Meet the Women Rainmakers!
Law Practice Today recently conducted a Q&A with Kaye Scholer Corporate Partner Diane Holt Frankle, on issues ranging from her favorite “rainmaking” tips to her proudest career accomplishments.
According to Frankle, “My favorite rainmaking tip is to stay connected to people you enjoy working with. This may sound simple but it is harder than you think. You need to be really good not only about keeping track of people’s moves and life changes, but showing that you care. Realistically this means you have to focus your attention on the people you enjoy. Over time, business will naturally come from people who respect and like you.”
On the topic of career advice, Frankle offered this: “By all means, do what you love. I truly do love advising boards of directors and I found this out by being thrust into the role, and finding that I was really quite good at connecting with boards and explaining legal issues in a way that directors could understand and respond to. I was put in positions early in my career where I was “on the spot” with boards of directors and I realized that I loved the board counselor role. I also started doing M&A work when I was a senior associate and found that I also really enjoyed being a trusted advisor, and the fact that an M&A lawyer has to be a generalist - corporate law, antitrust, securities, tax, employment, equity compensation and even litigation come into play regularly. I had the luxury of being in a firm where most other corporate lawyers preferred to work with the young exciting startups and I carved a niche for myself as an M&A lawyer partly to differentiate myself. That would be my other key piece of advice - look for some way to stand apart from the crowd.”
Finally, as her proudest accomplishments, Frankle cited: “My two wonderful boys, ages 20 and 24! Second would be the ABA Model Merger Agreement for Acquisition of a Public Company, which represents 15+ years of work, lots of collaboration, and tons of friends made along the way. I’m also incredibly proud of my role as Chair of a nonprofit ALearn, which is changing lives of Hispanic and other underrepresented middle school kids by getting them prepared to go to college. In my ‘day job’ I am proud of my reputation as a calm and trusted advisor, which makes me invaluable to my clients.”