The London-based legal team of The Carlyle Group – a global alternative asset manager with $195bn of assets under management and one of the largest private equity firms in the world – is comprised of three senior lawyers who work alongside Carlyle’s global GC for investments and head of Europe, Heather Mitchell. The London team works alongside colleagues in the US and Asia on Carlyle’s various funds across the globe, meaning the team is involved in investments that cover the full spectrum of geographies, sectors and deal structures – from primary deals in Africa to highprofile and market-leading auction processes. With each lawyer running around five deals at any one time, the volume of work handled is highly unusual. ‘We outpace other in-house teams in this space and I would venture to say that even some partners at top-tier firms don’t handle this volume of complex work every day of the week’, says Mitchell. The team’s uncommonly-flat structure means that its UK basedlawyers – Nicholas Rushgrove, Louise Dumican and Nick Reid – are each embedded within different funds. They work alongside their respective funds on all of their investments, acting as what Mitchell describes as ‘a mini GC’. In part, this reflects the company’s ‘One Carlyle’ approach, with a heavy emphasis placed on fostering a shared culture. Reid, who joined Carlyle in 2017 after eight years at Linklaters, comments: ‘What differentiates Carlyle is the degree of involvement its lawyers have in deals. The investment teams don’t want to consign lawyers to administrative tasks. Instead they want us to add our experience on a deal, from the inception through to the final negotiations.’ The involvement of Carlyle’s lawyers with its various funds also reflects the legal team’s commitment to developing systems and leveraging its strong relationships with law firms to help it handle hundreds of investments each year. The longest-serving member of the team, Dumican, has been particularly important in instilling this operational sophistication across the team since joining from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in 2015. ‘Our lawyers help negotiate deals and when a deal goes well they celebrate along with their deal team. It also means that we can be incredibly proactive and spot any potential issues at an early stage. The legal team has been responsible for saving a large number of deals through their restructuring efforts,’ says Mitchell. It is a view shared by other senior figures within the company. Christopher Finn, managing director and chief operating officer of corporate private equity, highlights ‘the innovative approach taken by the in-house legal team in London in working closely with and counselling our investment teams, and ultimately our investment committees’, something he says has made ‘a significant contribution to helping Carlyle find value through investments others have shied from and facilitated the turnaround of underperforming investments.’