The LB100 results for 2023-24 are in, and while the demise of the mid-market has been long forecast, the numbers suggest it’s a good time to be a medium-sized law firm.
With average revenue growth of 10%, this firms in the 51-100 bracket are well up on last year’s equivalent performance of 6% and keeping pace with the overall average, while they are also are outpacing the top 20, which this year saw average growth of 8%.
Lucie Cawood, the head of Travers Smith’s private equity and financial sponsors group, has left the firm, marking the latest in a series of exits from the City firm’s transactional practices.
Cawood has led the firm’s PE group since January 2023, when she succeeded Ian Shawyer, following his move to Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton. She has spent over 20 years at the firm, making partner in 2012, and was also on the firm’s diversity and inclusion board.
Recent key deals she has been involved in include co-leading on Inflexion’s £342m take-private of DWF last year alongside corporate partners Richard Spedding and Ben Lowen.
In a statement, the firm said that she had decided to retire from the partnership to focus on her family. She will be replaced as practice head by Will Yates, has been at the firm since 2007, making partner in 2015.
Cawood’s departure is another blow for Travers’ private equity practice, which saw the double departure of partners Ian Keefe and George Weavil to Goodwin this spring. Other recent departures include Genna Marten, who joined Linklaters in March 2023, and James Renahan, who moved to Fried Frank in mid-2022, as well as Shawyer’s predecessor as practice head, Paul Dolman, who left for Latham & Watkins in 2021.
Eight partners remain in the firm’s private equity and financial sponsors group – Yates, Victoria Bramall, Alex Dixon, Tom Hartwright, Emma Havas, Adam Orr, Laura Kelly, and managing partner Edmund Reed. The team has recently handled matters such as advising Sixth Street Partners and Patron Capital on the £1.35bn acquisition of Cala Homes from Legal & General, on which Dixon took a lead role.
Yates thanked Cawood for her ‘considerable contribution’ and cited ‘a very busy start to the new financial year’.
‘We are excited and energised to drive the private equity business forward, and build on our enviable client base,’ he said. ‘Our dynamic and flexible approach, coupled with a focus on building long lasting relationships puts us in a great position to pursue, alongside our valued clients, the many opportunities arising from current market dynamics, and to provide the right environment for a fulfilling and enjoyable career in the industry for our people.’
Recent departures from other practices include Mahesh Varia, the head of the firm’s incentives and remuneration group, whose move to A&O Shearman was announced last week (8 November), although the firm did recently secure a boost for its funds team with the hire of Joel Grossmark, who joined from Blackstone Credit and Insurance, where he had led the Europe legal function for five years.
Despite the recent exits, Travers posted strong financials for 2023-24, with a near-10% increase in revenue to £215m and a 18% increase in PEP. The firm cited strong performances across core sectors including disputes and investigations, corporate, M&A and asset management, as well as ‘continued success in private equity’, according to senior partner Andrew Gillen.
How does the HSF private equity team differentiate itself in the market?
John Taylor, partner and the head of the private equity practice in London: We have a multi-capability private equity practice, advising clients across the full lifecycle of investments from fundraising and capital deployment, supporting their investments all the way to exit. We work across all capital structures and execute extremely complex transactions and strategies in multiple jurisdictions. Our private capital team leverages our full-service offering and the multiple sector strengths within our wider firm.
Our team continues to grow strategically. In the past 12 months, our hires of Eleanor Shanks as head of international private equity in London, venture and growth capital partner Dylan Doran Kennett and leveraged finance partner Ambarish Dash have bolstered our private capital practice in London.
Dr Christoph Nawroth, partner, Düsseldorf: In Continental Europe, recent hires include private equity and venture capital partner Gregor Klenk in Frankfurt, as well as finance partners Dr Fritz Kleweta, Sergio Cires and Laure Bonin into our Frankfurt, Madrid and Paris offices respectively. The teams in continental Europe and London are fully integrated and offer our clients seamless advice wherever this is needed.
We’ve a strong client portfolio, advising the likes of EQT, Aquiline Capital Partners, H.I.G. Capital, GIC, and CPPIB on deals ranging across the likes of energy/renewables, infrastructure, TMT, life-sciences, and financial services.
Can you discuss some of the trends that are impacting your clients?
Joseph Dennis, partner, London (JD): In the UK, the recent stabilisation of interest rates has resulted in cautious optimism for sellers to begin work on exits that have been sitting patiently in the pipeline. As rates begin to ease, we expect to see the gap in pricing expectations beginning to close.
Christopher Theris, partner, Paris: In continental Europe, the sheer number of elections and similar political events has resulted in a cautious market. We’re also seeing the use of bilateral processes at the inception of deals, moving away from a more typical auction or auction/bilateral hybrid arrangement.
‘The City of London is arguably the top global financial centre and has a huge range of intrinsic advantages.’
JD: Our private equity team were first movers in identifying the trend towards funds specialising along sector lines. Some years ago, we positioned our private equity practice to be closely aligned with our top-tier sector focused M&A practices, along the same sector lines as our key sponsor clients and targets. We are now well positioned to advise multi-strategy and multi-geography sponsors active through their full investment lifecycle across each of the geographies in which we operate, and we and our clients are really benefiting from this approach.
What role do you see for continuation funds?
Jonathan Blake, head of international private funds strategy, London: Continuation funds are part of a broader growth trend in secondary opportunities. Although the global economy is showing positive signs of stability, achieving the exit multiples that GPs would expect for their high-performing assets is still uncertain in current market conditions.
Stephen Newby, partner, London: The structure of a continuation fund offers LPs an opportunity to either liquidate or continue to hold their position. It also offers an opportunity for secondaries investors to participate, often with one ‘anchor’ investor that underwrites the existing LPs that decide not to rollover.
These options give GPs a good alternative to a full exit, especially where the GP is confident in its ability to add further value to an asset that will help to achieve even greater returns over the medium term.
Michael Jacobs (MJ), partner, London:To compliment continuation funds, we are seeing more structured pre-exit syndication and introducing a wider pool of investors into later stage assets – in part to drive liquidity and partial exits, and also a consequence of the broader ‘private for longer’ theme. The ‘private IPO’ concept is part of this trend.
How is the industry reacting to the change in government and the new policies that affect private capital?
Eleanor Shanks, partner and head of international private equity in London: The private equity industry as a whole wants to play its part and will continue to make the case to governments of the sector’s significant contribution to the whole economy, including to growth and productivity. It is a significant driver of private investment in the UK as it is globally.
There are some specific tax policy proposals that were in Labour’s manifesto that the government are currently considering, and we all appreciate the complexity balancing the incentives and the country’s fiscal position – in driving that investment and growth which in turn drives receipts for the revenue.
MJ: The City of London is arguably the top global financial centre and has a huge range of intrinsic advantages – its competitiveness has been boosted in recent years with the Financial Services and Markets Act and the Edinburgh and Mansion House reforms, alongside the UK’s listing regime reboot. While it is hard for any individual policy decision to change this, we would caution the government to not take the City for granted.
Subject to unexpected circumstances, what might we expect for deal activity at the start of 2025?
David D’Souza, partner, London: The focus on Distribution to Paid-In Capital (DPI) means the UK pipeline continues to deepen. Reassuringly, it is also widening across sectors which may have been slower in the last few years.
Alberto Frasquet, regional head of corporate EMEA, Madrid: In Continental Europe, private equity funds are likely to continue to look at assets in the pharmaceutical/healthcare, infrastructure and energy (particularly data centres), education and software sectors – these appear to be the most attractive for investment.
Herbert Smith Freehills
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Year of qualification: 2003
Hogan Lovells, 2001-06
Weil, Gotshal & Manges, 2006-19
Farview Equity Partners, 2019-24
Paul Hastings, 2023-24
Hg, 2024-present
What do you most enjoy about working in PE?
Private equity is incredibly diverse and dynamic. Even within a very specialist firm like Hg, which focuses only on software and services businesses, the opportunity to engage with different business models and segments is excitingly broad.
Being a lawyer in the private equity industry also offers the opportunity to apply commercial judgement to complex legal problems and be at the cutting edge of market developments. I love the intellectual challenge and the adrenaline of getting a transaction done, but I also enjoy the opportunity to build relationships within our portfolio companies and support them as they grow their businesses.
Why did you decide to switch from private practice to in-house? And what are the biggest differences?
My career has been non-linear. Having been a partner in private practice before co-founding a growth equity investment firm, I then returned to being a partner in private practice before joining Hg – so I actually made the switch twice! I learnt that I thrive in a business environment which is fast-paced and where I can work closely and collaboratively with the other partners to deliver positive outcomes. Working within Hg not only allows me and my team members to be an integral part of the investment teams in a different way from external advisers, it also affords me the opportunity to be part of strategic decision-making at a firm level
You co-founded your own investment firm…what are the lessons you’ve taken from that to your role as GC at Hg?
Co-founding an investment firm was the single biggest learning curve of my career. I learnt the foundational building blocks of how a business generally, and an investment firm more specifically, operates. I also learnt not to be afraid of things that I hadn’t experienced before, or challenges that I was facing for the first time. I became adept at making judgement calls at pace on the best information available and iterating on decisions as fact patterns changed (particularly through Covid), which taught me to always expect the unexpected. Most importantly, I learnt the power of a good network and that if you invest in helping people and keeping in touch with them, the rewards far outweigh the effort of doing so.
What is the biggest challenge as a PE GC?
The biggest challenge of being the GC of a private equity firm is the pace and scale of change. The last 10 years have seen incredible evolution and growth in the private equity industry – Hg itself has transformed from a UK mid-market PE firm to a leading investor in European and transatlantic software and services businesses – and the next ten years have the potential to exceed that. A great GC is at the very heart of helping a private equity firm navigate that evolution and growth – whether in the deployment and return of capital or in assessing firm opportunity and risk.
Would you recommend a career as an in-house PE lawyer? Why?
Yes – for all of the reasons above! In the right firm with a highly collaborative and positive culture like Hg, it can be an incredibly stimulating and rewarding job.
‘The industry has changed massively. When we started, we were working with single product mid-cap PE shops, and these have now developed into mega solo funds, handling tens of billions of dollars. We’re now working with listed clients and multi-product funds that not only have a PE business, but a credit and an infrastructure business,’ says Kirkland & Ellis London private equity partner David Higgins, on the huge changes in the private capital market.
As single strategy private equity funds have morphed into huge multi-asset private capital firms and alternative asset managers over the last 10-15 years, the role of the lawyers working with them has also changed beyond recognition. Continue reading “Elite: The rise of the in-house lawyer in private capital”
‘No-one should be under any illusion that the hours are fewer, or the work less demanding. You don’t have the luxury of working on just one thing; you’re juggling multiple deals, multiple fund formations and perhaps litigation,’ says Carlyle partner, chief risk officer, head of EMEA and global general counsel (GC) for Investments Heather Mitchell of the reality of succeeding in the notoriously tough, deal-driven world of private capital.
If anyone should know about juggling, it’s Mitchell, who currently holds not just one role at the $425bn AUM organisation but three – splitting her time between global GC and chief risk officer for the investment business, as well as overall head of Carlyle EMEA. Continue reading “‘I’ve called firms and asked why someone isn’t a partner yet’ – the female GCs shaking up PE”
What does it take to run the legal team in one of the most profitable deal shops in the world? After months of discussions with private equity and leveraged finance partners at the leading law firms in London as well as a host of in-house lawyers, Legal Business has come up with the definitive list of the top London-based private equity GCs, with 24 making the grade.
Continue reading “The Private Equity Elite: the top general counsel in PE”
Year of qualification: 2010
Berwin Leighton Paisner, 2008-11
International Justice Mission, 2011-12
Berwin Leighton Paisner, 2012-13
Bregal Investments, 2013-present
Why did you want to become a private equity lawyer?
To be honest, I did not specifically set out to become a private equity lawyer. I have always sought out opportunities in my career where I am valued, where I can continue to grow and learn, that are dynamic and where I feel I can make a difference. Across the last ten years of working in private equity these boxes have more often than not been ticked across the board. Continue reading “‘You are working with some of the sharpest minds on the planet’ – Bregal Investments funds GC Jonathan Pugh-Smith”
Year of qualification: 1993
Clifford Chance, 1995-2022
CD&R, 2022-present
Why did you want to become a private equity lawyer?
I loved the intersection between the law and the real world. On each transaction you get to understand a new business or sector, and then to think about the many and varied legal issues that impact on it. I also really enjoy the fact it is a real team effort, both internally and externally; as a private equity lawyer you are absolutely core to that team. Continue reading “‘Private equity must be prepared to explain the benefits it brings’ – CD&R’s Simon Tinkler”
Shearman & Sterling, 1996-2012
Arma Partners, 2013-14
Cinven, 2015-present
I come from a family of lawyers. My father was a lawyer, my uncle was a judge, so there was maybe some bias. What I like about the law is that it is very analytical and it rewards logic. You are trained to analyse any issues in a systematic way. Continue reading “‘A PE firm is one of the most interesting places for an in-house lawyer’ – Cinven GC Babett Carrier”
