Allen & Overy

Louise Wolfson

Pitching, football and bikes too!

As predicted in my last blog, things have indeed been very busy.  I am mainly occupied with the IPO which I mentioned.  The last few weeks have involved many management due diligence sessions, prospectus drafting meetings, steering group calls, presentation rehearsals and termsheet negotiations.  Tomorrow is the analysts' presentation which involves the management giving a detailed explanation of the company and why it is a good investment  proposition to the research analysts from each underwriting bank.  The analysts then go away and write their research which hopefully recommends the investment.  The analysts, although connected to the underwriting banks, sit on the other side of a "Chinese wall" and are independent from the equity capital markets and corporate finance bankers.  

“Last week I was able to take advantage of one of our best staff perks and use the A&O box at Wembley.”

I have also been involved in a pitch for an IPO mandate.  This involved several meetings with the prospective client, producing a formal pitch document and several back-and-forth discussions on our proposed fees.  Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we were not selected for this transaction (in favour of the incumbent law firm) but we have been assured that we will be put forward as underwriters counsel in connection with the transaction which is good news.
One of the main focuses of attention during April is producing bills as our year ends on 30 April and we all try to bill as much as possible of our work-in-progress by that date.  I was able to bill almost all my outstanding matters which, even though the amounts were small in some cases, was still very satisfying.

We have also welcomed our new qualified lawyers to the firm and, in particular, we have two new qualifiers in our group.  They seem to have been kept very busy since they joined but, as they have the office opposite mine, by shouting across the corridor, I can make sure they don't get too idle nor get too out of their depth.

Last week I was able to take advantage of one of our best staff perks and use the A&O box at Wembley.  If the box is not being used for client entertaining, the box is made available to staff (who bid for it) in return for a donation to charity.  I successfully bid for tickets to go to see Oxford v York in the Conference Play-offs .  It was hardly the FA Cup Final but it was an exciting game nonetheless and I took my oldest two children who thought it was fantastic.  In fact, by the end of the game you would have thought that my son was a die-hard Oxford fan, the way he kept on singing, "Come on you yellows!".

We are off on another holiday adventure next week – this time we are going cycling in Holland.  Holland has the distinct advantage of being flat so we are hoping that the cycling will not be too arduous.  The kids are going on the back of our bikes so if they get tired, we can carry on without their peddling power. I am optimistic that the sun will shine and that the phone won't ring too often.  Fingers crossed –I will report back in a few weeks time.

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