Learn the craft, not just the law
Worked deals for trainees and junior lawyers
For trainees, newly qualified solicitors, SQE candidates and anyone starting a seat, in any practice area. Each workbook follows one deal from start to finish, with every document in full, read clause by clause.
Every edition is free to read until 31 January. Open a free account by the end of that day and keep every edition published by then, for good.
M&A free in full · chapter 1 of every edition free · the rest in the Library, €12 a month or €79 for a Year Pass · Pricing
Written and reviewed by practising lawyers who have practised at or with White & Case, Herbert Smith Freehills, DLA Piper, PwC, KPMG and HSBC. Who writes it →
What a chapter looks like
Read. The chapter explains the deal and quotes the clause it is talking about. One tap opens it in the full agreement. 
Test yourself. A short test after every chapter. Each answer comes with the reasoning, right or wrong. 
Finish. Pass every chapter test and the final exam, and your account issues a record of completion.
Screens from the M&A edition, on a phone; every edition is built the same way. The record is a sample, not a qualification.
Start here
- M&A FoundationsHow a company is bought, from the first call to completion.Free in full · no account needed
- Legal Due DiligenceNext: the buyer's check on the same deal, and the report it writes.Free until 31 January with a free accountChapter 1 free
- Finance DealsThen: the bank loan that pays for the same deal.Free until 31 January with a free accountChapter 1 free
The library
Each edition stands on its own: it introduces its own case, its own cast and its own documents from scratch, and ends with a final exam and a record of completion. 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.
M&A Foundations
A listed payments group buys a licensed crypto exchange in Ireland, from first call to completion. You are the junior on the deal.
Free until 31 JanuaryIn the LibraryCorporate & M&ALegal Due Diligence
Before a payments group buys an Irish crypto exchange, its lawyers check it and report what they find. You act for the buyer.
€12 a month or €79 for a Year Pass · every edition · record of completion Free until 31 JanuaryIn the LibraryCorporate & M&AShareholders' Agreements: Joint Ventures under English Law
A logistics group, a family cold-storage firm and an engineer go into business together and write down who decides what. You act for the family firm.
€12 a month or €79 for a Year Pass · every edition · record of completion Free until 31 JanuaryIn the LibraryCorporate & M&AVenture Deals: SAFEs & Convertibles
A startup takes investors' money before anyone agrees what it is worth, and later agrees a price. You are the junior on the deal.
€12 a month or €79 for a Year Pass · every edition · record of completion Free until 31 JanuaryIn the LibraryFinance & Capital MarketsFinance Deals & Syndicated Lending
A syndicate of banks lends a payments group the money to buy a company. You are a trainee solicitor in a banking team.
€12 a month or €79 for a Year Pass · every edition · record of completion Free until 31 JanuaryIn the LibraryFinance & Capital MarketsDerivatives: Swaps, Caps & the Master Agreement
A payments group fixes the interest rate on its new loan with a swap from its lead bank. You act for the company.
€12 a month or €79 for a Year Pass · every edition · record of completion Free until 31 JanuaryIn the LibraryFinance & Capital MarketsDebt Capital Markets: A Company's First Bond, Listed on Euronext Dublin
A family-owned cold-storage group issues its first bond and lists it in Dublin. You act for the company.
€12 a month or €79 for a Year Pass · every edition · record of completion Free until 31 JanuaryIn the LibraryFinance & Capital MarketsEuropean Brokerage: The Client Agreement of an Online Broker
A Cyprus online broker writes the terms its clients accept in its app, then lives by them. You act for the broker.
€12 a month or €79 for a Year Pass · every edition · record of completion Free until 31 JanuaryIn the LibraryCrypto & FintechCrypto-Asset Regulation: MiCA, DORA & the Licence
A Dublin exchange wins its licence and then has to live under it, rule by rule. You are a junior lawyer in its legal and compliance team.
€12 a month or €79 for a Year Pass · every edition · record of completion Free until 31 JanuaryIn the LibraryFinance & Capital MarketsSecurity & Collateral: Taking Security under English Law
To lend to a family engineering firm, a bank takes security over nearly everything the firm owns. You act for the bank.
€12 a month or €79 for a Year Pass · every edition · record of completion Free until 31 JanuaryIn the LibraryCorporate & M&ACorporate Governance: Boards, Duties and Control under English Law
An outside investor makes a family food company run a proper board, and the first year tests the new rules. You are the company's junior in-house lawyer.
€12 a month or €79 for a Year Pass · every edition · record of completion Free until 31 JanuaryIn the LibraryReal EstateBuying Commercial Property: Title, Searches and Completion under English Law
A printer sells its empty factory in Leeds to a bike maker that has outgrown its rented units. You act for the buyer.
€12 a month or €79 for a Year Pass · every edition · record of completion Free until 31 JanuaryIn the LibraryReal EstateCommercial Leases: Negotiating a New Lease under English Law
Until it needs the space itself, a bike maker lets its spare floor to a design studio. You act for the landlord.
€12 a month or €79 for a Year Pass · every edition · record of completion Free until 31 JanuaryIn the LibraryPractice & SkillsEnglish Law Basics: One Dispute from Client Email to Advice Letter
A family company from Porto has its first English dispute: an ice-cream chain refuses to pay for machines that failed. You act for the seller.
€12 a month or €79 for a Year Pass · every edition · record of completion Free until 31 JanuaryIn the LibraryPractice & SkillsDrafting Skills: One Contract from Term Sheet to Signing
A bakery hires a garage to service and repair its delivery vans. You draft the contract for the bakery.
€12 a month or €79 for a Year Pass · every edition · record of completion Free until 31 JanuaryIn the LibraryPractice & SkillsNegotiation Skills: One Renewal from Letter to Heads of Terms
A bakery renews its contract with the garage that repairs its vans. You help run the talks for the bakery.
€12 a month or €79 for a Year Pass · every edition · record of completion Free until 31 JanuaryIn the LibraryPractice & SkillsThe Lawyer's Personal Brand: Reputation, Visibility and Confidence from the First Seat
A newly qualified solicitor spends her first year becoming known for her work, on purpose. You follow her year and build your own.
€12 a month or €79 for a Year Pass · every edition · record of completion Free until 31 JanuaryIn the LibraryIP & TechnologyIP Licensing: The Transitional Licence in a Carve-Out
A group sells one factory, and the buyer keeps using the group's brand, software and know-how under a licence. You act for the buyer.
€12 a month or €79 for a Year Pass · every edition · record of completion Free until 31 JanuaryIn the LibraryIP & TechnologyWhite Label SaaS: The Agreement Behind Software Sold Under Another Brand
A payroll software company lets an HR consultancy sell its app under the consultancy's own brand. You act for the software company.
€12 a month or €79 for a Year Pass · every edition · record of completion Free until 31 JanuaryIn the LibraryEmploymentThe Employment Contract: Hiring a Senior Employee under English Law
A coffee machine company hires a Head of Sales from a rival and writes her contract. You act for the company.
€12 a month or €79 for a Year Pass · every edition · record of completion Free until 31 JanuaryIn the LibraryDispute ResolutionCivil Litigation: A Commercial Contract Claim from Letter of Claim to Settlement
An office chair maker sues the foundry whose chair bases cracked. You act for the chair maker.
€12 a month or €79 for a Year Pass · every edition · record of completion Free until 31 JanuaryIn the LibraryCommercial ContractsDistribution Agreements: Appointing an Exclusive Distributor under English Law
A coffee machine maker appoints a Dublin company its exclusive distributor for Ireland. You act for the maker.
€12 a month or €79 for a Year Pass · every edition · record of completion Free until 31 JanuaryIn the LibraryRestructuring & InsolvencyRestructuring Plans: Rescuing a Company That Cannot Repay Its Bond
A cold-storage group that cannot repay its bond rewrites its debts with the court's help. You act for the company.
€12 a month or €79 for a Year Pass · every edition · record of completion Free until 31 JanuaryIn the LibraryRegulation & ComplianceAnti-Money Laundering: Checking a New Client and Its Money
A new company, owned through a trust, buys a Cambridge office building. You act for the buyer.
€12 a month or €79 for a Year Pass · every edition · record of completion Free until 31 JanuaryIn the LibraryRegulation & ComplianceData Protection: A Software Supplier's Year under the UK GDPR
A software company runs the rota app for a group of care homes. You act for the software company.
€12 a month or €79 for a Year Pass · every edition · record of completion Free until 31 JanuaryIn the LibraryRegulation & ComplianceConsumer Terms: A Gardening App's Sign-Up, Privacy Notice and Cookies
A gardening app launches a paid subscription with a free trial. You act for the company behind the app.
€12 a month or €79 for a Year Pass · every edition · record of completionBrowse by practice area: Corporate & M&A · Finance & Capital Markets · Restructuring & Insolvency · Crypto & Fintech · Regulation & Compliance · Real Estate · Practice & Skills · IP & Technology · Commercial Contracts · Employment · Dispute Resolution
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.
Why Solon Press
Not only for juniors
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 →Built on common law concepts
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 →Written by practitioners
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
The next two titles. Each has its own page, where you can ask to be told the day it is out.
- Legal Design BasicsDocuments people can actually read: structure, layout and plain language.
- Resilience & Well-being for LawyersSustainable performance in a profession that burns people out.