Utility Infielder. Applied Pragmatician. Data Scientist.
Right the First Time
In 1991, as a 44-year-old second-year associate at a major San Francisco firm, I was tasked with "marrying" two complex financial structures into a new mortgage-backed security. It was a baptism by fire that required a double-all-nighter and the help of a brilliant former Stanford PhD in math for the tax structure.
That document didn't just close the deal; it became an industry model, and it was still in use by a successor major institutions years later for dozens of deals. But the real lesson wasn't in the "pyrotechnics" of the closing. It was in the realization that long-term success in multi-party transactions requires "even-sidedness."
The Takeaway: The best deals aren't won; they are built. I learned the virtues of drafting agreements that would be durable and fair enough that I would be comfortable sitting on either side of the table.