Sidley Austin’s Private Equity Bet Pays Off

Sidley Austin launched a private equity practice later than others in Big Law, but has met with quick success, reaching revenues of $300 million for the practice and counting the likes of Clearlake Capital, KKR, and Siris Capital as clients.

Hard at Work: Building a brand from scratch in an incredibly competitive — and lucrative — practice space hasn’t been easy and has required the firm to think differently than many other Big Law firms.

Getting Serious: “Our biggest challenge of course over time was convincing clients and lateral partner transfer candidates that we were serious about private equity ...