If you want to know how mergers and acquisitions work, you’d best ask a lawyer. Because there are legions of them involved in any M&A deal (as mergers and acquisitions are known). We hear from two lawyers with extensive experience in M&A, as well as other aspects of corporate law and equity financing, about exactly how mergers and acquisitions work. Alexandra Slack, senior legal counsel at the European Investment Fund, and her European Investment Bank colleague Tom Nguyen take us through the story of M&A from the 1980s, when the field was so wild, hostile and controversial that it prompted a best-selling book called “Barbarians at the Gate,” through to more recent moves toward a less confrontational style of merger. On the way, Tom namechecks Gordon Gecko. Of course.