Legal Cheek Careers sits down with Goodwin Procter’s Ravi Chopra to explore his journey in law
“I was looking for a career which would blend intellectual challenge with real-world impact,” says Ravi Chopra, partner in the private investment funds team at Goodwin Procter. “Law was the right mix for me — it’s very academic and intellectually stretching, there’s a formal training programme which gets you up to speed on statute and theory, and you’re also helping your clients make decisions which have widespread business effects.”
Chopra studied classics and modern languages at university and considered careers in banking and public policy research before settling on law. He qualified into the funds team at SJ Berwin in 2012. “I sat in litigation, funds, capital markets and tax during my training contract,” he tells me. “My litigation seat focused on funds litigation, my capital markets seat focused on M&A of listed funds and my tax seat focused on funds tax, so it surprised precisely nobody when I found myself committing to funds upon qualification,” he laughs.
As a young arts and languages graduate, this interest in funds law wasn’t something Chopra predicted. “As it happens, I thought I was going to be a litigator,” he says. “During my litigation seat, I enjoyed dispute resolution but I found the funds aspects of the dispute interesting in themselves and I kept enjoying funds work over the course of my training.” He also stresses the importance of finding the right environment. “Personality-wise, I found this crowd in the funds team who would excitedly draw up diagrams when trying to figure out complex concepts. As a self-confessed dweeb, this suited me very well.”
Chopra experienced the value of building strong team relationships following SJ Berwin’s merger with King & Wood Mallesons and the eventual collapse of the latter’s European arm. “I saw my old firm collapse around me and a lot of my team moved together to Goodwin in 2017,” he tells me. Chopra would urge young lawyers to prioritise strong relationships with their colleagues, saying: “Find the people who are intellectually interested in the same things that you are, and you feel a cultural affinity with. That’s what I did and I stuck with that team across two different firms.”
Ahead of Chopra’s appearance at Legal Cheek’s virtual event, ‘The Big Commercial Awareness Themes of 2024-25’, I am keen to discuss the commercial trends which are impacting his funds clients at the moment. “Economic volatility and higher interest rates have reduced the number of exits for fund managers recently,” he responds. “Everything has been a bit slower but we’re seeing things starting to move again as people embrace the new norm.” This slowing down hasn’t been the case across the board however: “There are a few sectors which are going gangbusters — healthcare being a good example of that,” Chopra tells me.
In the wake of this more challenging economic environment, Chopra tells me how his clients are thinking more carefully about the type of exposures they are willing to have. The layers of capital that go into an investment are known as the capital structure. This is generally divided into a debt stack, which ranges from junior unsecured to senior secured, and an equity stack, which has typically not been as structured. Chopra describes how: “We are seeing diversification in the equity stack because investors want to configure their risk-reward appetites, engaging in different forms of equity investment, and so we are seeing more activity around preferred equity solutions.”
Chopra also emphasises how having an awareness of larger commercial trends is crucial for building effective client relationships:
“Building an awareness of inflation, interest rates and the macro-economic picture is important because when a client talks to you about a particular business development, you will be able to discuss their needs in greater depth and they will feel like they’re talking to someone who understands their business, rather than to someone who just drafts contracts.”
As approach to risk is changing, Chopra has also noticed an increasingly sector-focused approach to investments, for example, increased interest in the healthcare sector. “People are leaning towards tried and tested investments which can withstand headwinds,” he says. “Healthcare is a sector in which demand is relatively stable no matter the economic atmosphere.”
I am curious to know how recent technological developments are affecting Chopra’s clients. “I have definitely seen an improved use of technology,” he responds, “particularly a greater use of automation.” He recalls the days when tasks like running election processes or checking subscription agreements were completed manually, documents stored in stacks of Lever Arch folders. “Things are much more streamlined these days,” he comments. However, Chopra is conscious of the limitations of technology. “I’m not seeing a tremendous use of AI for relationship advice and the stakeholder management piece,” he says. “There’s a very human side to any business relationship which can be boiled down to one word — trust. That places a definite limitation on how much technology can be involved.”
To wrap up our discussion, I ask Chopra for the one piece of careers advice he thinks everyone should hear. “Work hard and find your tribe,” he replies. “That is probably the best piece of high-level advice I can give.” He elaborates, “If you work hard for people with whom you share cultural and intellectual affinity, the natural outcome is that they start investing in you and helping you to develop. From there, it should hopefully all work out.”
Ravi Chopra will be speaking at ‘The Big Commercial Awareness Themes of 2024-25 — with DWF, Goodwin Procter, Irwin Mitchell, Lewis Silkin, Morrison Foerster, TLT and ULaw’, taking place virtually TOMORROW (Tuesday 12 November). Apply now to attend.
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