An excerpt in a recent article in The Economist really stuck with me:

Lawyers have ascended, in rank and wealth, above the accountants, consultants, and investment bankers who comprise the rest of the corporate consiglieri. Profits per lawyer at the 100 largest law firms have increased by 54% since 2019, according to an industry report by the Thomson Reuters Institute, a research group.

There's a lot to dissect in the article, but it can't just be about money. There's more to it.

How did they do it? Not by taking risk. Not by building companies. But by sitting exactly where risk, capital, and 'control' of the market intersect.

That feels even more true when you zoom in on BigLaw and in particular private capital.

Within that world, there's now a smaller, more powerful group emerging in the thirst for liquidity solutions:

Secondaries and GP Stakes lawyers

The Economist's point is that corporate lawyers don't "win" in the traditional sense. They win because they shape the game before it's even played.

Having started my career as a traditional M&A and PE lawyer, I think that has somewhat been the case there, but in the growing Secondaries and 'staking' transactional spaces, nothing rings truer.

Where M&A lawyers run deals, lawyers across liquidity solutions run CVs, GP-leds, strip-sales, pref equity, GP-stakes and they're controlling the leverage in the private capital space. They sit right in the middle of:

  • GP motivation (liquidity, optics, control);
  • LP pressure (pricing, fairness, process); and
  • capital (who actually shows up, and at what price).

Of course, you can argue that it's the sponsors or GPs running these decisions, however the lawyers are central to the advice and execution of these deals and are often working directly with the GPs, LPACs, or owners of these PE houses. In M&A, you're rarely in the same rooms as the biggest decision makers.

The Compensation Tells You Everything

If you want a clear signal, just follow the comp.

M&A is still strong, but it's relatively linear. Secondaries isn't:

  • senior associates stepping up are hitting ~$1m+ all-in
  • next-gen partners are regularly in the $1m–$3m range
  • and the top end goes well beyond that.

Financial News in London spoke with me about competition for secondaries lawyers and the market for this talent.

I’ve linked both articles here:

The Australian Takeover

Chances are, if you've worked on a secondaries deal, you've heard an Australian accent on the other end of the call. It's not accidental.

Over the past decade, Australians have become disproportionately represented across the leading secondaries teams globally, from New York and London to Hong Kong. I've personally placed Australian associates and partners across all three markets, and the pattern is consistent.

Part of this comes down to timing. During the early expansion of Biglaw secondaries (from around 2015 onwards), there was a clear shortage of lawyers who could operate across both M&A and funds. Australian-trained lawyers, with typically broader early exposure, were well positioned to fill that gap. They were able to move between structuring, execution, and sponsor dynamics more fluidly than their more specialized US or UK counterparts.

But it's not just training. There's also a commercial edge, and a certain "unserious seriousness", that tends to land well in secondaries teams: technically strong, but pragmatic, adaptable, and comfortable operating in evolving, less clearly defined situations.

Today, Australians are embedded across many of the leading platforms in the space, including Kirkland & Ellis, Goodwin, Debevoise, Fried Frank, Paul Weiss, and Gibson Dunn.

Q1: What We’re Seeing on the Ground

Q1 marked our first full quarter at GPS Advisory. We’ve been encouraged by the response in the US and UK to our legal search and advisory work across private capital.

We take our role seriously: advising lawyers on decisions that shape their careers and practices.

Across the market, the message to us has been clear:

  • demand across secondaries, GP stakes, and funds continues to accelerate
  • more firms (and recruiters) are moving into the space, with true expertise becoming increasingly differentiated with the maturation of the market
  • continued expansion into adjacent areas, including finance, tax, family office, and broader private capital

GPS is proud to work across these platforms in both an advisory and search capacity and we look forward to continuing the conversation across the market.

Explore GPS’s secondaries and private capital legal search practice.

Speak soon,

~Stef

Stefano grew up in Australia where he practiced as a Corporate and Funds Lawyer, before moving to the US to work in Secondaries. He is now a Partner at GPS Advisory, a specialist search and advisory firm.