From dating apps to entertainment venues, airports to music collections, there’s almost no industry left untouched by the multitrillion-dollar private equity market.
And, with these secretive organisations continuing to diversify their business into new asset classes such as infrastructure and credit, it’s an industry that is not only still changing but also still growing.
Global deal values totalled some $175bn in the second quarter of this year alone according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence, on top of the more than $2bn of dry powder still sitting uninvested. Little wonder these clients are so coveted by leading law firms, with new law firm entrants still piling into the London market in a bid to capture a share of the lucrative action.
Data from the Legal 500 shows just how much the law firm advisory market has shifted over the last 15 years, as US firms have followed their clients such as KKR and Blackstone across the pond, while also gaining traction with European houses.
The data shows that 71% of the leading individuals in premium PE now work in the London office of US firms, compared with 22% in 2009.
But, as PE houses have grown their business and expanded in London, it isn’t just the private practice PE market that has transformed. The in-house legal teams working within them have also expanded significantly, with the remit of the GCs leading these teams changing beyond all recognition over the last 15 years.
Gone are days spent simply shadowing deals teams and, in their place, are expanded remits that frequently see GCs being appointed partners in their firms and taking on top-level strategic roles within their own organisations – sometimes outside legal altogether. Meanwhile, these in-house leaders are also helping to drive change in the law firms they work with through demands around inclusion and service delivery.
In this issue we take a very deep dive into the world of private capital, interviewing the key players operating at the absolute top of the in-house legal market.
In our Private Equity Elite, London-based GCs at houses from KKR to Carlyle and Apollo to Bridgepoint share both their own personal stories and their thoughts on how the in-house legal role has changed over their careers, and how it is continuing to evolve in an increasingly complex and regulated world.
As we look at in our feature on women in PE, in an industry so notoriously dominated by white men with banking backgrounds, it’s notable that many of the GCs setting the pace in private equity right now are women.
It’s also notable that many of the male in-house lawyers we tried to speak to for the features that follow were uncharacteristically press-shy on this occasion.
As someone who’s been lucky (or unlucky) enough to have been covering the legal industry for a very long time, I honestly don’t think I’ve ever been so spoilt for choice when it comes to high-profile women to interview.
And with industry-leading GCs including Carlyle’s Heather Mitchell, KKR’s Susanna Berger, Apollo’s Seda Yalçinkaya, Cinven’s Babett Carrier and Bridgepoint’s Rachel Thompson among the voices offering their insight, there should be something here for everyone.
We hope you enjoy reading it.