The career of Nicole Macarchuk career has paralleled the evolution of the asset management industry, she said on this week’s Drinks With The Deal podcast.

Macarchuk joined Dechert LLP as a private equity partner in San Francisco last year after 18 years as an in-house lawyer at Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC, KKR & Co. (KKR) and Angel Island Capital Services LLC.

In that time, hedge funds such as Och-Ziff moved into private equity, while PE sponsors such as KKR expanded into other alternative investments, such as credit. Angel Island also exemplifies the trend; Golden Gate Capital LP started it as a credit boutique.

Toward the end of her time in house, Macarchuk said, she realized she wasn’t “getting as much joy out of the implementation as I thought I would.”

Instead, she enjoyed the legal innovation required to allow asset managers to move into new areas — a trend she said will likely continue. Having been an in-house lawyer, she knows what her clients are focused on from a legal and a business perspective, which helps her be a more effective counselor, she said.

Listen to the podcast with Nicole Macarchuk:

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