Ask Simpson Thacher Anything (26/27)

[Christine - Simpson Thacher & Bartlett]

Hey Christine! In the Investments Funds Team in the London office, what aspects of advising private equity sponsors have you found most commercially challenging, and how does Simpson Thatcher help develop the judgement needed to navigate this?

Hi Lois! I think it can be challenging to know when to push back on an investor's request or when to try to accommodate it. Different sponsors will have different leverage in their negotiations with investors and may be more/less willing to agree to such requests. An example is bespoke reporting requests - a large fund with hundreds of investors cannot operationally agree to provide bespoke reporting to every investor that requests it, but might be able to accommodate it for strategically important investors, whereas a smaller fund may be happy to provide it to any investor. The judgement on what approach to take comes from experience, both with respect to investor negotiations generally and specific clients (and I am still learning!) - at STB you get lots of opportunity to take on investor negotiations and you are typically staffed across a number of funds to get that breadth of experience.

 

[emaddan]

Hi,

Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions!!

What personal characteristics do you think helps you stand out to the firm?

 

[Christine - Simpson Thacher & Bartlett]

Hi all,

A big thanks to everyone taking the time to answer questions; I have a few to get through so I will be pacing myself!

What can a trainee expect to do at STB? A big part of the TC is early responsibility. Can you give an example of something you were trusted to do earlier than expected and how did you tackle the issue?

Thanks

Jonathan Garson

I expect that the "typical" trainee tasks will look pretty similar to the trainee tasks that you would undertake at other law firms (e.g. assisting with managing process, doing the first cut of certain documents/investor responses, research tasks etc.), and that, as you progress through the training contract and develop more skills, you will have the opportunity to take greater responsibility for tasks. When taking on things that I have not done before or I think are perhaps more complex than I expected to deal with at the level I'm at (e.g. more challenging investor negotiations), I always try to work out what I can first and then ask specific questions on the points I need guidance on.

 

[Christine - Simpson Thacher & Bartlett]

Hi everyone! Thank you for this opportunity to ask you some questions!

1. When you read or hear a candidate explain why Simpson Thacher is their first choice, what makes you believe that they genuinely understand the firm rather than simply repeating things they’ve read on the website?
2. If you were advising someone applying for the vacation scheme now, what would you encourage them to understand about private equity before they come to interview?
3. Who tends to thrive at Simpson Thacher?
4. If you were supervising a vacation-scheme student for two weeks, what would make you think, ‘I would genuinely want this person on my team’?
5. With the private equity market changing, particularly around financing conditions, secondaries, continuation vehicles and more complex deal structures, what change has most affected the work you’re doing as a lawyer

Thank you for your answers in advance!

These are some really good questions!

1) Paul may disagree with me, but obviously you can only base your understanding of the firm on what you have read/experienced at an event (if you are able to attend one), so I think it's more about tying together what you have read about STB, what you know about the wider market environment, and your knowledge of law firms in general to understand why STB positions itself the way it does.

2) I think it's helpful to understand what the market is looking like at the moment for private equity, both in respect of fundraising and entering into/exiting investments, as well as the basic drivers behind what a PE sponsor is trying to achieve.

3) People who tend to thrive at STB are those who are curious to keep learning, have an ability to see the technical side of a matter as well as the commercial aspects, and are resilient.

4) Everyone will say this, but attention to detail is important as people will not trust you can do the hard things if there are typos etc. in your work. I also think a good attitude goes a long way - no-one expects you to know everything, but a willingness to give it a go, ask sensible questions and take on feedback will get you credit.

5) The fundraising environment has definitely changed in my time at STB and we are seeing investors asking questions they might not have previously, while sponsors are looking to be more accommodating, so our approach to investor responses has had to shift accordingly. As others have said, sponsors are also looking at what other options they have such as CVs or evergreen vehicles.

 

[Christine - Simpson Thacher & Bartlett]

Hello @Christine - Simpson Thacher & Bartlett Was there anything outside school (a society, a job, a hobby) that ended up being surprisingly useful in your work at STB?

I worked in compliance consultancy prior to doing my training contract where a number of my clients were PE houses. I wouldn't say it was necessarily surprising that this experience was useful, but I do think having any sort of job, role of responsibility or team position is helpful as you have already started to develop skills you will use in private practice such as organisation, communicating your ideas/thoughts to others, time management etc.

 

[phoenix11_]

These are some really good questions!

1) Paul may disagree with me, but obviously you can only base your understanding of the firm on what you have read/experienced at an event (if you are able to attend one), so I think it's more about tying together what you have read about STB, what you know about the wider market environment, and your knowledge of law firms in general to understand why STB positions itself the way it does.

2) I think it's helpful to understand what the market is looking like at the moment for private equity, both in respect of fundraising and entering into/exiting investments, as well as the basic drivers behind what a PE sponsor is trying to achieve.

3) People who tend to thrive at STB are those who are curious to keep learning, have an ability to see the technical side of a matter as well as the commercial aspects, and are resilient.

4) Everyone will say this, but attention to detail is important as people will not trust you can do the hard things if there are typos etc. in your work. I also think a good attitude goes a long way - no-one expects you to know everything, but a willingness to give it a go, ask sensible questions and take on feedback will get you credit.

5) The fundraising environment has definitely changed in my time at STB and we are seeing investors asking questions they might not have previously, while sponsors are looking to be more accommodating, so our approach to investor responses has had to shift accordingly. As others have said, sponsors are also looking at what other options they have such as CVs or evergreen vehicles.

Thank you so much for your insights!! It’s very helpful!

 

[Stacy Adei]

I worked in compliance consultancy prior to doing my training contract where a number of my clients were PE houses. I wouldn't say it was necessarily surprising that this experience was useful, but I do think having any sort of job, role of responsibility or team position is helpful as you have already started to develop skills you will use in private practice such as organisation, communicating your ideas/thoughts to others, time management etc.

Thank you so much!