Private equity cases related to mergers and acquisition are a substantial tenet of a major law firm’s work.
With all the information available to law firms – through an attorney or paralegal’s own research, or through a knowledge or information department within the firm – receiving the most timely and relevant information on such matters can make or break a case, particularly when it comes to cases involving private equity deals.
So far in 2018, leveraged buyouts have reached $516 billion. This is already 44% more than in 2017, and if it continues, will make for the highest dollar volume of LBOs since 2007.
The role of market intelligence
Law firms who look after clients in M&A cases that contribute to this surge need to have an awareness of the impact of such business deals on the wider industry, because it could be creating a risk that such clients need to be mindful of.
These leveraged buyouts require massive fundraising on the part of private equity firms. The risk is that private equity groups won’t be able to spend all the raised funds profitably. Nobody wants their client to be operating in such a manner.
Market intelligence will provide law firms with the information required to advise their clients accordingly. A market intelligence agency can provide information as it happens, from what competitors are doing, to what clients are doing, and what trends – like a surge in leveraged buyouts – will mean for an industry they work in. All of this adds up to your law firm maintaining client satisfaction, through demonstrating expert knowledge and a reputation for bringing solid advice, which should in turn lead to more clients.
The critical role of the human touch
There are a seemingly infinite number of market intelligence solutions available. Many of these are AI-driven. They can be a cheap and cheerful solution: input some keywords, wait for the related results to roll in.
However, this methodology can actually be very time-consuming: does your law firm have the capacity to spend resources on scouring through every tenuous link to mergers and acquisitions that AI sends you? Unlikely.
MI generated by a human will eliminate this, keeping the intelligence you receive on-point, allowing you to focus on applying it to the strategic objectives of your firm, offering your clients the best advice on their private equity dealings, and winning business. And those strategic objectives are the root of your MI questions, which leads to strategically aligned information from the human analyst.
When you realize that your AI is sending you too much to digest, all you can really do is keep testing new keywords to try and refine what you’re looking for.
With a human-centric solution, you pick up the phone and discuss it with them for five minutes – problem solved.
In the context of mergers and acquisitions, AI might be able to tell you that leveraged buyouts have surged, but only a human can identify that as being important in the context of your strategic objectives, and directly alert you to risk of private equity groups not profitably spending funds that were raised.
Connect with us on LinkedIn for more updates from legal services, and the wider market intelligence industry.
Every Wednesday, we produce a five-minute podcast highlighting key points from the legal industry.
This article was originally published on ShiftCentral, now part of LAC Group.
Kristina Montgomery
Latest posts by Kristina Montgomery (see all)
- Competitive intelligence in law firms - October 9, 2019
- 2019 SCIP International Conference - April 23, 2019
- 2019 LMA Annual Conference - April 3, 2019
