Jonathan Pugh-Smith – GC, funds, Bregal Investments 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 …
Katherine Brody – General counsel (EMEA), Silver Lake Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, 2008-14 Silver Lake, 2014-present Silver Lake turned me into a private equity lawyer. Before that I was working as an M&A generalist, mostly for large corporate clients, in private practice at Skadden in London. This was a decade ago, and I …
Simon Tinkler – Senior legal adviser, CD&R 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 …
Alexandra Openshaw – General counsel, Montagu Year of qualification: 2010 Macfarlanes, 2008-15 Winton Group, 2016-23 Montagu, 2023-present Why did you want to become a private equity lawyer? I was previously a funds lawyer at a private practice firm and wanted to be client-side from early on. No day is ever the same – there’s so …
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Jeremy Dennison – General counsel, Livingbridge Year of qualification: 2009 Travers Smith, 2007-12 Goodwin Procter, 2012-14 MUSTO, 2014-15 Travers Smith, 2015-18 Livingbridge, 2018-present Why did you want to become a private equity lawyer? My first exposure to private equity was during my training contract at Travers Smith, which has one of the leading mid-market private …
Andrew Stevens – General counsel, Inflexion Year of qualification: 2010 Slaughter and May, 2008-13 Och-Ziff Capital Management, 2014-16 HPS Investment Partners, 2017 Inflexion, 2017-present Within law, the transactional side felt like the natural destination for me and, within that, PE always stood out.
Heather Mitchell – Partner, chief risk officer, head of EMEA and global general counsel for Investments, Carlyle Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, 1996-99 Kaiser Group International, 1999-2001 Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, 2001-02 Carlyle, 2002-present I absolutely love my job. There’s a natural synergy in my roles as GC for global investments and chief risk …
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Jarlath Pratt – Assistant GC (Europe), GIC Year of qualification: 2006 Travers Smith, 2006-10 Barclays Capital, 2010-13 GIC, 2013-present Why did you want to become a private equity lawyer? I trained at Travers Smith – I had the time of my life as a trainee and junior lawyer in the private equity team.
Tom Patrick – GC, Charterhouse Year of qualification: 1999 White & Case, 2001-05 D.B. Zwirn & Co, 2005-10 Charterhouse, 2010-present Why did you want to become a private equity lawyer? I didn’t really – I originally wanted to be a journalist but once I did law, I was very keen to go in-house and get …
Babett Carrier – General counsel, Cinven 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 …
