Bhavjyot Kaur Singh

Senior Associate, Paul Hastings LLP

40 Under 40 Category: Legal Services

Message from Bhavjyot  Singh
Biography:

Bhavjyot Kaur Singh (Bhav) is a senior associate at Paul Hastings LLP. She has developed a reputation among her clients for her ability to navigate convoluted legal issues in a commercial manner and push even the most complex transactions across the finish line. 

Bhav principally represents administrative agents and lenders providing several billions of dollars in credit, including numerous credit facilities extended by her clients to private equity sponsors to finance the acquisition of a wide variety of companies across industries and sectors, including in the software, hospitality, and healthcare spaces. Bhav also works on restructuring matters and borrower-side representations. 

Bhav obtained her law degree from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law and completed her undergraduate studies at Cornell University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa (in the top 10% of Cornell University’s College of Arts and Science). In March 2019 she served as moderator of the “How to Get Ahead” panel at the 2019 SFNet’s Women in Secured Finance Conference held in New York City. In April 2020, she was profiled in The Secured Lender magazine’s Women in Secured Finance Issue.

Bhav is admitted to practice law in New York and Illinois. 

What advice would you give to forthcoming generations of talent aspiring to win this award? 

Become a go-to person. Whether it is a work product or deliverable you are crafting, a panel you are speaking on, or an industry conference you are attending, view each opportunity as a building block so that one day you will be the first number others dial to discuss a specific topic or issue. Becoming a go-to person and building expertise doesn’t mean you have to know everything about a certain topic; it just means others recognize and commend you for your passion, enthusiasm, trustworthiness and judgment. They know to call you because you will get the job done and that you are someone they can count on no matter what. In addition, I would say pay forward all of your positive experiences. If someone has mentored you and greatly uplifted your career and potential, mentor someone else in return and do the same for them. If you were provided with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity by someone during your career, provide someone else a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity too. I think there is so much joy and grace in this. 

How do you define a good leader? 

In my view, the best leaders have empathy and are in tune with the issues (professional, personal and societal) that their teams care about. There has been a real shift in the past few years in what talented people are looking for in terms of company and team culture. They want a fulfilling experience professionally that they can look back on in a few years and really be proud of. This means doing excellent, high quality work, mentoring others, and also putting forth resources and time to address the most pressing societal and social issues of our time. If the past few months have taught us anything, it is that each of us should really strive to invest in each other, our institutions, our communities, and our society at large. The best leaders, in my opinion, allow their team members to really create an impactful professional legacy that they will be proud of for years to come.

What advice do you normally give to the junior talent you mentor?

The advice that I always give to junior team members is to develop yourself into someone who others unconditionally trust and view as a distinctive asset in the workplace. That means, if you are assigned a task or responsibility, see it through to completion and be monitoring timelines, quality and expectations at every turn. If you are organizing a client event or social event, be fully invested in it and do your absolute best to make the event a success. No matter how large or small the task is that you are doing, immerse and invest yourself fully in it. Others will see that initiative immediately and become keen on aiding your development and advancement because they will cultivate respect for you on a personal and professional level. I also tell my junior team members to be communicative. Strong communication skills, more than anything else, often save the day when there is a difficult or high-pressure situation at hand. Lastly, don’t be afraid to advocate for yourself. If you are passionate about a specific project or initiative, make that known. Let senior team members know how they can help you achieve your goals. The world belongs to those who ask.