A library of worked deals · plain English · built by practitioners
Solon Press publishes interactive workbooks for lawyers who work on deals. Each one is a complete fictional transaction with its full documents attached — a share purchase agreement, a facility agreement, an investment agreement, a due diligence report — read clause by clause, with a test at the end of every chapter and an exam at the end of the file. No lectures, no slides, no videos of someone talking.
Mind the gap
Why we built it →You finished law school. Then you joined a firm, and discovered that nobody hands you a deal and explains it.
The workbooks are the manual for that part of the job: the whole deal on the table, every document in full, every clause explained by someone who has negotiated one like it.
The library
Each edition is bought and read on its own, and each one introduces its own deal, its own cast and its own documents from scratch. Most of them share a single fictional group of companies, so they fit together into one map of a market if you read more than one — none of them assumes you have.
How a private company is bought under English law, end to end — from the first confidential call to completion. Built around Project Sunrise, a fictional €42m acquisition, with a complete share purchase agreement.
€39Corporate & M&AThe buyer's investigation, end to end — scoping, data rooms, red flags, risk ratings and report writing. Built around one fictional exercise: what a payments group found inside an Irish fintech before it signed, with a complete red-flag due diligence report.
€39Corporate & M&AHow co-owners of a company agree to live together — the board, the veto list, deadlock, funding, transfers, exit and the manager's shares. Compact: ten chapters built on one fictional 55/35/10 joint venture, with the full agreement attached.
€39Corporate & M&AHow startup investment actually papers — the instruments that take money before anyone agrees a price, and the priced round that finally sets one. Built around one fictional company's funding history, from two founders to a single shareholder, with a complete training investment agreement.
€39Finance & Capital MarketsHow a company borrows serious money from a syndicate of banks — the market-standard architecture, from mandate letter to drawdown. Built around a fictional €40m facility, raised by a listed payments group to buy another company, with a complete training facility agreement.
€39Finance & Capital MarketsOver-the-counter hedging from trade date to close-out — swaps, caps, the master agreement, collateral and early termination, read from one company's hedge sheet — no pricing models. Built around one fictional interest-rate swap over a floating-rate loan, with a complete training master agreement.
€39Crypto & FintechHow a crypto-asset exchange is licensed in the EU and lives under the licence — MiCA, DORA and the Travel Rule in plain English. Compact: ten chapters built on one fictional Dublin exchange, with its full compliance binder attached.
€39Finance & Capital MarketsHow a bank takes security over a company's land, machines, shares, receivables and insurances — fixed and floating charges, registration, the guarantor and enforcement. Compact: ten chapters built on one fictional secured loan, with the full training debenture attached.
€39Corporate & M&AHow a private company's board is run — matters reserved, directors' duties, conflicts, meetings and quorum, committees and controls, the recall nobody wanted and the minutes that prove it. Compact: ten chapters built on one fictional company's year, with the full board charter attached.
Browse by practice area: Corporate & M&A · Finance & Capital Markets · Crypto & Fintech
Why Solon Press
Senior associates, partners and heads of legal read the same pages the other way round. The next time a junior asks who really pays for the option pool, point at the page.
Who reads it →English-law deal mechanics are the lingua franca of cross-border practice: home ground across the common law world, and recognisable wherever big-ticket deals are done.
Why common law →A small team of practising lawyers, twenty-plus years at the senior end, across twenty-plus jurisdictions. Every workbook is drafted by a practitioner and reviewed by a specialist.
Meet the project →Forthcoming