Infrastructure and Real Estate Investment Firm

Global asset manager specializing in private credit and financing of public infrastructure, renewables and real estate projects, sought to build out an M&A deal & due diligence team to support their highly acquisitive business strategy. The CFO and GC sought to increase deal profitability by insourcing MoU, due diligence and pre / post acquisition matters by engaging interim counsel and paralegals, and lessening reliance on outside counsel, as workload spiked and deal to deal specificity required varying legal expertise.

The Challenge

Our client rolled out an aggressive acquisition strategy that would require strong internal legal support. Unfortunately, their in-house legal department consisted of only two attorneys and a paralegal and required a much more robust legal function to support the long-term M&A plans of the organization. While the leadership team wanted to keep the work product in-house, and reduce reliance on outside counsel and adding headcount, they needed a solution that would also keep their legal expenses under control.

The Solution

Our client sought to build an M&A focused legal team that would be comprised of two additional lawyers and two paralegals capable of handling MoU’s, deal matters and all pre- and post-acquisition matters. After performing a needs analysis and gaining an understanding of the sophistication, legal training and background of the desired M&A legal team, MLA Interim Legal Talent presented the client with a plan to engage interim counsel for immediate work, with the potential to onboard the consultants as full-time staff as they built out their legal department. The team would be responsible for running point on M&A deals, managing outside counsel relationships, creating/managing term sheets and acquisition checklists, and administering confidentiality, contractual and MoU matters. Then, post-acquisition, they would work with the acquired entity to streamline legal processes; modernize contractual standards, IP and litigation practices; and improve legal strategy to ensure efficient adoption. Ultimately, the GC and leadership would have the option to grow the legal function with the pace of the business and allow for cost control as the acquisition strategy played out.

The Results

Our client’s leadership team was able to aggressively enact their acquisition strategy by building out an acquisition-dedicated legal function by using Interim Legal Talent in a contract to hire model. Ultimately, the GC engaged an interim counsel and paralegal in FTE capacity and continued to rely on interim counsel to meet the ebb and flow nature of the organization’s deal cycle, all while maintaining low outside counsel feels and meeting the needs of the business.