Become a better lawyer: running a case, doing a deal, moving in-house and other tips from the top

If you don’t ask . . . Given that I was at an American firm, I thought it made sense to go and spend some time in the US. There was no formal overseas placement programme operating at the time, so I did some research, put together a proposal, then walked into the London managing partner’s office.

He thought it was a great idea . . . provided that the deals on which I was working continued uninterrupted. Quite a condition, as it turned out. It was 2005, the peak of the market, and I was extremely busy. I arrived in New York on the Sunday with two European deals in full flow, started work on the Monday at 4am, for a conference call with Helsinki, and more or less continued like that for a year-and-a-half.

The luxury pad overlooking Central Park took the edge off the early starts. As did the weekend trips to the Hamptons and Miami. I knew it was finite, so I really went for it: shopping at Bergdorf, hanging out at Soho House and Bungalow 8, and eating at virtually every top restaurant in Manhattan.

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Make yourself visible. Kirkland & Ellis’ New York office is huge, spread out over several floors of the Citigroup Tower on 53rd and Lexington. You could go there, sit in your room and nobody would know you exist. So the first thing I did was track down the associates I’d met at the annual conference in Chicago, who I then got to introduce me to as many people as possible. New Yorkers like that pro-active style.

They’re less keen on daytime drinking, though. At the end of my first week I went for lunch with a bunch of guys from the office and some clients from Bank of America. I asked for a glass of Bollinger — well, it was 1pm on a Friday — then watched with a rising sense of alarm as, one by one, everybody else in the group ordered iced tea.

You need to be really driven to maximise the opportunities. When I was at Freshfields a lot of the associates looked on placements abroad as a bit of a jolly. Maybe it’s because they do them too early on in their career. I was four years qualified when I went to New York, which was ideal as it meant that I had existing client relationships that I was able to consolidate. Whenever I had a space in my diary, I’d seek out a client’s US headquarters and go and shake some hands.

I also made it a priority to cross-sell the London office’s services to Kirkland & Ellis’s New York clients. We’ve actually just done an English law deal for a US private equity house as a result of a contact I made while I was over there. Again, it was just about getting out and meeting people — and making sure that each one went away knowing all about the firm’s UK capabilities.

Get as much foreign deal experience as possible. In hindsight, I wish I’d spent more time on US transactions. The problem was that I still had so much going on back in London. Maybe I had a bit of a superman complex at the time, never allowing myself to say no to anything. Not that it did my career prospects any harm: I was promoted to partner shortly after I got back. But it meant that I never quite got all over New York law credit agreements in the way in which I’d have liked.

Still, I learnt a hell of a lot. Especially from the ultra-commercial approach of the New York corporate attorneys. There was less arse-covering: if they knew more about a business point than their client, they’d stick their hand up and give their opinion, even if the point had no legal element whatsoever. I really jived with that style, and spending time with those guys has definitely enhanced the service I give to my clients.

Stay in touch. Not only has my relationship with the New York office led to referrals of work, but it’s given me direct access to specialists in areas in which the London office doesn’t have expertise. And, of course, if my name comes up at a meeting in the US for any reason, it means that there are people who are able to say, “Actually, I know that guy.”

Neel Sachdev is a partner at Kirkland & Ellis in London

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