When M&A markets slowed down in the second half of 2022, the positive spin from dealmakers was that at least they got a little respite after the heady heights of the post-pandemic 2021 deal boom.

But when the lull continued and 2023 turned into a year that set all the wrong records in terms of deal values and volumes, any attempts at positive spin were a lot less convincing.

But now, at the halfway point in 2024 and with inflation falling, M&A partners are once again optimistic that things could be about to turn. Certainly, Q1 deal values suggest a market moving in the right direction, even if deal volumes are still lagging.

In the 2024 M&A Yearbook, in association with Taylor Wessing, we speak to leading corporate partners at UK and US firms to find out their thoughts on the year ahead and the way the prolonged slowdown in activity has changed the way deals have to be done in order to go ahead.

It’s a reality that Slaughter and May partners Victoria MacDuff and Richard Hilton grappled with when they advised on one of the biggest announced deals of 2023 – the planned £15bn combination of Vodafone and CK Hutchison’s Three. It’s a deal that will create the biggest mobile network in the UK, if it gets competition clearance. They tell Legal 500 London editor Cameron Purse all about their role for Vodafone.

With competition authorities around the world taking an increasingly aggressive stance towards M&A, and governments worldwide being more protectionist, it’s the perfect time for Legal 500’s US editor Barnaby Merrill to take an in-depth look at what’s happening in the world’s busiest M&A market – the US. He speaks with some of New York’s top antitrust lawyers in our feature.

Elsewhere, in ‘Stress test’ Elisha Juttla speaks to partners at firms from Milbank to Hogan Lovells and Freshfields to Simpson Thacher about the reality of a life under pressure and finds out their tips for staying calm in the midst of a deal. We also have a trio of interviews with market-leading M&A partners Jennifer Bethlehem at Freshfields, Melissa Fogarty at Clifford Chance and Lorenzo Corte at Skadden.

In addition we have updates from partner firms in Argentina, Belgium, the UK and the Philippines.

We hope you enjoy it!

Georgina Stanley

The post M&A Yearbook – Editor’s Letter appeared first on Legal Business.

If you knew nothing about City law and the gender diversity problems it has at senior levels, you certainly wouldn’t think there were any issues when reading our feature on dealmakers and stress.

In our in-depth feature, ‘Stress test’, we quote no fewer than five leading transactional lawyers who happen to be women. And four who happen to be men.

Now – shock publishing revelation here – as journalists we always try to ensure we’re being as diverse as possible in the people we quote, even if this means that the ratios don’t match the reality of the profession.

Feeling the weight of stress at work isn’t weak, it isn’t a personality flaw, and it isn’t incompatible with life as a successful deal lawyer.

In this instance though, we didn’t have to try. Because for this feature, multiple male dealmakers declined to speak to us about the stress of working on deals and how they cope with it. Thanks to HSF’s Gavin Davies, Latham’s Paul Dolman and McDermott’s Aymen Mahmoud and Chris Kandel for bucking the trend.

The line between long hours, stress and mental health is more than a little bit blurry, but it’s important to point out that this article focuses on how to cope with the chronic stress of transactional law across an entire career; not a mental health crisis.

But the latter can follow the former, even if the reasons for a crisis are likely to be far wider, as so tragically demonstrated by the death of Pinsents partner Vanessa Ford after a period of intense work on the Everton sale.

Of course, the adrenaline and excitement are what drive many M&A lawyers, but I just don’t accept that even the biggest deal junkie doesn’t sometimes find it all a little bit much – or at least need to fall back a few personal coping mechanisms.

Which is why, here at LB, we think it’s important to be open about this. Recent years have seen increasing numbers of lawyers bravely opening up about their own mental health struggles to show others that they’re not alone and that it is possible to be a successful lawyer while living with conditions such as depression or anxiety. (In fact two partners share their stories in this issue.)

But in the same way that anyone can experience both good and bad mental health, anyone can feel stressed by work – and, in all likelihood, at some point everyone will. It certainly isn’t more likely to affect any one gender or gender identity more than another.

So let’s not pretend. Feeling the weight of stress at work isn’t weak, it isn’t a personality flaw, and it isn’t incompatible with life as a successful deal lawyer – or indeed success in any other career. And nor is talking about it.

In fact, arguably those that do talk about it, seek help or devise their own coping mechanisms are in a stronger position to keep working under pressure than those that don’t.

Dealmaking at a top commercial law firm isn’t going to be a career path that works for everyone, but it’s a career that attracts huge numbers of new recruits year-after-year, with or without the new Magic Circle standard starting salary of £150k.

The profession owes it to those already working and those yet to start their careers not only to try to change things for the better in terms of client demands, but also to talk openly about what people feel and how to cope.

Only by doing that will lawyers of all levels be able to stop putting so much pressure on themselves to deliver perfectly at any cost.

georgina.stanley@legalease.co.uk

• For more, see Stress test – partners on how they deal with a life under pressure

The post Stressing the positives – why opening up about the demands of City life helps everyone appeared first on Legal Business.

Welcome to the first-ever Private Client Yearbook from The Legal 500 and Legal Business.

This supplement, in association with London firm Hunters Law, brings together analysis of the key issues in both family law and private wealth today, as well as interviews with leading figures in the market.

In a frank and open interview with Lucy Enright, one of the country’s top divorce lawyers, and Legal 500 family Hall of Famer Ayesha Vardag, talks about everything from her personal journey into family law, to her top cases, through to why she believes the post-pandemic work from home movement is bad for both the legal profession and mental health. Vardag’s fellow family Hall of Famer, Sandra Davis at Mishcon de Reya, also shares the highlights in her ‘incredible’ career with Enright.

Meanwhile, Baker McKenzie’s London wealth management head, and private client Hall of Famer, Ashley Crossley tells Isabel Caine about the importance of personal perseverance and resilience and why the UK private client market is readying for its biggest challenge yet – the potential abolition of the non-dom regime.

It’s a topic that is explored in great depth in ‘Planning for the unpredictable: navigating the private wealth market amid political uncertainty’, in which partners have their say on how high-net-worth clients in the UK can stay ahead of the curve ahead of the next General Election.

We also take a detailed look at how the law needs to change to better reflect the huge variety in what modern families look like today, with leading family lawyers having their say in ‘Breaking down silos: family law in the UK in 2024 and beyond’.

Elsewhere, we showcase the firms with the most Legal 500 private client rankings in the UK.

You can also find out what’s happening in private client law around the world in the articles from our partner firms in locations from Austria to India.

We hope you enjoy this first Private Client Yearbook, and we’d love to hear from readers about the burning issues you think we should be covering in future.

Please do get in touch if you’re keen to share ideas.

Georgina Stanley
Head of global research and reporting
georgina.stanley@legalease.co.uk

Return to the Private Client Yearbook contents

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Why did you decide to become a lawyer and – why tax?

I studied physics at university because I thought I was brilliant at maths. Then I hit the wall of my maths ability about two weeks into the degree so I decided I wanted to be a crusading criminal barrister. I then made the mistake of doing a mini-pupillage and, seeing how the criminal law impacts people’s lives, decided it wasn’t for me. Complete respect to people who can do that, but I can’t.

I then decided I wanted to be an IP litigator, and that the two best firms were Clifford Chance and Bird & Bird. Both firms binned my CV. By sheer luck, I managed to win a debating competition sponsored by CC, and then had dinner next to the senior partner. Fifteen years later, I discovered that the next morning he asked graduate recruitment to take my CV out of the bin and give me an interview.

My discovery of tax was equally haphazard. I was doing a seat in banking, which was fantastic, albeit I worked harder than at any other time in my life. My supervising partner, the wonderful Rob Lee, suggested I might do well in a tax seat. To my utter shock and horror, I enjoyed it and ended up qualifying into tax. It was something of a source of personal embarrassment for years. People would literally run away from me at parties if I said I was a tax lawyer. My wife claims it was only six months into our relationship that she found out what I did for a living. I have come to terms with that. Not sure if my wife has.

What were your career highlights at Clifford Chance?

The problem with being a tax lawyer is that the biggest obstacles you have to overcome are generally things that you can’t talk about. I have one exception. I was closely involved in structuring Citibank’s enforcement, acquisition, restructuring and eventual auction and sale of EMI. It was an amazing transaction for a whole host of reasons. And, even though it’s now 12 years ago, it’s probably the most fondly remembered transaction of my career. It had everything: a soap opera background, multiple difficult issues in multiple difficult jurisdictions, a wonderful client, brilliant colleagues and, ultimately, a great result for the client.

Aside from deals, the highlight is the partner made up to succeed to most of my practice, Jemma Dick. She’s amazing and deserves all the success she’s already achieved, one year in.

What makes a good tax lawyer?

Being good at tax is quite important. Other than that, I think it’s a mistake to think there is a particular set of skills, or personality type, that makes a successful tax lawyer. Chris Davies, Doug French, David Harkness and Jonathan Elman are the four tax partners I learnt the most from, and they are four very different people, with very different skillsets and personalities. What’s probably hard these days is to be a very reserved academic type, who isn’t comfortable with clients, and still make partner. That used to be possible but in the modern world I’m doubtful that it is. In many ways that’s a shame.

Why did you leave private practice?

It’s a pretty boring and clichéd story of reassessing priorities during a challenging lockdown. I realised that while I loved my job, I didn’t need to do it any longer from a financial point of view. That was an absurdly privileged position to be in, but if you’re doing something because you enjoy it and not for the money, then it’s not a job. It’s a hobby. And being head of tax at a City law firm is a really strange hobby. Quite a selfish one too. So, from the moment of that realisation, there wasn’t really a decision to make.

And what was the motivation for setting up Tax Policy Associates?

It would be easy to say that I did it to make a difference, to nudge tax policy in a slightly better direction, and to act as a corrective to what I think most tax lawyers see as a generally poor-quality public debate on tax.

I have a serious point that I very much believe, which is that it is indefensible that we tax employment income so much higher than self-employment income.

That’s all true, but my primary motivation was that I needed to continue to be a lawyer because psychologically I enjoy it, I’m good at it, and I think it’s good for me.

It was just a question of how exactly I’d do it. After lots of conversations with lots of different people, I concluded the best model would be one where I tap into all of the friends and contacts I had made over 25 years in practice. So I’d always be working in association with other people who would usually have more subject matter expertise than I did. That was the idea behind Tax Policy Associates.

What do you regard as your biggest accomplishment at TPA and why?

Identifying that there was a serious tax problem with the compensation for the victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal, and being part of the campaign to fix it. That ended up with the government agreeing to fund about £36m pounds of ‘top-up’ payments to postmasters to undo the tax mess the Post Office had dumped them in. Many other campaigners and MPs were also involved, and we were pushing at an open door: full credit to Kevin Hollinrake, the responsible Minister, who responded within hours of our first report on the subject to say that the government would act.

What prompted your decision to look into the affairs of Nadhim Zahawi?

I got onto Zahawi because I’d been looking into reports that various other Conservative Party leadership contenders had avoided tax. These reports were rubbish and I was getting a little bored of that when The Independent ran an incredible front page saying that Zahawi had been the subject of investigations by HMRC and the National Crime Agency. This was just after he was appointed Chancellor.

The unusual thing about Zahawi was that YouGov, which we thought was his main source of wealth, had been listed years earlier. So there was an amazing quantity of high quality legal and accounting documentation on the history of YouGov (thank you, Mishcon de Reya, for a really high-quality piece of work). This let me put the pieces together in much the same way as if I was looking at a transaction for a client. And just as one occasionally looks at a transaction and immediately sees a problem, I immediately saw that there was something very strange going on. That initial review only took half a day. Proving it by going through all of the historic documentation took rather longer and involved many more people.

Were there moments when you regretted your decision to stand firm and publish Osborne Clarke’s letter?

When I first received the Osborne Clarke threat and had an initial discussion with defamation counsel, my wife and I were definitely concerned about the potential to lose a year of my life and hundreds of thousands of pounds if we won a libel suit. Potentially millions if we lost.

But we both decided quite quickly, and after speaking to a lot of very experienced tax people, that Zahawi was bluffing. There were so many highly questionable elements of his financial affairs that it seemed inconceivable that he would be willing to provide disclosure or be cross-examined. So it was just a legal game and I am a very bad person to challenge to a legal game.

How do your former private practice colleagues feel about your calls for HMRC to tax partners in law firms and other professional services firms in the same way as employees?

I confess to having been slightly provocative here. I have a serious point that I very much believe though, which is that it is indefensible that we tax employment income so much higher than self-employment income. That should absolutely be fixed and law firm partners and plumbers should be taxed in the same way as bankers and teachers. That would be more fair and it would also eliminate what is currently a huge distortion that creates uncertainty, tax avoidance and tax evasion.

It’s politically difficult, but can be done, for example staged over a ten year period, with national insurance dropping by 1% every year, and income tax going up by (probably) around 0.8%. Eventually eliminating employer’s national insurance as well. For most people, that would be a rise in take-home pay. For law firm partners, a slight decrease – but I reckon they can live with it. I’m confident the profession is 100% behind me on this.

Would you ever return to private practice?

I loved private practice, but I think that’s now behind me.

What are your next goals at TPA?

I’m trying to continue to highlight what I think is a very serious – and under-reported – problem of HMRC automated late-filing penalties being issued to hundreds of thousands of people on incomes so low that they don’t actually have any tax to pay. Often, these are people with difficult lives, in difficult circumstances, and the state should be supporting them – not making their financial circumstances even worse. My goal is to change that, and return to how things were before 2011, when late filing penalties were capped at the amount of tax due.

What new hobbies have you taken up since leaving CC and moving to the countryside?

Growing tomatoes.

What do you think is the single biggest change that needs to happen in the UK tax system and why?

Tax exemption for tomato growers.

Dan Neidle founded Tax Policy Associates after retiring from Clifford Chance in May 2022.

georgina.stanley@legal500.com

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Why did you want to be a deals lawyer and has it delivered what you expected?

I like to be at the hub of things, not on the periphery. I’m not the kind of lawyer who just likes to write things up – I prefer dynamic situations. I love the energy involved in transactions and the work has really suited me. The deals we do are transformational, so we end up meeting the most senior and talented people in companies. It’s a great privilege to be able to shape their deals.

What are the top three deals of your career and why?

Thinking back makes me appreciate how fortunate I have been to get involved in so many fascinating deals alongside some amazing people. The deals that stick in the mind aren’t necessarily the biggest ones.

I led the bid defence for the M&S hostile takeover bid by Philip Green. It had everything. It was hugely high profile and saw some of the most innovative bid-defence tactics that had ever been used including, of course, the Freshfields injunction – because of conflict of interest and confidential information issues. Getting that injunction was a really big thing. It was important to the reputation of both firms. The stakes were very high – if we had failed it might have meant an abrupt end to my legal career! And it was also the moment for the top team at M&S to show their teeth and put down a marker that they would fight for independence. It shows the influence that lawyers can have – that deal wouldn’t have been successful without the lawyers. As that realisation grows within a client, it is very rewarding.

The hostile bid for Charter by Melrose in 2011 was a hugely successful deal for our client and its shareholders as we successfully deployed a white-knight defence. I can’t reveal too much about this one except that there were shenanigans by a financial adviser that led to a pretty heavy situation. Those who were involved know that there were some career-threatening moments.

The NSF hostile takeover offer for Provident Financial in 2019 was an audacious bid by my tiny client NSF and, sadly, we snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Despite losing, the deal had everything – twists and turns, and the people in the client and internal teams were amazing.

And which deal has been the most memorable – for the wrong reasons?

The year before the M&S deal – Hugh Osmond – the entrepreneur and tycoon, launched a hostile takeover of Six Continents, which was conditional on Six Continents – which owned InterContinental Hotels and Mitchells & Butlers – not demerging. The general meeting came for shareholders to approve the demerger at the QEII Centre and, when the CEO left the stage, the podium was taken away by two men in brown coats before Hugh got to make his speech, so I went to grab it and carry it back. Hugh then delivered a withering speech while looking down on the 6C board from the podium. It was memorable for the wrong reasons, because I knew two of the directors who were distinctly unimpressed with me, and because I had tweaked my back – it has never been the same since.

How has the role of an M&A lawyer changed over the last 35 years?

The role of an M&A lawyer hasn’t really changed too much except that deals are more complicated and more highly regulated than they ever were, so the role of the lawyer is critical. The best M&A lawyers have really stepped up to play a key role at the client’s right arm that was previously occupied by investment bankers.

What’s been the biggest change at Slaughters since you joined?

Sitting in a T-shirt doing Teams calls from home. During a full partners’ meeting in lockdown, I managed to forget I was on camera and got up and went over to my pool table to play some shots. I got some good tips from partners on my cueing action but it was very embarrassing! Also technology – it’s definitely made the role of the lawyer easier, being able to work from anywhere. It is a double-edged sword, though, as it means you’re always on. Every holiday I’ve ever had has been interrupted… I try to find places without much signal!

I managed to forget I was on camera and got up and went over to my pool table to play some shots. I got some good tips from partners on my cueing action but it was very embarrassing!

What have you enjoyed most about your career at Slaughters and being an M&A partner?

The growing realisation from clients that an M&A lawyer isn’t just there to do the documents but has such a lot of value to contribute. Doing it at Slaughters meant I’ve always had incredible resources of talented people who can make me look really good. You can’t really do M&A alone – it is all about teams. I was so lucky to get into Slaughters. It’s an amazing platform and gave me the opportunity to advise people at the top of the tree, work out what makes them tick and learn from them.

What advice would you give your younger self with the benefit of hindsight?

I’m a strong believer that you won’t be the best lawyer you can be if you sacrifice having a normal life. Few clients want to work repeatedly with someone with no interests – they’re looking for someone fun and engaging.

But it’s really hard to find that balance – you have to be strategic in carving out serious amounts of time for your family and your pursuits and interests – if you don’t schedule that, you’ll have problems. No success in your career will compensate for a broken family life. It’s a long career – anyone can work intensively hard for three months but not 35 years.

Also, don’t be over-awed by those ridiculously posh accents you hear in law firm corridors – remind yourself that people from elite and privileged backgrounds may have a headstart but it doesn’t mean they are better.

And what advice would you give those who want to get to where you have?

Make a plan to find a proper work-life balance.

Lay the foundations for your career – you won’t get anywhere as an M&A lawyer without hard work, hunger and drive.

Use your EQ – find out what your clients really need and stop at nothing to get it for them. Put yourself in their shoes.

Show personality – be fun and engaging so clients want to work with you.

Work on your resilience. The job of an M&A lawyer is a rollercoaster – there are good days and bad, fun days and hard work days but you need to stay on a level. Don’t stop too long to pat yourself on the back but equally don’t be too tough on yourself when you make mistakes – learn from them.

What are you going to do next?

I’m going to leave the law entirely. I’ve been doing M&A for 35 years and I’m looking forward to time off for travel, tennis, live bands and wildlife. That’s been my huge passion since I was a little kid. I’ve kept it going and I want to study ecology. I want to do the muddy boots work and rewilding projects – helping conservation groups acquire huge areas of land and restore them to nature. I want to challenge myself to learn those practical skills too.

How do you reconcile that love of ecology and nature with working with clients who may be oil majors or similar?

It’s so important that we are ethical when accepting new business and that we believe in the integrity of our clients. I’ve always been proud that Slaughters is at the super-selective end when taking on new relationships. But it can be hard to draw the line, especially if it comes to judging our clients’ products. Lawyers have to proceed with care here, as if we were too selective we wouldn’t have many clients and we would lose the chance to help them transition to more sustainable practices. The energy market is the obvious example.

What do you think Slaughters will look like in another 35 years?

Slaughters is a much more nimble and progressive place than it’s portrayed to be. The people here will just find smart ways to continue to adapt to the market. Legal tech will eventually mean a need for fewer junior lawyers doing mundane tasks but we will still need large numbers of talented lawyers to advise on the complicated high-end work we do. Slaughters has a real loyalty in its partnership culture. Everyone here bleeds Slaughter and May purple so, as long as that’s the case, the firm is in good hands.

What do you think is the most important change that needs to happen in City law?

Social mobility – City law is still the domain of people from elite backgrounds, from wealthy homes and exclusive fee-paying schools. It hasn’t really changed in my 35 years. Promoting the sister of a posh white guy isn’t really a breakthrough. The breakthrough will be people from less privileged backgrounds seeing law as a career that is open to them.

M&A heavyweight Andy Ryde retired at the end of April after 35 years with Slaughter and May, including eight years heading the firm’s illustrious corporate and M&A practice.

georgina.stanley@legalease.co.uk

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More than 1,100 law firms have secured spots in the latest UK Legal 500 rankings, which rank the best law firms and lawyers across the nation.

The Legal 500 UK Solicitors 2023 rankings, which launched yesterday (28 September) after months of extensive analysis of the UK legal market involving thousands of interviews, show 1,119 firms have achieved rankings, 550 of which are ranked in London.

In total, there are 9,419 practice rankings this year, nearly half (4,291) of which are in the capital.

On top of the practice rankings, there are almost 11,000 rankings for individual lawyers, with some 2,000 rising star associate rankings identified, with the remaining lawyer rankings spread across partners of all levels of seniority.

Pinsent Masons, DLA Piper, Eversheds Sutherland and CMS have the most practice rankings in the UK guide, with more than 200 apiece.

Herbert Smith Freehills tops the table of firms with most practice rankings in London, closely followed by DLA, Pinsents, Hogan Lovells and Norton Rose Fulbright.

Clifford Chance has the most individual lawyer rankings in London, with HSF and Allen & Overy also achieving more than 160 each.

The 2023 research includes more than 600 promotions in the practice rankings, with DWF, Shoosmiths and Addleshaw Goddard achieving the highest number of promotions.

Almost 300 up-and-coming firms to watch rankings have also been identified as part of the latest research, which is used by GCs and in-house counsel to inform decisions on external lawyers as well as by law firms to benchmark their performance against peers.

More than 300,000 clients are surveyed and interviewed globally every year as part of the Legal 500 Series research, with more than 40,000 clients taking part in the UK research alone.

Georgina.Stanley@legal500.com

The post Clifford Chance, HSF and A&O score most individual lawyer rankings in London as Legal 500 2023 Solicitors Guide launches appeared first on Legal Business.

It’s no secret that the M&A markets have been busier than ever of the last 18 months. Here, UK Legal 500 editor Georgina Stanley asked some of those set to dominate the City deal market over the next ten years to take a short break from their negotiations to share their tips for success. All ten of the lawyers featured over the coming pages have demonstrated the client relationship and transactional skills required to secure their spots as Next Generation M&A partners in the UK Legal 500 2022. From the deals that have defined their careers, through to the importance of staying calm in a crisis and the growing significance of ESG considerations and legal tech, they offer their insight into the profession and its future.

Partner profiles

Sally Wokes, Slaughter and May – partner since 2015

Murray Cox, Weil – partner since 2016

Hyder Jumabhoy, White & Case – partner since 2019

Claire Coppel, Allen & Overy – partner since 2020

Alex Tilley, Allen & Overy – partner since 2020

Derek Tong, Linklaters – partner since 2019

Fionnghuala (Finn) Griggs, Linklaters – partner since 2017

Katherine Moir, Clifford Chance – partner since 2016

Caroline Rae, Herbert Smith Freehills – partner since 2016

Nick Withers, Shearman & Sterling – partner since 2020

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As the world watches the battle rage in Ukraine, talking about gender inequality risks coming across as somewhat trite. But with women and children making up the overwhelming majority of the more than one million people displaced by the invasion so far, this year’s International Women’s Day has a pointed resonance. Everyone suffers during war, but women and girls are notoriously vulnerable to its impact, both physically and economically. The images of those flooding out of Ukraine to seek sanctuary elsewhere only serves to highlight this.

We’ve therefore taken the decision to still mark International Women’s Day and its #BreakTheBias message, as gender equality still needs to be fought for across all industries, including law and politics, and progress made still needs to be celebrated.

Whether you’re looking at London, New York or Frankfurt, it’s no secret that the commercial legal market has lagged other industries in terms of representation of women – particularly at the senior end. The Legal 500 rankings have inevitably faced similar challenges, with efforts to improve diversity hampered by gender representation within the profession itself, as well as, potentially, past unconscious bias within the market.

For the past three years we’ve been making a concerted effort to fix things – increasing the number of women and minority lawyers included at all levels of our rankings.

You can see the results in guides such as the UK, where the number of women we recognise has increased significantly. Women now make up almost 40% of the roughly 11,000 lawyers recognised in the UK Solicitors Guide, with the number of women included in our London rankings increasing year-on-year in almost 100 of our 126 practice areas.

And, as we’ve publicly stated, our efforts to improve representation of all forms within our rankings in the UK and elsewhere are still a work in progress – particularly when it comes to ethnicity. We are fully committed to ensuring further improvement.

Here though, for International Women’s Day 2022, we have decided to celebrate some of the talented women already included in our individual rankings around the world. Regardless of practice or geography, all of these women have established their positions at the very top of the market, securing the praise of peers and clients alike. For diversity of opinion we have included some younger, next generation partners as well as leading individuals.

LONDON

Denise Gibson, Allen & Overy, Leading Individual – Acquisition Finance

Farah O’Brien – Corporate co-chair, Latham & Watkins London; leading individual, premium M&A

Akima Paul Lambert, dispute resolution partner, Hogan Lovells – next generation partner, commercial litigation – premium

THE US

Barbara L. Becker, chair & managing partner, Gibson Dunn, New York

Perlette Jura, Gibson Dunn, Los Angeles – disputes

SPAIN

Teresa Zueco, managing partner, Squire Patton Boggs in Madrid

GERMANY

Patricia Volhard, Debevoise & Plimpton, Frankfurt and London – leading individual investment funds, Germany

FRANCE

Agnes Rossi – Simmons & Simmons, Paris; Next Generation Partner – Fund Formation

ASIA-PACIFIC

Swee Yen Koh, WongPartnership – leading individual – Singapore International Arbitration

May Tai, managing partner, HSF Asia and Kathryn Sanger, Hong Kong

Kathryn Sanger, Leading Individual, Hong Kong – International Arbitration

The post ‘Get the credit you deserve’ – top female partners on breaking biases and inspiring role models appeared first on Legal Business.

Which woman most inspired you in your legal career and why?

I don’t think I could put it down to one single woman! There have been many. In more recent years, as I have been navigating my way as a more senior woman in the industry, I have been very inspired and supported by Karen Seward – the Global Head of Litigation at A&O. She faces the industry (and the world) with an authenticity that smacks you in the face. She has done much to raise the profiles and improve the experiences of those that come behind her and to call out anything and anyone that compromises the values that we aspire to as a firm.

And from afar – I developed a total girl crush on the late Lady Barbara Judge after seeing her speak at a book launch for “The Female Lead”. She was fierce! Totally inspiring, funny, unashamed and very much ahead of her times. I have read a number of her lessons… but I like the sentiment “Don’t get too hung about being a woman. Just be a woman.”

What advice do you now have for aspiring lawyers?

The first – be true to yourself. It sounds cheesy and trite but this profession requires a huge level of commitment and so if you are exerting emotional energy trying to bury who you are at work, you are unlikely to have enough capacity left to be truly exceptional. Plus it isn’t much fun and the industry is benefiting and will continue to benefit from more diverse practitioners in every sense of the world – so you are doing us all a favour by bringing your true self to work.

The second – be open to every opportunity – when doors open, walk through them! I can honestly say I haven’t spent much time in my career being “comfortable” cause once it gets too comfortable it probably means you are ready for the next adventure!

This year’s IWD theme is ‘#BreakTheBias’ on gender inequality, discrimination and stereotypes – how biased is the City commercial legal market these days and what is the biggest change that still needs to happen in your view?

I would like to say that there is no bias but the lack of female representation at the top of the profession tells its own story. There are no doubt outdated stereotypes that we need to address, but I am seeing real progress. The women are rising through the ranks, for example at A&O the 50% women we see at entry level is now true at senior associate level, something we would not have been able to say 5 years ago. I’m optimistic that these women will continue to rise to the most senior levels and change the face of the profession. To make this happen we need to continue to address bias wherever we see it. For me one of the most important biases we can address is around parenting. Our men are parents too and we need to ditch the old stereotypes of women as caregivers and men as breadwinners. Many firms (ours included) have policies that facilitate a sharing of the responsibilities and our practices are moving in the right direction, but there is still a way to go. I hope that by the time my daughters are starting out in their own careers, this bias will be a thing of the past.

The post International Women’s Day 2022: Denise Gibson, Allen & Overy, Leading Individual – Acquisition Finance appeared first on Legal Business.

Which woman most inspired you in your career and why?

I haven’t had one role model instrumental to my career but there have been lots of different people I’ve looked up to. In particular, some of the women who were partners before me at Latham – Lene Malthasen , Jocelyn Seitzman, Gail Crawford and Catherine Drinnan who was deputy office managing partner and had a clear leadership position.

What advice would you give to aspiring female lawyers?

There is no one way to have a successful career, you should seek inspiration from lots of people in different ways and see what works for you.

This year’s IWD theme is ‘#BreakTheBias’ on gender inequality, discrimination and stereotypes – how biased is the City commercial legal market these days and what is the change that most needs to happen?

It’s unrecognisable from when I first started practising. It’s improved to such an extent that I will now notice if a meeting is all male. I think it’s been driven by the huge increase in women in leadership positions at clients who require more diversity in their legal teams. But progress is still quite slow – particularly in areas like M&A or PE, where the numbers are worse than they should be. I think it will shift over time but the question is how do we speed up the pace of change? If it continues at this pace we’ll still have a long way to go in another 20 years.

The post International Women’s Day 2022: Farah O’Brien – Corporate co-chair, Latham & Watkins London; leading individual, premium M&A appeared first on Legal Business.