I certainly didn’t have a burning desire to be a lawyer from the age of five years old. I definitely wasn’t one of those! I wanted to be an architect but you’ve got to be quite good at maths. I wasn’t.
My parents instilled in me a real work ethic from a young age and forced me to do lots of summer jobs where I learned the value of money. The worst one was probably working at Saxby’s pork pie factory. I was in charge of the jelly gun. Thousands of pork pies would come down a long conveyor belt and I had to put my gun in them and fill them with jelly. That was a challenging job to stay motivated in for sure. That probably put me off pork pies for life.
At university, I thought I wanted to be a barrister. But a few of my friends were doing summer schemes at Travers Smith and said it was brilliant: ‘You actually don’t do very much work; it’s all about going out for long lunches.’ I thought that probably played to my strengths.
I didn’t know anything about corporate law, partly because I had bunked off the summer term at law school to play lots of cricket. That was when we had our corporate law module. When I joined Travers I did a seat with Mark Soundy. Frankly, I couldn’t help but be impressed with his enthusiasm and his total dedication to the clients. An amazing individual.
Soon after I qualified, I was ‘volunteered’ to go to Travers’ Isle of Man office for six months to help with its closure, which basically involved issuing bills and legal opinions. It wasn’t the most intense few months, so I took the opportunity to read Tolley’s Company Law Handbook from cover to cover. Of course I have forgotten it all now, but for a while it stood me in good stead.
Chris Hale was the founding father of Travers’ private equity group. I learned from him that you need to be incredibly persistent and thick-skinned; that you’re not going to win every pitch. If you go out for lunch with someone, it may be ten lunches later that they eventually give you some work.
You need to be incredibly persistent and thick-skinned; you’re not going to win every pitch. If you go out for lunch with someone, it may be ten lunches later that they eventually give you some work.
I did most of my work as an associate with Charles Barter for Bridgepoint. He then became general counsel at Bridgepoint and I carried on working with him. He had an incredible sixth sense for picking up on complicated issues or points that were going to come out of nowhere, guessing what the key issues would be before anybody else had thought about them.
As a corporate lawyer you really don’t have to be that much of an expert in anything, because if something difficult comes up, like tax or employment or pensions, you just rope somebody else in. Your job is to oversee and facilitate, and make sure the client knows what’s going on in a very simple way. I thought that probably played to my lack of strengths.
One of the things that I’ve loved about a career in law is the opportunity to do some amazing client entertaining, lunches and completion dinners. There were some great ski trips back in the day. Spending time with clients in a non-work environment has been very valuable. When I was about a five-year PQE at Travers, I was sent on a ski trip that was really for private equity sponsors and a few advisers. I was one of only two or three lawyers on the trip and it was a marathon of socialising. I met on that trip a number of individuals who I kept in touch with, and then subsequently they became long-term clients of mine. I always say to associates that the key is to become friends with the clients at the same level as them. Over time they’ll be the ones who are appointing advisers or they’ll be moving and going somewhere else. Business development – Chris Hale was the master at that!
As a corporate lawyer you really don’t have to be that much of an expert in anything, because if something difficult comes up, like tax or employment or pensions, you just rope somebody else in.
Over so many years you get to know your own strengths and weaknesses. I’m very aware of my weaknesses. I am very driven. Very hardworking, probably to my detriment. I put my clients first at all times. I’m quite good at running a team. I hope that people who work for me know that I’ll be there to ensure that they’ve got the right support, while at the same time allowing them enough freedom to grow their careers. My main weakness is probably that I’m quite a hard taskmaster. I expect a lot from myself and I expect a lot from my team. To all of them reading this, I apologise!
I will never forget when we were advising 3i on the sale of Pinewood Studios, I was in the Travers Paris office at the time, and I was told to go to the George V Hotel to see the director Ridley Scott, to get him to sign various forms. He was doing a press conference for the opening of his latest film, Hannibal. Along I went to meet Ridley, and during our meeting there was a knock at the door and Anthony Hopkins comes in. Ridley says: ‘Sorry Anthony, I’m with my lawyer, you’ll have to leave.’ Ten minutes later, after Ridley had signed all the forms, he asked me to go and get Anthony and send him through. The famous actor looked at me and said: ‘Clearly that was all quite important stuff’, to which I had to say: ‘I’m not at liberty to divulge, I’m afraid!’ That’s been my only ever brush with fame.
I once went to Athens and Istanbul to visit local law firms with Ian Shawyer. We were in Istanbul on our last morning and I put my briefcase on the roof of the taxi and said to Ian: ‘Mustn’t forget that!’ Of course I did. I thought it didn’t really matter because nothing important was in it but it dawned on me that my passport and all our local currency was in the briefcase. Thankfully it turned out that it had flown off the taxi straight after it drove off and had been handed in at the hotel. I have to confess that I am rubbish at travelling. I lose everything. I feel sorry for my wife and for Ian Shawyer and anyone else that happens to travel with me, because getting me to a place and then back out of the country is fraught with difficulty.
One of the most difficult things in my career was leaving Travers Smith. I’d been there for over 20 years and I had a number of very good friends. That was a very big decision to make, and one that I found very difficult.
Clients will generally instruct you if they think that they’re going to get on with you. There are lots of very good lawyers in the City, but that’s kind of a given. The lawyer that will stand out will be the one who has a personal connection with the client and who is willing to make sacrifices.
My biggest achievement to date is probably proving to myself that I could succeed on a platform that wasn’t Travers. I feel a massive amount of gratitude to certain clients who have followed me to Latham and put their faith in this new home I’m in. I felt a real vindication of the move and I’m very proud of it. I was running the private equity group as co-head of corporate at Travers and at Latham, I’m not in a leadership role. That’s quite refreshing because it allows me to focus on client fee-earning work. I’m definitely enjoying not having the shackles of having to run a team and everything that goes with that.
I’m quite a hard taskmaster. I expect a lot from myself and I expect a lot from my team. To all of them reading this, I apologise!
Private equity is a small market in terms of the lawyers that operate in it and everyone’s got fairly long memories. I remember doing a deal when I was a senior associate with Matthew Layton on the other side. I remember him calling me and explaining how I’d missed a point and how I might want to do something a little bit differently on the drafting. And I’ve always remembered that he didn’t need to do that, but he was doing it because he was just a really nice guy. To this day I’ve always tried where possible to not score points. You’re dealing with people who are humans with their own pressures and families. What the client will remember is that deal closing and everybody being happy. And that won’t be the case if you have antagonised the other side.
I have two young daughters, six and five, so quite a lot of my time is spent going to the theatre and seeing plays like Frozen. I’m teaching my eldest daughter to ride her bicycle, and going to far too many children’s birthday parties. I love watching cricket, sadly not playing anymore. You’ll always find me at the Lord’s test match. I love spending time with my wife, who is long-suffering, but very understanding. I do occasionally try and watch the rugby internationals, but my daughters normally hate that.
There was a period in my career where I would probably cancel half of my holidays every year. I’m now more disciplined in taking my holidays; with young children you have to be.
Paul Dolman is a corporate partner at Latham & Watkins and is recognised in The Legal 500’s Hall of Fame for private equity
nathalietidman@legalease.co.uk
Portrait: Juan Trujillo