Time for a eurozone M&A Mac?

While everyone is hoping for a convincing resolution to the European debt crisis, corporate lawyers are increasingly faced with clients asking the question: what if a country does default on its debt and exit the euro?

"The answer is well into unchartered territory and extremely complex from a legal perspective," said one partner at a city law firm. "In particular because it's difficult to predict the impact of legislation that hasn't even been drafted yet."

New domestic legislation re-introducing a local currency would likely automatically convert euros into the new local currency and could significantly reduce the real value of affected assets and financial obligations.

This means lawyers are looking at a classically difficult risk scenario – a low risk of a very damaging event.

With such...