Emma Danks is head of the UK corporate team at Winston Taylor, and a member of both the firm’s executive committee and its EME board. She spent more than 15 years as a partner at legacy Taylor Wessing, including as head of private equity and co-head of international corporate. Here, she reflects on the value of good leadership, being a woman in transactional law, and the importance of learning to back yourself.
There was never one moment of clarity where I suddenly thought, ‘I am going to be a lawyer.’ I studied geography at university and then took a fairly scattergun approach to my career choice. If I’m honest, it was the chance to be a student for two more years that attracted me. And then when I started looking at training contracts and realised that I’d also be able to do a six-month secondment abroad, that was even better. But I always feel slightly embarrassed when upcoming law graduates or trainees ask me what my career plan was and I didn’t really have one. It’s just been happenstance. Fortunate happenstance.
I was really lucky to be an associate at Clifford Chance. It was the only magic circle firm that was really focusing on PE as a standalone discipline. I got early exposure to some cutting-edge work and was really drawn to the clients and the pace of the deals. I got a lot of responsibility early on, and the partners were kind enough to invest in me and encourage me to take steps forward that I wouldn’t have otherwise been able to – I try and do that now for those within my team, or those for whom I might have some responsibility for their career.
Private equity partners David Walker [now Latham & Watkins] and Adam Signy [now Simpson Thacher] were my mentors at CC, and I’ve turned to them for guidance on a number of different aspects throughout my career. They instilled the requirement to work hard and be technically good, but also that understanding the commercial drivers and having some fun along the way is pretty important. The fact that we’re still in contact, that there’s a group of us from that team who maintain that friendship now, is testament to their leadership and the culture they set.
‘We had physical data rooms for two different bidders. We ended up with half of each bidder team in a room with half of the opposing team!’
I will never forget one tricky situation as an associate. We were on a deal where we had physical data rooms set up in duplicate because we had two different bidders – and obviously they weren’t meant to know who the other one was. We ended up with half of each bidder team in a room with half of the opposing team. But the situation really taught me the value of leadership. I remember the partner then having to phone the client, and he took responsibility for the whole situation – even though, of course, it was not his role to make sure the right people got in the right room.
One of my proudest moments was advising newly founded Affirma Capital on its 2019 management buyout of Standard Chartered’s private equity investment business at legacy Taylor Wessing. We were working across different time zones, tax and regulatory regimes, and it really demonstrated what the team could do. We were punching above our weight and holding our own with some big-name firms. We ended up winning the Private Equity Team of the Year for it – it was great recognition.
The global financial crisis was an extraordinary time to be a transactional lawyer. In 2008 I was a mid-senior associate wanting to get as many deals as I could under my belt and suddenly they all dried up. It was very unsettling at the time, but it ultimately led me to think about where I’d take my career next.
The post-crisis landscape saw a lot of movement in the PE market – individuals moving from some large-cap to mid-market funds and larger funds doing more mid-market work. Private equity is a relationship-driven business, and I saw a lot of opportunities with people I knew moving into mid-market funds. I thought that those would be good relationships to nurture and land some mandates, and so I made the decision to move to Taylor Wessing in 2010 and build its growing mid-market practice.
‘I did ballet very seriously until my late teens. I’m a member of the English National Ballet – but I go as a spectator rather than participating’
The conversation around women in law has shifted from when I started out, but we can’t be complacent. We still need to be looking at how we build the pipeline and maintain the pipeline, particularly for women doing transactional work and private equity. I worry that some women aren’t putting themselves forward because of what they perceive the private equity industry to be like. We need to look harder and specifically target and encourage women to come forward.
As a young associate I remember asking where my role models were – people I could speak to about how you forge a career as a woman doing transactional work. Now I think many female associates asking the same question could look at their leadership and identify several.
Travel is very exciting to me. Going back to my geography degree, I’m drawn to exploring new places and understanding how different parts of the world work. This probably sounds a little bit geeky, but I went to Patagonia a few years ago and it inspired me to rejoin the Royal Geographical Society. They give wonderful lectures that make you feel like an explorer, encouraging you to lift your head above the desk and look around. I’m also a keen runner – last year’s marathon was in the Arctic Circle, so it combined travel and running.
I’ve got no intellectual superiority about my cultural consumption – TV, films, books, whatever. Grazia can often be found alongside the day’s newspaper, and watching something lightweight like Made in Chelsea is just brilliant decompression. But I also did ballet very seriously until my late teens, and so I’m a member of the English National Ballet – although I go as a spectator rather than participating. It’s great to have a full range of culture and experiences.
‘I was cautious about moving to the mid-market after 2008. I got there in the end, but I could have been louder and braver about it’
I’m also heavily involved with a burns charity set up in memory of a friend of mine who was also a lawyer and died in the Bali bombing – Dan’s Fund for Burns. As a trustee, I deal with the requests for funding, and it’s a chance to use my legal skills in a completely different environment. The clarity of thought and analytical ability you get as a lawyer is hugely beneficial, and the matters coming across our desks as a charity really put into perspective what we do here day-to-day.
If I look at my career so far there have been times that I’ve been overly cautious. There were moments where I spent longer than necessary weighing the risks rather than acting on what I instinctively felt to be right. For example, I was initially cautious about moving to the mid-market after the financial crisis, even though it felt like the right place to focus my practice. I got there in the end, but I could have been louder about doing it and braver in the way I went about it.
I would tell young lawyers to back yourself more. Do the analysis and then take the courageous decision. Confidence is not something that can be switched on overnight, it is a muscle you need to exercise. The first few times it feels discombobulating and very uncertain, but it becomes a lot easier the more you do it.
