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

Life has changed a lot in the last ten years. The deals have got bigger and more complex — last year’s £12 billion Alliance Boots transaction was worth more than the entire 1997 leveraged buyout market — and, perversely, the timescales have become shorter. The downtime has been squeezed out of the job, which has quite an impact on the way you manage people.

With less time to rest and recover, it’s essential that associates feel engaged when they’re on a deal. Keep them informed on the bigger picture, introduce them to the client and make sure that they’re given regular score-line updates — even if there’s a five day turn-around on the transaction. The greater the involvement, the greater the sense of ownership and commitment.

Delegating has become hugely important. Delegate too little and you’ll find yourself swamped; too much and you end up with insufficiently experienced people in charge of tasks that they can’t handle. With little time to correct mistakes, that means missed deadlines and annoyed clients.

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Throwing people in at the deep end can also do a lot of damage to confidence. Not having the foggiest idea of what you’re supposed to be doing is an awful feeling, as I well remember from my trainee days. Sure, you have to stretch people from time to time in order to facilitate their development, but there are ways in which to do it — gradually, and on the smaller, lower pressure deals.

Sometimes it’s a simple numbers game. It’s surprising how often teams trip up because the team leader has gone too thin on personnel. LBOs tend to start at a relatively gentle pace before quickly moving into increasingly large strides. I’ve seen plenty of understaffed teams hit bottlenecks as the documents rain down during the closing stages.

Certain aspects of the job are dull. Undertaking detailed due diligence of extensive legal contracts, for example. The key to surviving the boring bits? A sense of humour and a mentality that allows you to look on things as a challenge. And, as a team leader, an ability to persuade others to do the same.

A big deal is a bit like climbing a mountain. At times it’s a slog, but there’s also this tremendous sense of togetherness among those who share the experience. You tend to remember the little things: a few jokes over a Chinese takeaway at 3am, the increasingly surreal banter with weary colleagues, people’s other halves turning up in the morning with supplies of clean clothes . . . You could almost feel nostalgic about it! Of course, it feels like hell at the time.

It’s not quite The Apprentice, but you get the occasional conflict. All you can do is listen and attempt to get underneath the real issues. I try to foster an ethos of mutual support and consideration within the group to minimise the potential for tensions. So if somebody is going away for a long weekend, I’ll make sure that everyone does their best to fill the gaps to give them an interruption-free break. It helps that Ashurst’s billing targets and budgets are done on a group basis, which make it a much less individualistic place to work than some of the “magic circle” and American firms.

Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty. It’s no use preaching team values if you’re directing operations from an armchair with a gin and tonic in your hand. The best managers I’ve worked under, such as Leith Robertson, now the deputy chief executive of Global Banking and Markets at RBS, were always in the trenches among the troops, encouraging, watching for the first signs of drooping shoulders and, if necessary, taking over and carrying the baton themselves.

Just make sure that you don’t lose sight of the bigger picture. You’re leading a deal, not just a team, so be wary of getting sucked into overload mode and missing the wider issues. I’ll often just go for a walk around the block or call up somebody at home for a chat; anything to change the pace for a little while in order to reset my focus.

The most effective barometer of how well a manager is doing their job is associate retention. We estimate that every fee earner who leaves costs us, in gross terms, around a quarter of a million pounds. So not only does good management create a better working atmosphere but it makes sound business sense.

Mark Vickers is head of banking for Europe at Ashurst

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