Corporate and M&A
M&A playmakers have come out fighting from the disaster that wasn’t. The In-House Lawyer speaks to key dealmakers on operating amid a crisis.
‘This is my third lockdown at Latham,’ laughs Sam Newhouse, the M&A partner who left Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer a year ago for Latham & Watkins just as the coronavirus pandemic started to tighten its grip. The observation is poignant. In the Covid-19 world, we have all become used to delineating the passage of time in unusual ways as this alternate reality smudges the lines between working and home life.
However, if you are a member of the dealmaking community, the other obvious way in which to assess the annus horribilis just gone is to tot up the number of deals you’ve done from the comfort of your dining room, study, living room or kitchen. Looking at Mergermarket data for the past year, it is clear that 2020 was a game of two halves – in essence – the initial shock of the pandemic and the swift recovery.
