In three short years we’ve taken our presence in the Private Equity market from relatively small to substantial, with such rapid growth accelerated by a surge in the size and expertise of our team across the globe, success with key, priority and new clients, and increases in both top and bottom line performance.

This growth that shows little sign of abating – a clear sign of the success of our 2020 vision. It established Private Equity as one of our four key Industry Groups, advising financial sponsors in their investments, divestments and financing.

Global Co-Head of the Private Equity Industry Group Oliver Brahmst explains: “While industries such as oil and gas and financial institutions have been cornerstones of the Firm for decades, our position in the private equity market had been pretty low key in comparison.

“But the creation of the industry group has had a dramatic effect, increased our focus, and is driving things forward.

“It’s been about building Private Equity into the Firm’s DNA and changing the perception so that people see Private Equity as an industry covering a broad range of complex legal services, not simply a practice.”

“What we’ve achieved over the past three years is phenomenal. It’s marked an absolute sea change in the way the Firm approaches Private Equity.”
IAN BAGSHAW, GLOBAL CO-HEAD

Laying the foundations

Part of the formalization of the industry group structure involved the creation of sub-product lines, called “Pillars”, with one for each type of significant financial sponsor segment our team covers.

These Pillars include: Plain Vanilla Private Equity, Alternative Capital Providers, Infrastructure, Sovereign Wealth Funds and Family Office.

In addition, the Industry Group covers customers in additional sponsor segments such as real estate, tech and oil and gas.

Global Co-Head Ian Bagshaw explains: “These Pillars are allowing us to create a sense of focus, ownership and empowerment for the teams responsible for each individual client group, without compromising our position as one global team.

“Our vision for the group is to build a modern global financial sponsor practice with consistent client focus and spread across all key regions, with an emphasis on large client relationships.

“What we’ve achieved over the past three years is phenomenal. It’s marked an absolute sea change in the way the Firm approaches Private Equity.

“As a result we are still near the beginning of a long-term project, but the foundation has been laid and we have created a lot of momentum, and a growing reputation in the sector, that we now need to build on.”

Building our team

Rapid growth in the industry group has only been possible thanks to substantial investment in building the team globally, with investment strategically focused on the key Private Equity markets where deals are done.

This has translated into the London team growing from three partners to 14 in 2017, the creation of our team in Stockholm to lead activity in the Nordics, plus key hires and promotions in Germany, Italy and the Czech Republic.

Asia has also expanded rapidly, with multiples in Hong Kong, Seoul and Beijing.

Growing the US team is proving slower because it’s a tougher market for recruiting the level of talent the group is looking for, but we’re still stronger and larger in the United States than we ever have been and the Firm is aiming to complete key catalyst hires in the near future and has just internally promoted two partners in New York, Luke Laumann and Frank Lupinacci.

Oliver says: “Our overall 2020 strategic vision is to be the No.1 sponsor practice law firm in terms of market share, profitability, overall size and reputation in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and Asia, and No.2 in the United States. Recent ranking improvements have seen us make definitive progress towards that goal.”

The team is aiming to maintain a 10%+ growth rate through to 2020 by expanding existing relationships and building new ones, particularly with US-based sponsors who invest not only in the United States, but globally.

Meaningful relationships

Building reputation and trust with key clients has been a top priority, achieved by matching the right talent to the right client.

“This is about delivering full-circle advice to Private Equity sponsors,” explains Oliver. “It involves working closely with our clients to deliver outstanding legal advice throughout the investment process – through initial transaction, ownership and on to exit.

“For example, we have also developed an independently recognized private equity portfolio company service offering, rolled out in the United States and UK and throughout Europe, to support the relationship between sponsor and portfolio company and service portfolio companies as a one-stop-shop.

“A prime example of this is our lead counsel role in the US$1.3 billion acquisition of AVG Technologies by Avast Software, a portfolio company of CVC Capital Partners, one of our key clients.”

This sees us continue to advise the portfolio company and sponsor after an acquisition has completed during a 100-day plan where we help them get things like the right capital structure, management team, etc, in place.

Ian explains: “This approach helps the client during an important period and it also helps us, by beginning to turn our relationship from one of a business partner to that of a truly trusted partner of choice.

“These are significant mandates in their own right but, by building a closer relationship and understanding and becoming embedded in their business, if we do a good job it makes us the natural choice when they decide to exit.”

The portfolio program concept was recognized by the Financial Times Innovative Lawyers 2014 and 2015 Reports by winning the award for “Commendation for Client Service”.