My dad is a Marxist. Imagine how he felt when I became a City solicitor and married a banker. He might have brought that up in his wedding speech!
I decided to study law when I was 11 or 12. I thought it would be nice to be a lawyer. I envisaged courtroom law. My family couldn’t believe I didn’t do a PhD or become a barrister.
I considered other careers. I thought about music, maths and being a doctor. There are doctors in my family. The husband of my aunt said: ‘You can’t do that! Doctors keep very long hours. You’ll have to work through the night.’ Exactly what I ended up doing as a lawyer. His niece went to work at Clifford Chance too.
Ending up in the City was an accident. I did a summer scheme at Nabarro Nathanson and then Norton Rose. It was a slower pace, life back then as a trainee. I thought it quite glamorous. You could go off for a G&T at lunchtime. Now it’s not the same, although it’s a lot of fun and there is a big social side.
I got the job at CC the week before I turned 21. At four-and-a-half years qualified the opportunity of a secondment came up at Macquarie. Secondments were not so common in those days, especially in private equity. At the time I was working on endless auction bids with Matthew Layton for Permira. I wanted a change.
Macquarie was an exciting institution. It made the news at the time because it wanted to take over the London Stock Exchange. I got to work on consortia deals with multiple investors, which rarely came up in those days. Deals like the Thames Water and Southern Water sale. Very exciting. I was only supposed to be there for six months.
Phil Peters persuaded me to stay on as a banker. I surprised myself by joining. I did business plans and execution and I still have that role. It was a learning curve and I liked it.
Ultimately, the role became more about marketing to investors and less about doing deals, and I missed the intellectual challenges of being a lawyer. Every deal has its own challenges, things to resolve.
There have been several standout moments along the way. I did spinouts for HSBC – it was complicated and there were regulatory and pension hurdles. I delivered it by myself. That was a moment – not just a vanilla PE buyout. The Santander buyout – very complicated. The team formed Cubico, which went on to be a client.
You need to meet the deal team and advisers face to face. Always meet clients, even if it’s not through a negotiation. It’s important to get to know them and understand them.
A lot of it has been luck, even going into private equity. I missed the deadline for choosing the seats. I was disappointed.
Doing the deals is still my favourite part. Every deal has its bumps. I like getting through those and reaching a satisfactory outcome. I like the combination of argument and reasoning – going through those steps to reach a result.
I have been very lucky going to CC. A lot of it has been luck, even going into private equity. Before I started, I never got my folder with the practice areas you could choose and missed the deadline for choosing the seats. I was disappointed at the time. I wanted to do front-of-the-FT takeovers. The team I joined was called venture capital.
A good M&A partner? Be thorough and well prepared. You need to understand the whole transaction and the people. People react differently and have different agendas. Think about the clients and the risk to their business – you’ve got to guide them through those risks.
You need strong relationships. Clients need to trust you. People look at you and how you are perceived.
Teams are important. There is too much emphasis on individual personalities. If you have a strong network around the world, the personalities sit on the reputation of the team.
I think I have a very good life. I have an active social life. I’m focused on family. We have a house by the sea. We go paddle boarding. I take my daughter kayaking. I like going to the theatre and the ballet. I do a lot of eating out. I prioritise holidays.
I’m taking a mini-sabbatical – six weeks. I’m taking my six-year-old daughter to the Galapagos. We’re going to Quito to see the hummingbirds. We’re taking a cruise around the Galapagos, then to New York and then driving through California, and a two-week trip with my sister and her family in the south of France.
When I came back from maternity leave I was signing a deal within about two days, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to settle back in when I come back!
Phil Peters at Macquarie inspires me. A brilliant manager of bankers – not the easiest people to manage – and an incredibly nice guy. Great fun and very supportive. He’s a great person to know.
One of my clients, KKR, held a summer party and they had Ben Fogle. Always liked him. A lovely guy but has a very different approach to risk than me. One of his oxygen tanks exploded when he was climbing Everest. He thinks we live in too much of a controlled environment and that everyone should explore risk. I have absolutely no desire to climb Everest [laughs].
My best quality is I’m enthusiastic and resilient. I get knocked down and I get up again. Like the song [Chumbawamba’s 1997 anthem Tubthumping]. I do everything to the best of my ability and I enjoy it.
Adele’s music isn’t allowed in my house. My nanny was babysitting for Robbie Williams and Adele poached her. It was a disaster!
I try to say no to more things. You only have a finite amount of time, but I also have a huge fear of missing out and end up burning the candle at both ends.
I love yoga. It’s invigorating, mentally and physically. Yoga and paddle boarding are relaxing, like sleeping or watching TV, but you’re still exerting yourself. It’s therapeutic.
I took clients to see The Ferryman [the 2017 Jez Butterworth play]. It was amazing. Brought me back to the troubles in Ireland and the effect it has on your psyche. With Brexit, I instantly thought about what it would mean for Anglo-Irish relations. That was the narrative on the news every day when I was growing up in Galway.
I Know How She Does It by Laura Vanderkam is a great book. It’s all about prioritising important things. Overturns the idea that you can’t have a successful career and be a mother. You have 168 hours a week. People have time. If you want to run a marathon, don’t say you don’t have time. Use the five hours a week you would have watched Netflix to train instead.
Life in Pieces [the US sitcom] is hilarious. They don’t make comedies any more. I’m sick of watching violence. Films, I like Paris, Texas, Running on Empty and The Godfather trilogy, but I rarely go to the cinema. I don’t want to listen to someone crunching popcorn. The screens at home are better quality!
You are in you element in your early 40s. I’m excited by that. I want to continue developing my practice and the team, solidifying relationships with clients. I’m desperately trying to resist management. I just want to be a lawyer.
There are a lot more pre-emptive bids. That’s been a growing trend over the last year. You don’t follow the seller’s process. You do everything at a million miles an hour. Everything is so competitive. The way to win a deal is to do it quicker than other bidders. It’s a way to succeed at getting trophy assets. There’s a lot of equity and debt. It’s very much a seller’s market.
Adele’s music isn’t allowed in my house. She stole my nanny! Our nanny was doing some babysitting for Robbie Williams and she met Adele at his house. Adele poached her. It was a disaster! A busy time in the run-up to Christmas. You know the Adele song Someone Like You? When the nanny left, my friends kept saying: ‘Never mind, you’ll find someone like her’… ! I had a sense of humour failure for a long time.
Do something you enjoy, but realise you won’t enjoy it if you don’t give it your all. You need to spend a lot of time to be great at it. Success is never a fluke. Put time, energy and dedication into everything and surround yourself with people who encourage that.
Amy Mahon is a partner in the M&A team of Clifford Chance
nathalie.tidman@legalease.co.uk