Catherine Naroz

Give a brief overview of your role at the firm now, when you joined and your background before joining

I am a Counsel in the Corporate – M&A group and joined Clifford Chance in 2020 after 8 years in the Paris office of a Tier 1 U.S. law firm, which was my first professional experience as a lawyer after having graduated from Panthéon-Sorbonne Paris I University with a Master’s degree in Corporate and Tax Law and a Magistère in Economic Activities Law. I am covering a broad scope of activities and have therefore worked through the years on many varied transactions, including public M&A and private M&A deals, corporate governance and disclosure matters for French issuers and capital market transactions (including financial restructuring of listed companies). I am representing leading public and private organisations in various business areas.

Why did you become a lawyer and what prompted and sustained your pursuit?

Because becoming a lawyer was offering the guarantee of never being bored! I am usually working on quite complex and unique deals which are therefore challenging, intense and intellectually highly stimulating. Each deal is different and an occasion to encounter new challenges, which encourage to come up with new ideas and new actions. The working environment where you are surrounded by qualified and clever people (both at the level of the firm but also at the level of our clients) is also highly inspiring and motivating. Closeness to these people is definitely one of the best part of my job as a lawyer. With respect to your clients, you are encountering various profiles from the top management, the core business team or the legal or finance departments that implies to understand their respective needs and constraints, their business, the challenges they are facing and then to give a legal advice with a commercial insight. With respect to the firm, our work as a lawyer cannot be done without other lawyers from the Corporate – M&A team and from all other practices and business professionals but also from other offices around the world: we are individually a small part of a global team and network and no one should not lose sight of the importance of this collective work.

How would you describe the culture and atmosphere at Clifford Chance?

Excellence, teamwise, caring, diversity and inclusion are terms that define the culture and atmosphere at Clifford Chance. Clifford Chance not only cares of its clients but also of its people, in particular those who are facing an increasingly complex environment that the pandemic has nourished, and the firm is embracing numerous professional challenges that has emerged over the past years. The diversity of our clients and people and our permanent sake for excellence and care for the right clients, right people, right markets and right work keep pushing us to challenge and to innovate in order to adapt our working environment and methods. It allowed us to demonstrate our resilience through the sanitary crisis, our ability to work remotely in the most efficient way, our capacity to develop and offer technological tools to our clients to facilitate their work with us and the strength of our relationships with our clients and our people. It is finally the echo of the team spirit and rewarding culture of the firm which is really outstanding and is one of the things that struck me when I joined the firm. We are a team comprised of brilliant and hard work lawyers and business professionals who each deserves to be included and involved in each collaborative project – and in particular each transaction for which we receive the trust of our clients – which cannot be achieved alone. This is why Clifford Chance aims at making each person working at the firm feel that he/she is a significant part of this ambitious, motivating and leading global firm. And this is why I think we all love working together, which makes a real difference both for us internally and for our clients.

What are the key skills you have developed here which have been invaluable to your career?

Thinking of solutions instead of focusing on legal issues is key as our clients are expecting us to make deals moving forward and be successful.It is also crucial to have an excellent understanding of your clients’ business, needs, constraints and challenges they are facing in order to be able to provide an adequate and efficient legal advice with a commercial insight and to efficiently lead negotiations on any M&A transaction. It will also help you to have a global vision and understanding of a transaction in all its aspects, which is what is expected from a Corporate – M&A lawyer. Being a good Corporate – M&A lawyer further requires to be highly responsive and thorough as we are usually involved in very intense and strategic transactions for our clients. Taking into consideration the various profiles and keep getting to personally know the persons you are working with and learning from them is essential if you want to be a good manager, which requires to be able to question yourself, to motivate and train your team and to be federative as we are ‘one team’.

Lastly, I have learnt to never be afraid while remaining humble. We have to work with agility and never be afraid to step out of your comfort zone given the broad scope of Corporate – M&A transactions we are involved in and to stand up for your opinions or positions and those of your clients as we always work in their interests, not ours.

What do you like most about your job?

I never get bored! Each transaction is unique and requires solving complex legal issues, which is challenging and intellectually highly stimulating. Being a lawyer also matches my personality as I like the contact with people and I am meeting every day new people with a lot of different personalities, from very different backgrounds and jurisdictions. Furthermore, being part of transforming transactions for your clients make you feel useful. Lastly, the more you become senior the more you build close relationships with your clients and participate in more strategic, financial and commercial reflexion by their sides, going therefore beyond legal advice.

What do you notice and value most about the people?

As already mentioned, being conscious and take into account the contribution of others on a transaction and therefore acting as a team player is essential for any M&A transaction. The kind of complex and multijurisdictional transactions I am working on also require people to be curious, rigorous, persevering, responsive and deeply involved. Never take your opinions for granted as Corporate law is often not an exact science and we have to think rather than simply duplicate what has been done in the past in order to avoid mistakes and make sure we have properly assessed all aspects and potential issues of a transaction, which is key to deliver the best advice to our clients and reduce its risk exposure. Lastly, never forget that we are humans and have to consider others in a respectful manner, with kindness and gratefulness and remain humble, loyal and fair in all circumstances while trying to motivate and inspire others, in particular young lawyers, as much as possible.

What is your key advice for anyone considering a career at Clifford Chance? 

Be audacious, patient and hardworking. Becoming a lawyer is rewarding and is worth it but needs to accept to work hard and make continuous progress but also to learn continuously through the years to gain in knowledge and in confidence. But it is a role in which your expertise and your autonomy is every day larger.

What's the best piece of advice you've received since joining the firm?

Never take your opinions or positions for granted as every situation is unique and try to remain as humble, loyal and openminded as possible. Also never forget that no lawyer can have his/her work properly delivered alone and that the collective takes precedence over the individual, so you need to care of, involve and motivate the people you are working with, both internally and externally.

What is the most exciting deal you have worked on ?

All of them as they have been quite diverse but not less interesting and challenging. I have recently advised a PE sponsor and its portfolio company on the IPO of the latter on Euronext Paris, an international bank in the context of the transfer of its retail banking activities in France to another bank or the founders of a French leading and independent producer of photovoltaic energy to a French listed company. Working with very different types of clients on very different types of transactions is very stimulating.

What motivates you?

The recognition of the importance and quality of your work by our clients and their trust and loyalty, as well as the trust, loyalty and unwavering commitment of our Clifford Chance colleagues is highly rewarding and motivating.