Banking & Finance
Facility agreements, security creation, and term sheets that age in days.
A day, honestly described.
A USD 200 million facility agreement for an infrastructure SPV is closing on Wednesday. You are on the lender side — a syndicate of three banks plus an ECB tranche from Singapore. You spent yesterday redlining the security creation provisions: charge over the project bank account, hypothecation of moveable assets, mortgage over the project land, share-pledge of the SPV's holding company. The borrower's lawyers want a more permissive cash-sweep mechanic; you push back.
Banking and finance practice runs on the same deal-velocity rhythm as M&A — long days, document-driven, advisory rather than contentious. The work splits into general lending (term loans, working-capital facilities, syndication), structured finance (project finance, real-estate finance, NBFC funding), and capital-markets-adjacent work (NCDs, securitisation, masala bonds).
You will become fluent in the SARFAESI Act, the Companies Act provisions on security creation, RBI master directions on lending, ECB regulations, and an enormous body of standard documentation — LMA-style facility agreements, ISDA master agreements, intercreditor agreements. The documentation patterns are more standardised than M&A; the work, accordingly, is more procedural and less bespoke. That is a feature for some practitioners and a bug for others.
Where the work happens. Who hires. What you'll be paid.
Where the work happens
Recruitment pathway
Banking and finance teams hire through standard PPO funnels at Tier-1 firms. The work overlaps significantly with M&A; many firms have associates rotate between corporate and finance for the first 18 months before specialising.
A summer with a banking team is the strongest signal. Familiarity with the LMA standard form (the international syndicated-lending precedent) is unusual at student level and carries weight in interviews. NLU and non-NLU candidates compete on standard PPO terms.
First-year vs senior associate
Redlining facility agreements against firm precedents, drafting security documentation, preparing closing checklists. You will know the cash-flow waterfall, the material adverse effect clause, and the events of default by month four. You will not negotiate.
You lead drafting on facility agreements from term sheet onward. You manage the diligence process. You negotiate directly with borrower's counsel on most clauses. You run closings. The partner reviews; the document is yours.
Compensation bands (approximate)
What law students consistently lack — and how to fix it.
Each gap below is something we have heard from Banking & Finance hiring partners. The simulation column is what closes it before your first internship.
Most students have not seen a real facility agreement — only their textbook descriptions of "loan agreements".
The Iura banking simulation puts a real-shape facility agreement in front of you with a partner-redlined model.
Security creation under Indian law is procedurally specific (charge filing under the Companies Act, mortgage registration under state stamp legislation) and students treat it as a one-line item.
A security-creation drafting task that forces you through the procedural sequence.
No exposure to intercreditor arrangements — students do not know how senior, mezzanine, and unsecured creditors are ordered in a default scenario.
A waterfall-drafting task with multiple creditor tiers.
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Banking and finance is the second-highest paying track on this list and the work is often less politically charged than M&A. If you like documents and you like structure, intern with a Tier-1 banking team in 3rd year. The PPO conversion rate from these teams is among the highest at any firm.