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Herbert Smith Freehills teaches PE lingo to staff in race for $2.3tn in dry powder

The firm wants its lawyers ‘speaking the language of our private capital clients’

Herbert Smith Freehills’ senior partner Rebecca Maslen-Stannage wants the firm to make 20% of its revenue from private capital clients by 2025
Herbert Smith Freehills’ senior partner Rebecca Maslen-Stannage wants the firm to make 20% of its revenue from private capital clients by 2025

Deal advisers at law firms have set their sights on winning lucrative private equity clients as transactions involving buyout houses soar.

The sector’s global “dry powder” — or as yet unallocated capital — reached a record $2.3tn in June, triple the amount at the beginning of the global financial crisis. But short of buying a Patagonia gilet and hanging around Mayfair’s Berkeley Square touting for business, how can deal advisers get a larger slice of the private-equity pie?

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