The extent of an in-house counsel’s involvement in a lending transaction will be dictated by the ambit of their role and to a large extent by the complexity of the transaction. In some organisations, an in-house counsel will have a purely 'advisory' role setting out relevant policies for the business teams to implement and as such will not be actively involved in the day-to-day running of a lending transaction but will step in on ad-hoc business queries and where a deviation of policy occurs. Conversely in other organisations, the in-house counsel will have a 'transactional support' role pursuant to which such counsel will be actively involved in the day-to-day running of a lending transaction with the business or commercial team (this may range from a purely legal support role to a transaction management/execution role).

For more information about the role of in-house counsel, see Practice Note: Practical points for banking and finance lawyers new to in-house roles.

This Practice Note is intended to provide tips and guidance to the latter category