A useful project management tool, known as BOSCARD (which stands for background, objectives, scope, constraints, assumptions, risks and deliverables), can help transaction lawyers to design project implementation documents. These are well thought-out descriptions of a project aimed at communicating its essential elements to the stakeholders and obtaining their buy-in. Several BOSCARD elements can be found in properly drafted pitch documents, engagement letters, heads of terms, structure papers and other documents familiar to lawyers.

In the commercial lawyer's world, the BOSCARD framework can be used at the start of a transaction either as a helpful personal tool for planning ahead or as a skeleton for a full structure memorandum to be prepared with the input of, and circulated to, all of the departments and lawyers involved in the deal. In either case, its preparation will help to iron out many resourcing, feasibility and timeline issues. It will assist in briefing the different key players (including team members and stakeholders) and in uniting the deal team (as preparing the memorandum will be a collaborative task). In my view, all transaction lawyers should be taught the importance of planning by being encouraged to think through a transaction using the BOSCARD framework.

Taking the example of acting for a company, C, in a complex cross-border restructuring, the background section of a BOSCARD planning memorandum should describe the relevant facts to show an understanding of C's business, and outline the proposed transaction.

This section should state the objectives of the transaction and demonstrate an understanding of its business rationale. In the given example of C, the objectives might be to:

Both objectives will require extensive discussions with very disparate groups of creditors with different objectives; for example, banks, bondholders and hedge funds, some of which may have bought their debt at a discount and be looking to make a quick and substantial return. Persuading other important stakeholders of the benefits of the transaction may also be required for successful implementation of the objectives.

Scope can be broken down into the following sections:

The firm's role and resources. C may want its advisers to lead the transaction and to seize the initiative from the start. This would mean taking on a deal counsel role requiring:

The memorandum will need to address those points and to describe the resources that will be made available throughout the firm, the principal team members and the correspondent firms that will be involved in specialist areas or countries where the firm does not have a presence.

Structure of the transaction. The memorandum should describe the transaction and its various stages. It should contain a timetable, with the various stages of the transaction broken down into milestones. It should also describe the strategy for negotiating with creditors and other stakeholders, and the litigation strategy for dealing with holdout creditors.

Multidisciplinary and cross-border scope. The transaction would involve many different specialists (for example, corporate, capital markets, finance, litigation, insolvency, employment and tax specialists) across several jurisdictions.

The key constraints to be addressed in planning this transaction are:

The memorandum should state several assumptions, which clarify the scope of the firm's role and risks, and will justify a renegotiation of any fee in case of "scope creep". They should include, among other things, assumptions:

The memorandum should list the risks that may materialise and affect the realisation of the objectives, the transaction structure, the negotiation strategy, the timeline and the need to resort to litigation. It should also address economic risks (such as tax, other transaction costs and pension issues) and indicate the impact that those risks might have on fees.

Deliverables fall under the following three headings:

The firm's role. The services that the firm intends to deliver and its role in the transaction (see "Scope" above).

Documents. The documents needed to implement the transaction, most of which the firm will draft as lead counsel, could be listed in an appendix to the memorandum with a timetable and allocation of responsibilities. The principal terms of each document should, ideally, be described in term sheet format.

Fees. The memorandum will contain a fee estimate (or a cap, if that is what C requires), which can be presented in a variety of ways but should contain a clear headline total and a breakdown by workstream and project milestone.