Haynes and Boone, LLP Partner Ricardo Garcia-Moreno talked with Law360 about how the shift to working remotely and meeting virtually with clients may spell lasting changes to the mergers and acquisitions process.
Below is an excerpt:
The convenience and low cost of videoconferencing means it likely will supplant some of the meetings that were previously in-person, whether it's management presentations or negotiations.
Other meetings will likely revert to being held in person, said Haynes and Boone, LLP Partner Ricardo Garcia-Moreno.
"I think that people understand that sometimes in a deal it's critical to have everybody together in one place physically … but that percent of critical, must-have, is probably going to be smaller, because we all know that we can work virtually," he said. "There's a lot of savings to the clients, in particular, of having lawyers and all of the business people just getting together virtually instead of the huge costs of hotels, airlines and food to get 20 to 30 people converging into one place physically."
Much of that holds also true for M&A lawyers' own form of deal-making: business development. Attorneys have had to find creative ways to build and maintain rapport with existing and prospective clients in a world where interactions that once took place over a meal, a happy hour or at conferences have moved online.
"As lawyers, business development and maintaining existing relationships and developing prospective clients is a very people-focused interaction," Garcia-Moreno said.
The switch to remote "is definitely something lawyers are having to deal with and are trying to be creative to maintain those contacts with clients or potential clients," he said.
Partners and firm leaders have also had to find new ways to convey a firm's culture to new hires and maintain a sense of cohesion with colleagues — something many of the partners cited as one of the greatest challenges posed by the all-remote environment.
To read the full article, click here.
Below is an excerpt:
The convenience and low cost of videoconferencing means it likely will supplant some of the meetings that were previously in-person, whether it's management presentations or negotiations.
Other meetings will likely revert to being held in person, said Haynes and Boone, LLP Partner Ricardo Garcia-Moreno.
"I think that people understand that sometimes in a deal it's critical to have everybody together in one place physically … but that percent of critical, must-have, is probably going to be smaller, because we all know that we can work virtually," he said. "There's a lot of savings to the clients, in particular, of having lawyers and all of the business people just getting together virtually instead of the huge costs of hotels, airlines and food to get 20 to 30 people converging into one place physically."
Much of that holds also true for M&A lawyers' own form of deal-making: business development. Attorneys have had to find creative ways to build and maintain rapport with existing and prospective clients in a world where interactions that once took place over a meal, a happy hour or at conferences have moved online.
"As lawyers, business development and maintaining existing relationships and developing prospective clients is a very people-focused interaction," Garcia-Moreno said.
The switch to remote "is definitely something lawyers are having to deal with and are trying to be creative to maintain those contacts with clients or potential clients," he said.
Partners and firm leaders have also had to find new ways to convey a firm's culture to new hires and maintain a sense of cohesion with colleagues — something many of the partners cited as one of the greatest challenges posed by the all-remote environment.
To read the full article, click here.