The Covenants for Beginners course is designed to provide participants with a clear, practical introduction to covenants in leveraged finance, starting from first principles and requiring no prior legal or documentation experience. The course explains what covenants are, why they exist, and what the parties on each side of a transaction are trying to achieve.

Participants will work through the full architecture of a covenant package, covering capital structure and credit support, the debt and liens covenants, restricted payments, asset sales, economic terms and change of control, and the reporting, default, and amendment provisions that govern the relationship over the life of a deal. The distinction between maintenance and incurrence covenants is addressed throughout, along with the different types of baskets and how each creates flexibility for the borrower.

Every module pairs the concepts with the documents themselves. Clause Labs put real covenant language in front of participants and walk through how to read it, while step-by-step modules provide a repeatable process for analyzing each covenant rather than a set of facts to memorize. Chapter quizzes run throughout, and a final exam covers the full course.

By the end of the course, participants will be able to read a covenant package with confidence, identify the restricted group, understand what a borrower can and cannot do, recognize where flexibility has been built in, and ask the right questions about a transaction. They'll have the vocabulary to engage with lawyers and senior colleagues on equal terms, and a framework that continues to build with every document they see.