Key clients: CVC Capital Partners, Charterhouse Capital Partners, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Middle East sovereign wealth funds
Partner since 2016
F1 is a big one for me [Hayes led on the Formula One sale to Liberty Media Corporation in September]. Particularly as a partner having tracked through the 2012 IPO attempt in Singapore. It’s a huge deal to do and one of great professional pride in the first few months of partnership.
Sky Bet for CVC [in 2015] was a transformational deal. It was the first mega-deal we’d done after Merlin Entertainments and Virgin Active.
We’ve got a very young partnership group. People at the same age and stage, the same energy levels – they’re dynamic and entrepreneurial. There’s a great flow of information across people talking about the deals they’re doing and what they’re seeing in the market. With that depth you get a fantastic range of experiences. As a new partner, that’s absolutely critical.
You just need to look at people like Julian Long, Piers Prichard Jones, Simon Marchant… and that’s names off the top of my head. Unquestionably, these are stars in the public M&A sphere, and that’s before you talk about Adrian Maguire and Olly Lazenby.
‘You’ve got to think about where clients are moving.’
Charles Hayes, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
Mark Rawlinson took me out to lunch on my first day of partnership. The key for me is to look at how someone like that has managed to maintain a busy practice over the years. You’ve got to be very flexible and keep thinking about where clients are moving.
Chris Bown was a real mentor. I worked closely with him for many, many years. A phenomenal lawyer and a great practitioner. Bruce Embley has been someone I look to for guidance.
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