days?), you should make sure you read this 336 page book before your first day.  As I tell my students, it’s always better to know something.           

-bjmq