Allen & Overy

"From the very beginning, I was thrown into the thick of things."

I have spent my first seat working in the Private Equity group (C6), which is part of A&O’s corporate department.  It has been an exciting time to work here, with articles in the press seemingly every other day about the private equity sector.  The C6 team is fantastic and trainees are encouraged to feel a part of this, with group drinks most weeks.
 
From the very beginning, I was thrown into the thick of things, as the main trainee on a deal in which A&O was acting for a private equity fund which was participating in an auction to purchase Endemol (the television company which produces reality television shows including Big Brother).  I was mainly involved in the due diligence process, in which we investigate how the company is run and check for any potential liabilities.  Our due diligence needed to cover many jurisdictions, so I was frequently on the phone to other A&O lawyers in, amongst other places, France, Spain, Germany and Holland.  It was both exciting, and a challenge, as I got to know people in these offices, and became used to different styles of working.  I found that I was given quite a lot of responsibility for compiling parts of the due diligence report, although of course you are never on your own, as everything is ultimately checked by your supervisor!  In the end, our client decided not to proceed with the deal – this can happen sometimes, it’s all part of the excitement and uncertainty of the corporate world. 

The next deal I worked on, however, did complete; in fact, there was such a tight timetable that the whole thing was done in two weeks.  Our client was again a private equity fund, which was buying TSL Education Limited (owner of the Times Educational Supplement and the Times Higher Education Supplement) from another private equity fund so this time I got to find out how a newspaper company is run.  This was a management buy-out, which means that the senior management of the company being bought invest their own money in the sale.  This can make for interesting negotiations when trying to balance their demands against those of the buyers!

The great thing about working with private equity fund’s is that the people you work with are all very experienced in doing these kinds of deals, meaning that things move very fast.  In fact, one of the best things for me about working in the private equity department has been the variety of work.  Since most of the deals have quite short timetables, you never know what you’ll be working on next.