Jonny Myers and Oliver Felsenstein (pictured), global co-heads of private equity at Clifford Chance (CC) speak to Legal Business about nurturing young talent, client relationships, and the strategy behind competitive US players.
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Jonny, you’re a seasoned private equity lawyer, why did you take a management role?
It’s a really exciting challenge and there’s lots to be done. I’m not worried that I’ll step away from fee earning – it doesn’t reduce my ability to do that at all – but the attractive part is creating strategy and growing the practice for the years ahead.
Have any of the private equity departures at CC diminished your client relations?
JM: CC’s clients are not dependent on any one individual running a relationship and at CC a young partner does not have to wait for the relationship partner to retire to take it over or develop it. We allow every partner and associate to develop a relationship with clients – otherwise our team would see themselves as a machine, endlessly servicing a partner.
Which firms are your competitors?
OF: Freshfields are our number one and only serious competitor in the Magic Circle.
What do you need to be a serious competitor in private equity?
OF: You need a certain geographical coverage – we’re lucky enough to have home grown people too. With lateral hires, there’s always a worry they won’t have the same philosophical thinking about business and the ethos of a firm. We’re not averse to hiring (Jonny and I are laterals, after all) but our main focus is to grow young talent and strengthen client relations through them.
If you look at the legal market ten years ago, it was CC, Ashurst, Travers Smith, Dickson Minto… now you have US firms and still us. We are still the one to beat.
Do you worry about the growth of US firms in this space?
OF: Only two or three US firms have long-term ambitions to be part of the global elite. Hiring star partners from other firms is the right strategy from the US perspective but whether it’s long term I don’t know. When I moved from Lovells ten years ago, I moved all my clients – this is much more difficult now as clients are more institutionalised. Just because a star partner leaves, it doesn’t mean clients will.
What trends do you predict in private equity?
JM: Increased growth of co-investment by fund investors. Also, industrial co-investors with people teaming together with private equity houses to create a competitive advantage on a sale process. That plays to our hand in that it’s more complex with a different series of relationships pulled together.
sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk