The Private Equity Lawyer’s Guide to Marketing and Business Development

When you’re busy getting deals done, marketing yourself can keep falling to the bottom of the list. Between client calls, negotiations and everything else that comes with a private equity practice, finding time to build new relationships takes effort. At the same time, the work you’re doing gives you plenty to talk about. You see where transactions get complicated, which issues keep coming up and what sponsors and management teams need from their advisers. That experience can help people understand what you do and create opportunities for them to get to know you.

Events, content, LinkedIn and sponsorships can all play a role, along with making introductions, staying connected with former clients and colleagues and bringing people together around shared interests. The most useful marketing plan connects those activities so they reinforce one another. An article can become a reason to reconnect with someone, a small dinner can lead to an introduction and a conference conversation can turn into a meeting several weeks later. Here’s how to put those pieces together.

Get Specific About the Practice You Want to Build

“Private equity lawyer” tells people your practice area, but it doesn’t give them much detail about where you can help. Think about the clients, transactions and industries you want more of. Perhaps you work particularly well with emerging sponsors, founder-owned businesses taking their first institutional investment or firms building platforms through acquisitions. You might have substantial experience in healthcare, business services, consumer products or industrials. That focus helps you decide what to write about, which events to attend and whom to get to know, while also making it easier for other people to understand when they should refer an opportunity to you.

A few questions can help shape that focus:

Which clients and matters are the best fit for your experience?
What do those clients need help with before, during and after a transaction?
Who influences their choice of counsel?
Where do you already have relationships you can build on?
What would you like people to associate with your name?

The answers can become the foundation for a practical marketing and business development plan for the next several months.

Understand Your Audience and What Matters to Them

Before deciding what to write, which events to attend or whom to invite to a dinner, get clear on the people you want to reach. Even within the same private equity firm, an investment professional, operating partner and general counsel may have very different priorities. Understanding their responsibilities, the pressures they face and when they’re likely to need your help gives you a much better starting point for creating content, programs and conversations they’ll find useful.

Private Equity Founders and Managing Partners

These leaders are building the firm, developing investor relationships, finding opportunities and deciding which advisers they want around them. At newer firms, they may also be establishing processes and managing a relatively small team. Content on building an investment platform, pursuing acquisitions and working through the challenges of an emerging fund can be relevant, while small gatherings with other fund founders can give them an opportunity to exchange experiences and meet people who understand what they’re building. Your marketing should demonstrate that you understand the business they’re trying to grow and the issues that come with it.

Investment Professionals and Deal Teams

Partners, principals, vice presidents and associates are involved in sourcing, evaluating and executing investments, although their responsibilities will differ by seniority. Practical content on diligence, transaction structures, financing, negotiations and add-on acquisitions can help them anticipate issues, and checklists, concise explanations and discussions based on recurring deal questions can be particularly useful. Events that connect them with relevant bankers, lenders, executives and other deal professionals can also give them a reason to participate and create additional opportunities for you to develop the relationship.

General Counsel and In-House Legal Teams

Fund general counsel and other in-house lawyers may be managing transactions alongside fund matters, governance, regulatory obligations and outside counsel relationships. They value advisers who understand their workload, communicate clearly and make their jobs easier. Content addressing recurring legal issues, developments affecting their investments and ways to coordinate work across matters can be useful, while peer discussions with other in-house lawyers give them an opportunity to compare approaches and share practical experience. These interactions can also help them understand how you work, how you staff matters and how the broader team can support them.

Operating Partners and Portfolio Company Leaders

Operating partners, CEOs, CFOs and other executives are focused on running and growing businesses. Their priorities may include integrating acquisitions, hiring leaders, managing costs, entering new markets and preparing for an eventual exit. Content on acquisition integration, management incentives, employment issues, commercial contracts and exit preparation can connect your legal experience to their day-to-day responsibilities. These conversations can also be good opportunities to involve colleagues from areas such as employment, tax and executive compensation when their experience is relevant.

Founders and Owners Considering a Transaction

A founder preparing for a first private equity investment may be navigating an unfamiliar process while continuing to run the business. Questions about control, rollover equity, their future role and what an investor will expect can all be important. Clear explanations of the process, preparation timelines and common negotiating issues can help them understand what lies ahead, particularly when the information is written for someone who hasn’t been through a private equity transaction before. Smaller discussions with other founders and experienced advisers can also give them room to ask questions and learn from people who have gone through a similar process.

Independent Sponsors and Emerging Managers

Independent sponsors and emerging managers may be building their track records, finding capital partners and developing a network of advisers while being thoughtful about costs and resources. Practical guidance on structuring transactions, working with investors and preparing for deals can be useful, as can introductions to relevant capital providers, executives and other sponsors. A recurring gathering for this community can create another reason for people to stay connected with you and with one another as their firms develop.

Referral Sources and Other Advisers

Investment bankers, lenders, accountants, consultants and other lawyers can be important sources of opportunities, but they need to understand the kinds of clients and matters that are a good fit for you. Sharing relevant deal experience, explaining your sector focus and staying in touch about the work you’re doing makes that easier. Joint programs and thoughtful introductions can help develop these relationships further and give people enough familiarity with you and your work to feel comfortable making a referral.

These audience groups are a starting point, and two people with the same title may have very different interests based on their firm’s size, investment strategy, sector focus or stage of growth. Pay attention to the questions people ask, the events they attend and the information they respond to, and ask what would make a future program useful to them. Your BD team can help capture those details and use them when planning outreach. The better you understand the people you want to reach, the easier it becomes to choose a relevant topic, make a useful introduction or create a gathering they’ll want to attend.

Build Relationships Across the Private Equity Community

Build a manageable list of people and organizations you want to know, including existing relationships as well as new ones, and work with your business development team to understand your firm’s connections before reaching out. Look beyond the most senior person at a fund because relationships with people at different levels can help you understand the organization and build familiarity over time. Someone who is an associate today may have much greater responsibility in a few years.

Each relationship also benefits from having a natural reason to develop, whether that’s a shared industry focus, an introduction you can make, a useful piece of information or an invitation to something relevant. Existing clients belong on this list too. Checking in between matters, learning what they’re working on and asking where they could use support can surface needs and opportunities that might never come up during a busy transaction.

Choose Events With a Plan

A packed conference calendar can take up a lot of time without producing much follow-through, so look at who attends, what they do and how much opportunity there will be to spend time with the people you want to meet. A gathering of founders of smaller funds may be a better fit for your practice than a much larger conference where you have limited access to the people you’re trying to reach.

Before an event:

Identify clients, contacts and prospective relationships who will be there.
Arrange a few meetings in advance.
Ask colleagues whether they can make introductions.
Look for opportunities to speak, moderate or host a smaller gathering.
Leave room in your schedule for conversations.

There may also be an opportunity to build something around the event. A breakfast, dinner or coffee with a small group gives you more time together and creates a natural reason to reconnect afterward. Capture useful details from your conversations while they’re fresh as well. Someone’s plans to expand into a new sector or hire an operating partner will give you a much better basis for follow-up than a generic “great meeting you” email.

Bring People Together Around Something They Care About

Hosting can become an effective part of a private equity lawyer’s relationship building when the group has a clear reason to be there and includes people they would value meeting. That could mean bringing together emerging fund founders, executives at portfolio companies, independent sponsors or people investing and operating in a particular sector.

Possible formats include:

A dinner for founders building their first or second fund.
A roundtable for portfolio company executives managing acquisitions.
A breakfast for sponsors investing in a specific industry.
A discussion with lenders, bankers and sponsors about financing transactions.
A gathering for women in private equity.
A conversation for founders preparing for outside investment.

Think carefully about the mix of participants because a room full of lawyers with a handful of guests creates a very different experience from a group where participants can exchange ideas with peers. A recurring series can give those relationships time to develop and help your firm become associated with a particular community. Asking participants what they would find useful next can also help shape future gatherings. Over time, that can create a community of people who turn to you for connections, information and opportunities to learn from one another.

Write About the Questions You Hear in Your Work

Some of the strongest thought leadership topics are already coming up in your client conversations. Think about what founders misunderstand about rollover equity, what tends to slow down an add-on acquisition, what emerging sponsors need to establish before pursuing their next deal or which issues repeatedly surface late in diligence. Those questions can become articles, LinkedIn posts, webinars, checklists or event discussions.

The most useful content explains why an issue matters, where it tends to arise and what someone can do to prepare. When writing about a legal development, connect it to the business implications rather than repeating what changed in the law. Keep the audience in mind as well, because a piece written for a fund general counsel will probably require a different level of detail from one written for a founder considering a first sale. Confidential information and firm approval requirements still need to be taken into account, but recurring issues and broader lessons can often be discussed without identifying a client or describing a live matter.

Build a Content Series People Can Recognize

A recurring series can give your content more direction and make planning easier. You could interview private equity founders about building their firms, speak with operating partners about growing portfolio companies or publish a series on preparing founder-owned businesses for investment. An interview series can be particularly useful because it creates a reason to develop relationships with participants while giving them an opportunity to share their experience with a broader audience.

With permission, one conversation can support an article, several LinkedIn posts, an email and even a future event topic. Your marketing team can help make the content easy to find on your website, connect related articles and relevant lawyer bios and use titles and descriptions that reflect the questions your audience is actually asking. A series will have the most value when the subject is closely connected to the clients, sectors and community you want to work with.

Use LinkedIn to Support Relationships

Your LinkedIn profile should make it easy for someone to understand your practice, including the kinds of clients you advise, your sector experience and the work you handle, within your firm’s guidelines. From there, regular activity can help you share useful perspectives and stay connected with people in your network.

That can include:

Explaining a recurring deal issue in plain language.
Sharing an article with a few sentences about why it matters.
Highlighting an approved transaction and your team’s role.
Recognizing a client’s or contact’s announcement.
Posting a takeaway from an event.
Commenting thoughtfully on posts from people in your network.

Connect with people you meet while the conversation is still fresh and include a brief note reminding them where you met or what you discussed. Following the firms, companies and people you want to know can also give you relevant reasons to reach out,

Building a Private Equity Practice Over Time

Private equity business development is cumulative. A conference conversation, an article, a LinkedIn interaction, a client introduction or a small dinner may not lead to work immediately, but each creates another opportunity to strengthen a relationship and stay connected. When these activities are part of the same strategy, they reinforce one another and give people multiple ways to get to know you and your work.

The lawyers who do this well understand the people they want to know, pay attention to what matters to them and find useful reasons to stay in touch. They share ideas when they have something relevant to say, make introductions when they see a connection, bring people together around shared interests and follow up on the conversations they start. Their marketing reflects the practice they want to build and supports the relationships that can help them build it.

Over time, those interactions add up. Staying visible, being useful and maintaining relationships across the private equity community can help you become someone clients, prospects and referral sources know, trust and think of when an opportunity arises. That’s how marketing and business development become a consistent part of building and growing a private equity practice.

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