Transaction Services Team

Our aspiration is for the TST to be the best in-class insourced delivery function.

Launched in 2010, our Transaction Services Team (TST) is a pioneering response to market pressure for more efficient and imaginative ways of resourcing client assignments.

TST is primarily a centralised unit of over 150 people, including paralegals and managers delivering more for less by providing a wide range of routine legal assignments, in either a stand-alone or an integrated way alongside AG's lawyers, and increasingly part of clients' own internal teams.

The expansion of this team reflects not just the operational efficiency of our approach, but our determination to deliver better for clients, improve our own financial performance, increase the quality of our work, exploit new technology, and create an environment which is attractive to the very best people.

Over recent years, we have built on early successes, broadening the TST's deployment across our business, and further improving our competitiveness by providing clients with even greater certainty and innovation around pricing and service delivery.

Services available through the TST

Extensive experience of delivery of large M&A projects including due diligence reviews and reorganisation support
Project Management including co-ordinating clients, lawyers, overseas advisors and other third parties
Drafting, negotiating and completing routine contracts within agreed parameters
Overspill cover for in-house teams
Litigation and regulatory document reviews and claims support
Bespoke work with dedicated trained teams

Case study 1 - Working with a FTSE 100 company on the sale of a global business

We worked with a FTSE 100 company on the sale of a global business with a value of circa £1bn. The divested business was fully integrated into the retained business and we were responsible for all separation activities in order to achieve completion of the sale.

This involved managing and coordinating a database of approximately 2,500 contracts across 10 service streams and implementing a process in order to effect the novation (or splitting) of those contracts such that they wholly or partially transferred with the sold business.

A team of approximately 40 people, comprising both TST and lawyers from across AG, were engaged. The work included:

Creating and managing a separation issues list.
Reviewing each of the contracts over a 9 month period for issues relevant to the business transfer and redacting commercially sensitive information.
Preparation of novation templates (approximately 25 different templates were required dependent on whether the contracts were multiparty, were transferring in whole or in part, or were subject to local laws).
Coordinating local advice across 33 jurisdictions in connection with such novation templates.
Preparing and issuing approximately 500 novations in respect of approximately 800 contracts and liaising with the relevant counterparties to agree the terms of such novations and implement execution.
Providing regular client updates on weekly telephone calls and maintaining a novation tracker which the client accessed through a secure online portal.
Compilation of library of completed (executed) novations and distribution of final copies to all relevant parties.

Case Study 2 - Assisting a large bank with a reorganisation of its business

The TST assisted a large bank with a reorganisation of its business. This involved reviewing a large number of commercial contracts for over 150 data points including termination rights, assignability, payments due, IP, governing law etc. There were over 1000 contracts to review. A team of 25 paralegals and 6 solicitors worked alongside each other to review the contracts. The team used a bespoke review platform to complete the reviews which resulted in cost savings and clear, consistent and quality outputs.

A senior member of the TST worked closely with lawyers in our commercial division by allocating contracts for review, quality checking and giving regular updates to the client as required.

Case Study 3 - Producing and negotiating the documentation for property disposals

Members of the TST plus an experienced associate produce and negotiate the documentation for 10 property disposals a week for a property company. The team generates the sale contract and associated documentation using document automation software, negotiates the sale contract and deals with exchange and completion.

By putting in place a stringent process, including agreed parameters on negotiating positions, the team can ensure a consistent approach is adopted. A self sufficient, clear and consistent process with minimal need for client interaction and use of technology with standard documents ensures efficient service and significant cost reduction for the client.