The following is an excerpt from Practice Perspectives: Vault's Guide to Legal Practice Areas.
Angelo Bonvino is Global Head of the Corporate Department and a partner in the private equity M&A group. A nationally recognized M&A attorney who focuses on private equity investments, Angelo is among the nation’s most sought-after and successful advisors in the private equity industry and is also a highly regarded thought leader in the M&A space. He has written articles on corporate law topics for publications including The M&A Journal, ABA Business Law Today, International Financial Law Review, and The Deal. Angelo earned his B.B.A. from Baruch College of CUNY and J.D. from Brooklyn Law School.
Daniel Fuschillo is a partner in the firm’s private equity M&A group. Recently elected to Paul, Weiss partnership, Daniel is trusted counsel to the world’s most sophisticated private equity firms and their portfolio companies. He advises on a wide variety of complex business transactions, including leveraged buyouts, dispositions, strategic mergers, take-privates, carve-outs, joint ventures, and minority investments. He earned his B.S. from Binghamton University and his J.D. from New York University School of Law.
Describe your practice area and what it entails.
Angelo: I represent private equity firms in all their transactions through every phase of their existence, including M&A. I might even help take public a company they’re invested in. These are deep, long-standing relationships, and I advise my clients on all their legal needs.
Daniel: I’ve worked with Angelo since the start of my career, and my focus is also private equity M&A, working with our clients on transactions of every shape and size. The practice is about being there for them, coming up with creative ideas and solutions, and helping them with anything and everything that comes up. I’ve worked closely with a handful of our clients since I was a junior associate, so I’ve been fortunate to be able to foster relationships with them and, like Angelo, become a trusted resource for them.
What types of clients do you represent?
Angelo: I’ve represented many of my clients for decades. KPS Capital Partners is one of my main clients, and I worked on the very first deal they ever did: the purchase of paper company Blue Ridge Paper Products back in 1997, when I was a first-year associate. Other private equity firms I represent include Kohlberg & Co., Oak Hill Capital, and Searchlight Capital Partners. My role also involves mentoring the next generation, so all of my clients are also being serviced by partners like Daniel and others who grew up under me.
Daniel: I represent private equity clients and some of our long-standing institutional clients. In the private equity world, I’ve worked with Angelo on KPS transactions since I was a first-year associate. I’m also now advising Apollo, Roark, Searchlight Capital Partners, and other major clients on transactional matters.
What types of cases/deals do you work on?
Angelo: I do the whole panoply of deals for my clients. I’ve become a pretty good generalist at buying and selling companies—the specifics are a function of whatever they are buying or selling. When a client tells me they’re looking at a manufacturing, healthcare, or retail company, I know the issues that are going to come up.
Daniel: I also work on a variety of deals—leveraged buyouts, take-privates, joint ventures, strategic transactions, etc. These could be carve-outs, full business acquisitions, or add-ons to platforms for existing portfolio companies. I work on any type of M&A transaction that our private equity clients and their portfolio companies are interested in exploring, and I help come up with creative ideas and solutions for executing these transactions.
How did you choose this practice area?
Angelo: I have always had an interest in corporate work, but I was introduced to private equity work specifically through three fantastic Paul, Weiss mentors whose practices consisted primarily of private equity in the early days of the industry. They introduced me to their clients and taught me how to be an M&A lawyer. I enjoyed building relationships with these clients, I enjoyed the work, and I found I was pretty good at it.
Daniel: I gravitated toward M&A very early. The transactions were interesting, and I liked the speed and excitement of the work. M&A lawyers think of themselves as the quarterback of a deal, with a hand in every aspect of a transaction. That was a good fit with my personality and how I like to work and manage things. I was drawn to working with Angelo from the start. He has an amazing practice, and I looked at how he handles clients and deals in a way that is always constructive and about getting to the right place, and I said, “I want to work with that guy.”
What is a “typical” day like and/or what are some common tasks you perform?
Angelo: There is no typical day. You wake up every morning and think you know your agenda, but if you have a successful practice with multiple clients, there are bound to be at least two calls that you had no idea you would be getting when you woke up.
Daniel: As Angelo says, there’s no typical day. Every deal is at a different stage. Every client ask comes in different sizes and shapes. Our clients are doing an incredibly interesting variety of things. Working alongside them to solve problems and work through deal challenges can be unpredictable. Elements of any routine involve preparation, being organized, and staying on top of things, which means checking with your deal teams to make sure things are moving the way they should be.
What training, classes, experience, or skills development would you recommend to someone who wishes to enter your practice area?
Angelo: Even if you’ve been a top law school student, you need to continue to develop your skills as a junior associate. The main skill is enmeshing yourself fully in your deals. I can see whether a junior team member is coasting or going above and beyond. For those in the latter group, I’ll spend extra time with them and help them develop professionally.
Daniel: Law school doesn’t train you to be a corporate lawyer; you learn to be a corporate lawyer by doing. Almost all of it—if not all of it—is being in the trenches and learning from your senior colleagues. As a junior associate, seek out every opportunity to work closely with more-senior attorneys. Alongside this experiential learning, look for firms with interactive training programs, preferably led by associates and partners, like the top-notch Paul, Weiss program.
What is the most challenging aspect of practicing in this area?
Angelo: The work is always changing, even if some core issues remain constant, which makes it both challenging and exciting. I never went in-house because I thought I might get bored working at a company that made one or two products. Here, I get to work on buying everything from steel mills, golf manufacturers, and gyms and with wealth managers. I’ve probably done over 500 deals in 30 years, and each one was different.
Daniel: The most challenging aspect is probably the uncertainty and unpredictability, but they can also be the most rewarding parts! We handle unique deals and challenges that clients put in front of us, and if we haven’t seen or worked on something that’s exactly like that, we have the skill set and experience to get to the right place.
What is unique about your practice area at your firm?
Angelo: Ours is perhaps the most well-balanced private equity practice in the industry. We have a longstanding “anchor” relationship in Apollo, and many of our clients, such as KPS, General Atlantic, Oak Hill, and Roark, have been with us for decades. Not many other firms have two geographically distinct areas offering the full range of capabilities like we do in the United States and United Kingdom. With our recent expansion in London, we’ve been able to add many new private equity clients and cross sell our London clients to our New York partners and vice versa. As a result, today we’re among the top handful of the most active firms globally advising on buyouts, according to deal league tables.
Daniel: The private equity practice here enables you not only to grow and develop as lawyer but also to develop amazing personal relationships with the deal teams at our clients. Particularly with private equity clients, you foster deep relationships with clients by working on repeat deals.
What kinds of experiences can summer associates gain in this practice area at your firm?
Angelo: Summer associates have the same types of assignments as first-year associates. They watch what we do, listen to calls, and are involved in meetings. They get to see up close how deals are done and the respective roles that partners, senior associates, and junior associates play in a transaction.
Daniel: We have a wonderful program that allows summer associates to immerse themselves in every aspect of a deal, even if it’s playing an ancillary role or participating in calls with the client or the other side. Everyone is assigned a partner and associate mentor, but there’s also a really important informal aspect. Getting to know the lawyers who do this work is important. Reaching out to a partner for coffee or lunch can really help give you a sense of who we are as a group and as a firm. As a partner, I reach out to summers and junior associates to mentor them as I was mentored by senior partners like Angelo.
How important is it to understand your client’s business, and how can junior attorneys gain this insight?
Angelo: Our clients expect that we understand their business and what they care about; they look to us for very practical advice about what they should be concerned about. For a junior attorney, it’s critical to strive to build client relationships early. You can’t just wake up and decide to do it as an eighth-year associate; you have to hone the skills from the beginning. So focus on learning as much as you can from as many people as possible, including people at your level within the client, and developing these relationships from the start.
Daniel: I echo Angelo. To be an excellent private equity lawyer, it’s extremely important to understand a client’s goals and how they do things. This comes only with experience and asking questions, so that you’re hitting their timelines and their goals and understanding how they prefer to approach each issue or deal. The work we put into getting to know our clients makes the service we deliver that much better.