Willkie partner Komal Raina shares her career journey, insights into 2025 market trends and the career advice she thinks everyone should hear
“Every transaction brings interesting challenges,” says Komal Raina, finance partner at the London office of US law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher. “When I was a junior lawyer, we had a deal that couldn’t close because the target company, a gelato maker, had purchased pistachios from an Iranian supplier. We couldn’t meet ‘Know Your Client’ requirements due to the sanctions risk.” She laughs, adding, “Who would’ve thought pistachios could stall a transaction?”
Raina studied law in India, worked at a Magic Circle law firm, and moved to its London office as an associate in 2010. “I had no plans of moving overseas,” she tells me, “but it was a great opportunity. I thought, ‘If I hate it, I can always come back!’” After nine years with the firm in London, Raina made the move to Willkie, working in the finance team where she made partner in 2022.
“I figured out pretty early in my career that I liked transactional work. That was a clear choice for me,” she says. “I really enjoy the pace of transactions. I find working on a short timeline to a known end-goal rewarding from a personal motivation and satisfaction perspective.” When asked why she was drawn to finance in particular, Raina tells me, “The clients and other lawyers that we work with are really high-quality professionals and leaders in their fields. It’s a privilege to work with smart people who are creating these products which didn’t exist 20 years ago.” Raina also undertook a secondment to New York early in her career where she gained experience in distressed debt trading, “That further guided my interest towards finance, and leveraged finance in particular.”
I am curious to know what Raina considers to be the essential skills aspiring lawyers need to work in this dynamic area of law. “Being excited about and taking ownership of your work is such a fundamentally important skill,” she says. “If you do this, you will enjoy your work that much more, compared to having to have someone direct you.” Other important qualities include, “really good attention to detail, ambition and a level of dynamism, and having an eye open for where opportunities might be,” she lists. Raina is also quick to point out the value of adaptability in finance lawyers, “Things don’t always stay the same, you have to be ready and willing to evolve,” she says. “Respond to where the market’s moving, where the transactions are moving, and where your clients’ interests are moving.”
So where is the market moving at the moment? “A big change that has happened over the last 12-18 months is the interest rate rise,” Raina tells me. “We had such a long period of depressed interest rates that the whole market was operating at a completely different level,” she confesses. I am curious to know how this has affected Willkie’s finance practice. “With the interest rate hikes, suddenly the cost of borrowing went through the roof for a lot of businesses,” says Raina. “What we’ve seen in this time is a lot of amendments, waivers and readjustments. Some businesses have found themselves with cash flow shortages and they’ve had to work with their lenders again to reset their covenants.” However, Raina suspects that a change of pace is on the horizon. “I think what we are going to see in the next 12 months is more new mergers & acquisitions (M&A) activity and consequently more new money financing activity.”
The resurgence of new M&A activity following a relative slow-down in 2022-2023 has been much anticipated, with many hoping that 2024 would be the year the phoenix rises from the ashes. I ask Raina how the year has been treating finance practices so far. “It’s been a tale of two halves,” she answers. “The year started a bit slow but in the second quarter, activity went up significantly. We were still doing a lot of repricing, refinancing and the like”, she adds. “There was new M&A activity as well but not at the level that some anticipated.”
Looking to the future, Raina predicts that “the end of the year may still be a bit patchy. If there were new processes which had to complete before December they should really have kicked off by now, so those considering deals this year may push them into early next year,” she confesses. Though, Raina is quick to clarify that any ‘patchiness’ is only in the context of an otherwise buzzing practice area. “Don’t get me wrong, we’re busy,” she says. “There’s always stuff to do!”
I am curious to know what it was about Willkie and its finance practice that attracted Raina to the firm five years ago. “I joined Willkie at the end of 2019 when it was still a relatively small practice in London. This marked the start of the rapid growth that we have seen over the last five years,” she replies. Joining at this early stage gave Raina the room to establish herself. “For me,” she says, “it was an opportunity to be at the firm at a time when Willkie was looking to expand. I knew that this would enable me to develop a practice of my own.”
This is certainly what Raina has achieved, making partner at Willkie after two years at the firm. How did she find the road to partnership? “It is a bit harder when you have moved to a new firm,” she admits. “This is because you don’t have the luxury of time — you need to grab every opportunity to present yourself well, and make sure your colleagues know what you can do.” Raina emphasises the “amazing” support she received from Willkie during her partnership application. “I have to say I did receive incredible support. The general culture at Willkie is very welcoming; it’s not odd to knock on the door of another partner and say ‘Hey, I’d like to talk about my career’. They might have nothing to do with your practice, but they will nevertheless welcome a chat about your prospects.”
To wrap up our discussion, I ask Raina what piece of advice she would like to share with aspiring solicitors. “Can I give two?” she asks, smiling. “Firstly, remember that your peers are people you will inevitably come across throughout your career, so always keep in touch”, she says. “You won’t wake up one day with a network; the connections you make over the course of your career become your network, so bear this in mind from the outset.” Perhaps thinking of the leap she made over to the UK in 2010, having never previously considered a career outside of India, Raina shares her second piece of advice: “If you get an exciting new opportunity, even if it seems slightly tangential, say yes! Try something different, try something new. It might work out to be something you really enjoy.”
Meet Willkie at ‘Market trends for 2025 — with Willkie’, a virtual event taking place on Tuesday 1 October. Apply now to attend
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