“Great way to start the year of the Fire Horse!” (iykyk)
I enjoy due diligence.
Most lawyers don’t. It’s time consuming, detailed, and often seen as junior work. The only other lawyer I’ve said say he enjoys DD framed it this way: “as I senior, I can create immense value for my clients when during due diligence, so I don’t see it as something to punt off to juniors.”
I enjoyed due diligence because it let me go under the hood of real (successful) businesses.
Some highlights:
- While compiling a DD report of a large consumer brand, I ended up mapping retail rents across Singapore.
- I dug into the structure of multiple heathcare clinics while advising a government-backed investor building a healthcare platform. Also got to understand the business model of these clinics, the role insurance plays, costs involved… and also saw how much my doctor was paid!
- Learnt how solar power is produced, financed and sold, and considered what “sustainable” means from both an environmental and commercial perspective.
- Seeing how much money there is to be made out of trash!
I’ve also led board meetings (including being grilled on my recommendations), and watched advisers justify their analyses and synergy models. I saw what was tidy, messy, and questionable. It gave me what I wanted from legal practice: business acumen, a sharper judgment on risk, and exposure to how complex organisations function.
If you are a lawyer (or adviser) doing due diligence, my only advice is to try to enjoy it. Don’t just look for the change of control clause, or analyse term limits. Look behind the why and understand the how of the contract or organisational structure. That’s when the fun begins.
I genuinely look foward to due diligence. Unless I’m being diligenced…
DNMZ