They’ve Got Next: The 40 Under 40 - Sebastian Fain of Freshfields

Please describe two of your most substantial, recent wins in practice.
I’m very proud to be representing Universal Music Group in its separation from Vivendi and sale of 10% of its equity from Vivendi to Pershing Square Tontine Holdings, valued UMG at approximately $41 billion. When completed, we will have carved out UMG from Vivendi, listed UMG in Amsterdam and completed a deal with the largest SPAC ever formed. It’s also been an honor representing AstraZeneca in its $39 billion acquisition of Alexion Pharmaceuticals, the largest US acquisition of 2020. For this transaction, we had to navigate differing transaction regimes and a complex regulatory environment all against the backdrop of COVID-19. Complex, multi-faceted, cross-border transactions like these highlight our Freshfields team’s ability to provide strategic and timely advice that has real value to our clients.

What is the most important lesson you learned as a first-year attorney and how does it inform your practice today?
You have to make yourself indispensable to your clients, be it with external or internally with senior lawyers at your firm. This entails treating every assignment—big or small—as critical to the transaction and as your own responsibility. To me, this is a two-fold process. Step one is to own your work and be ready for anything. If there was some emergency and you, even as a first-year associate, were the only one available on your team, you would be ready to answer your client’s call, understand their issues and think through solutions. This means taking ownership of workstreams and investing the time and energy in understanding your clients’ business objectives and how the agreements you are negotiating work to deliver on this subjection. While time-consuming up front, learning this sets the bar for your career and pays in dividends. Step two is to be proactive. Issue-spotting, even as a first-year associate, is critical to building trust and establishing yourself as a strategic partner to your clients. Don’t wait for clients to come to you with problems; identify pain points and provide solutions, whenever possible. Small issues can turn into significant challenges if not proactively addressed.

How do you define success in your practice?
I define success by the success of my clients. As an M&A lawyer, creating value for my clients’ businesses is paramount—be it expanding through public and private M&A or minority investments, helping them think through strategic alternatives for non-core business lines, or navigating sensitive corporate governance and activism defense scenarios. Each matter that comes to a close is a success for me because it is has helped my clients achieve its goals. On a more personal level, however, success is also building a trusted relationship with my clients, such that they are not just merely “work” relationships. Some of my most successful professional relationships are also ones I’m lucky enough to consider friends—I know their families, their personal triumphs, their challenges—and being a part of that journey is also extremely rewarding for me and is how I prefer to operate my practice.

What are you most proud of as a lawyer?
I’m extremely proud of what I and my colleagues have helped to build at Freshfields in the US, and that we have done so in a way that emphasizes the importance of diversity. We are the kind of innovative, entrepreneurial environment that is attracting like-minded lawyers, who are taking our success to the next level. What we’ve built here—particularly over the course of the last two years—is nothing short of amazing. I believe our culture of excellence and achievement are second to none. With our enhanced US team, the firm can provide top-tier service on major corporate, litigation, regulatory and international arbitration matters for clients all over the globe across the US, Europe and Asia, with six global “Band 1” rankings by Chambers Global 2021. And I am exceedingly proud that our success has validated the strength of diverse teams. Last year, 78% of partners and 72% of associates joining the firm in the US were women, racially/ethnically diverse and/or LGBTQ+—and I believe our success is substantially tied to our growth in this area.

Who is your greatest mentor in the law and what have they taught you?
When I joined Freshfields in 2018, Matt Herman, our co-head of global M&A and US managing partner, made it a point to take me under his wing and help me navigate my new firm and the next phase in my career. As a junior partner, our jobs can be all-consuming, and it requires developing new skillsets after finally mastering those that make a strong associate. Matt is a true believer in the power of teamwork, the strength of the firm on a united basis and that it is important to balance being successful in your career with your personal life. Not every client pitch will be successful and not every proposed deal with sign, but helping your colleagues achieve at the highest level while also knowing they can always count you as person are the building blocks for success.

Just for fun, tell us your two favorite songs on your summer music playlist.
Two songs on repeat on my summer playlist are “Rainbow” by Kacey Musgraves and “Got to Give It Up” by Marvin Gaye. “Rainbow” is a beautiful and uplifting song that helps make you realize that even when things are toughest, you should have faith in yourself and that there are better days ahead. And, “Got to Give it Up,” along with many, many amazing Motown classics, is great to dance to, but you can also put on at summer barbecues or at the beach and just have fun.