I was probably the world’s worst children’s entertainer. I needed a Saturday job to earn money but played football on Sunday mornings and rugby on Saturday mornings. A friend had a business that did magic tricks for children’s parties and I could fit the job around the sport. No, I didn’t dress up as a clown. I might have been a bit of a clown, but I didn’t dress up as one! I was the person at whom the children shouted: ‘I know how you’re doing that trick!’
They gave you a Fisher Price magic set. My stage name was Roger because they already had a Michael. I’m amazed you managed to find out about this – I thought it was quite a well-kept secret!
My Wikipedia page? My eldest son set that up. He thought I needed a page so did it for a school IT project. That must have been 13 or 14 years ago. I don’t think I knew what Wikipedia was at the time. I haven’t looked at it for years. Has it been updated recently?
I support Watford because it’s walking distance from my house, local team. My brother has always been a Watford supporter, but I haven’t. I like all sports, but football has always been my favourite. It’s nice to have somewhere where you can pop down the road and it’s safe for the children – no crushes or fights.
Watford’s mascot, Harry the Hornet, provoked outrage when he pretended to dive, mocking Wilfried Zaha, who had been accused of diving. You know they’re losing the game when they focus on the mascot and not the team. His job is to promote Watford and get under the skin of the opposition, and he did. Harry once had a wife called Harriet the Hornet. Not sure what happened to her.
People have asked me why I wanted to be a lawyer and I can never remember. There was no one defining factor, but I think it was probably Dave Ereira’s fault. He was in the year above me at the same school. People said: ‘He’s going to Manchester to study law. You could do that.’ And I did. I blame Dave.
At Clifford Chance, when things weren’t going his way, a client of Martin Richards used to step up on the table and start stamping his feet. That was around 1980. I remember thinking: ‘This is dangerous. What if he falls on top of me?’ You always knew at some stage he would have an explosion.
Regrets? I don’t think like that. It’s not as if you can change it. The key is to try and learn from it. I sometimes think: ‘If I knew 20 years ago what I know now, my life could have been a lot calmer.’
I started out a long time ago. One of the biggest changes is law as a business. It’s much more about how to give the client what they want in the most efficient way. Back then, you tended to make profit because you were good and got decent work rather than working to maximise profit. There’s also the super-competitiveness now. Clients have so much choice. And they exercise it.
I was the world’s worst children’s entertainer. I needed a Saturday job. No, I didn’t dress up as a clown.
Being a lawyer is exciting. If things don’t change, they wither. You need to embrace change and learn to deal with it, take advantage of it, rather than be scared by it.
To be a good deal lawyer you need patience, calm and a lot of judgement. It’s not enough to know the technical side. It’s easy to lose your cool – it’s better not to. It’s good to remember you’re not the client. Some lawyers make it all about themselves when it should be all about the client.
I don’t internally feel stressed, although I might look it sometimes. You’ve got to come into work and enjoy it every day. I happen to have ended up doing something I love. I am very lucky.
My team would say I am very hard to get hold of, that they don’t get enough consistent interaction. It comes more in bursts.
Fiona Haigh [Weil, Gotshal & Manges’ London director of administration and strategy] sends me post-it notes before presentations saying: ‘Do not make jokes! You are the only one who thinks you are funny.’ I give a talk to partners every year. That always gets a few laughs. My wife says: ‘It must have been because your flies were undone.’ She’s got a better sense of humour than me – she has to live with me!
You know the Mark Twain quote, or misquote, ‘The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated’? Many years ago, it was at a time when a few people had left the firm, I got up to give a talk at a client seminar. I said: ‘Reports of Weil’s death are greatly exaggerated.’ A reporter misquoted me and printed something like: ‘Mike Francies says Weil is dead!’
Best and worst traits? I hope I’m fair, honest, consistent and open. Maybe too honest. I tend to over-engineer things. I like everything to be just so and you can’t always have that. It takes me time to trust people, but when I do, I trust them absolutely.
The best part of the job is doing the deals. Agreeing and signing them is very satisfying. It’s frustrating when you lose an auction. Doing the deal – nothing beats that.
Law is becoming much more of a team sport: people working together and clients being comfortable that it’s not all about one person.
Ten years ago, there weren’t as many firms that could do a big, complex deal. Now you need to think every day about what you’re offering that sets you apart. When I started, you could be more certain of relationships. Now you have to work at them. That’s as it should be.
The key thing is how you develop the younger partners to take over the firm. It’s vital.
What annoys me about lawyers? So many things! Self-importance. When the focus is on the lawyer on the other side instead of on the deal. People are pernickety – raising superfluous points. You want to shake them.
I have been very lucky. Victor Blank, Martin Richards, Jeremy Brownlow, Simon MacLachlan, Simon Burgess, Peter Brooks. If you couldn’t become a good corporate lawyer with these people around, I don’t know how you could. They are the gold standard of what I do. I learned by osmosis.
Martin Richards was an excellent technical lawyer and a great mentor for young lawyers. Simon MacLachlan knew that clients don’t want you to recite the law to them – you had to give them advice. Adam Signy is another good lawyer.
Chris Howard at Sullivan & Cromwell – a great lawyer. He would come up with something and you would think: ‘Wow! How did you think of that?’
It’s always good to see the good in people.
My grandchildren are my favourite way to unwind. Oh, I should also say my wife and children!
I’ve never been into hobbies. At one stage I decided I should collect stamps. I never looked at them – still have boxes of unopened first day covers!
I gave a talk saying: ‘Reports of Weil’s death are greatly exaggerated.’ A reporter misquoted me as: ‘Mike Francies says Weil is dead!’
My favourite band is the Beatles and my favourite song is American Pie. I like detective novels – Dick Francis, John Sandford. I like Harry Potter. I’ve been reading a lot of books about diversity at the moment.
Cabaret with Liza Minnelli has always been my favourite film. A Knight’s Tale is good too. Is it OK to say that?!
I admire people who have come through adversity and try to help people: Nelson Mandela is a very easy person to admire, Muhammad Ali, recognised as a great after being maligned for a lot of his life. I admire Graham Taylor, of course.
People are normally nice to me, but one incident stands out. When I was an articled clerk, we had just signed a deal. The partner on my side lost interest and left me to close it. David Lewis at Norton Rose was on the other side. He was incredibly helpful and kind. I thought: ‘That’s the way to behave.’ He later became Lord Mayor.
I am not a party animal. I tend to leave drinks events early. If anything ever got out of hand, I probably wasn’t there!
People looked at Stuart Popham when he was a young lawyer and said: ‘He’s going to be senior partner of Clifford Chance’. They looked at Barry Wolf when I joined and he was a young partner, and said: ‘He’s going to lead Weil.’ I’m impressed by that – people who have that extra charisma and leadership skill.
The biggest change is yet to come. We are finally on the way to becoming a diverse profession. It will be good for law to be in the 21st Century!
Mike Francies is London managing partner at Weil, Gotshal & Manges
nathalie.tidman@legalease.co.uk