Voice of Experience: Laura Friedrich, Partner, Global Asset Management Group, Shearman & Sterling

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

In her position as a leading private equity funds lawyer and as a former hiring partner at global law firm Shearman & Sterling in New York, Laura Friedrich has learned a few things about work/life balance.

“I have two children spread ten and a half years apart,” she said. “I had my first when I was a fifth-year associate, then I had another last year. It’s interesting to see how different it feels this time – easier in some ways and harder in others.”

Friedrich is adamant in her recommendation that junior women commit to their careers for the longer term, despite periodic work/life challenges. “Too many women are looking to have everything exactly how they want it throughout their whole career,” she said. “But you’ve got to take the ups and downs as they come. I think women drop off the fast-track too soon. Anticipating that it’s going to be difficult, they don’t even try.”

“I love my career and I love my family,” she continued. “Sometimes I do feel stretched thin, but I wouldn’t give up any of it.”

In fact, when she first began her career, she herself didn’t anticipate the level she would reach in the profession. “But the momentum kept me going,” Friedrich said, “and I stayed, and I love what I do now.”

A Leader in Private Equity

What Friedrich does now is provide legal advice to private equity fund clients, particularly in the emerging markets.

A partner in Shearman & Sterling’s global asset management group, her specialty is private equity fund formation, but she represents private equity fund sponsors in all aspects of their business.

“It was complete happenstance,” Friedrich recalled. “My first assignment as a first-year associate was a private equity fund formation, and private equity was always this thing I kept coming back to. It’s been my focused specialty for the past 11 years.”

“My practice has a strong emerging markets component,” she added. “But my work in particular regions is driven by the global markets more than anything else. Latin America and Africa are particularly hot right now.”

Friedrich says one of the things she relishes about her work in the emerging markets is the opportunity to provide guidance and experience to clients who are new to private equity. “There’s a big difference working in the emerging markets as compared to the United States,” she said. “As a lawyer, your role is different. You’re often working with first-time fund managers, people starting out in the business. I really enjoy the educational component. It’s one of the most rewarding things about my practice.”

“Working in the emerging markets, the issues tend to be more complex because we’re working with legal systems and markets that are often less-established,” she continued. “But keeping clients on the right path is part of my job.”

Friedrich says she’s particularly impressed with how the investment funds business in Latin America has matured over the past few years. Shearman & Sterling recognized that trend early and pushed aggressively into the region about five years ago.

“Seeing how US regulation was expanding all over the world, we were on the front lines of educating investment fund managers in Latin America on US law issues, particularly with respect to Dodd-Frank. From a global perspective, putting the pieces together has been really rewarding.”

Friedrich says the expansive scope of US regulation means that projects on the other side of the world are often impacted by it. “Dodd-Frank has had a profound impact on my practice and the way my non-US clients operate,” she explained. “We are continuing to see it evolve. We implemented a lot of processes last year, and now we’re seeing clients living with those processes. It has been a learning experience for everyone.”

The other thing she enjoys about working in private equity is the longevity of the client relationships. “You really become a long-term partner to your clients,” Friedrich said. “I have clients I’ve been working with since I was a junior associate.  You develop a personal connection that transcends the business relationship.”

Getting Her Start

It’s all been a journey for Friedrich, a native Californian who grew up on the West Coast and went to college at Cal Berkeley. “I decided to come East for law school at the University of Pennsylvania, and then I came to New York to start my career. I never thought I would stay out here, but I got bitten by the New York City bug 16 years ago now and I’ve never looked back.”

Friedrich became a law firm partner at the tender age of 33. “It’s on the young side,” she admitted. “I’d say my career has been a straight trajectory. It has worked out well for me.”

Advice for Young Lawyers

Looking back on her early career, Friedrich says she wishes she had been more proactive when she was first starting out. “I seized opportunities as they came, but I did not always seek them out as a young lawyer,” she explained. “I think a lot of women have this experience – you learn to do as you’re told, to ‘be a nice girl,’ to do things by the book. And then all of the sudden you wake up and realize you missed an opportunity.”

For example, she continued, “My path to partnership required me to switch firms – although I’m extremely happy with where I am now. But my advice to young people is to take ownership of your own path and don’t wait for others to create it for you.”

Based on her just-completed role as one of the firm’s two hiring partners, Friedrich has particular insight into how important active career planning can be. Given the particularly bleak job market for law school graduates (the class of 2011 saw the worst job placement statistics in decades, she pointed out), she suggests that enthusiasm can make a huge difference in a junior lawyer’s career path.

“I worked with my co-hiring partner Robert Freedman to set the vision for the type of lawyer we want to be hiring here at Shearman & Sterling,” she explains. “I’d say that energy and enthusiasm are really the most important things we look for as hiring partners.”

She added, “Obviously you have to be smart and hard-working, but you add that extra bit by being enthusiastic. Lawyers like working with people who are excited about what they do. Be inquisitive.”

Friedrich notes that it’s important to know why you want to work for a particular firm or company. “Know what distinguishes them. In our interviews with law students, we always ask them, ‘Why Shearman?’ and they have to be able to answer.”

Senior Women in Law

“There are still too few women partners,” Friedrich says. “It continues to be a mystery to me why so few women stay at their firms long enough to achieve partnership. We’re not retaining women in nearly the numbers we need in order to have that critical mass at the senior levels.”

“I’m still often the only woman in a meeting or on a deal, and just the fact of being in the minority can be a challenge,” she continues, adding that this impacts leadership and opportunities to develop clients. “At Shearman & Sterling, there are a lot of women in senior roles, which was a big draw for me. Women are much more empowered here than at many peer firms in New York.”

But even at a firm like Shearman & Sterling, with a significant percentage of women in leadership, there are still challenges. “Women partners have a disproportionate number of administrative duties because there are so few of us,” she explained, pointing out that many women feel compelled to serve on more committees and panels to even out the gender balance.

She encouraged senior women to look out for one another. “And we have to look out for the next generation also. Being a good colleague is just as important as being a good lawyer. We’re a lot stronger together than we are as individuals.”

In Her Personal Time

Outside of the office, Friedrich participates in non-profit board work for the groups Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts and TADA! Youth Theater. “Both are arts related – I was very involved in dance and musical theater as a kid and it’s something I have always loved,” she said.

She continued, “It’s something I make time for in addition to raising two kids, building a practice, and traveling all over the world to serve clients. All of these things are important to me and I make time for them. You only get one chance to live this life, and I’m not going to hold back on anything.”

In addition to Friedrich’s 11-year-old and one-year-old, she has two stepchildren. “We’re all here in New York and try to spend as much time together as we can,” she said.

“Practicing law in New York at Shearman & Sterling requires a tremendous commitment, but I love that my colleagues also have lives outside this firm. We all have a lot more to contribute as a result.”