PK Paran moved to New York in 2019 after spending 20 years practicing law in London. “You do a certain amount of M&A in the London market with European clients, and you do get used to it,” Paran said on this week’s Drinks With The Deal podcast.

“You get very, very comfortable. Doing it with U.S. clients, U.S. deals with teams of U.S. and sometimes international lawyers, is a very different dynamic. And challenging,” said Paran, who called the move “fantastic but intense,” especially given the challenges presented by Covid.

Two years later, he joined Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP from DLA Piper as a partner specializing in insurance M&A, a move Paran discussed on the podcast.

When he changed firms as an associate, Paran said, the focus was “around the technical skill set in the execution of deals,” but as a partner the discussion is “much more around the practice as a whole, client relationships, the combined strategy between me and my team and what management wanted to do and less about your skill set in terms of drafting documents or negotiating. When you’re making these moves, most firms are taking that almost for granted and looking at business and cultural issues.”

Check out the podcast with PK Paran below:

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