Elizabeth Buckley

Senior Counsel, McGuireWoods LLP

40 Under 40 Category: Legal Services

Biography:

Liz Buckley is a senior counsel in the Debt Finance practice group of McGuireWoods LLP in Atlanta, Georgia.   She represents financial institutions in financing transactions across a broad range of industries, including the healthcare industry.  She particularly enjoys, and focuses her practice on, asset-based loans, but also has experience with acquisition and other leveraged financings, workouts and restructurings, debtor-in-possession financings and exit financings.  

Liz joined McGuireWoods in November 2015 after working at two other law firms in their debt finance practices.  McGuireWoods LLP is a member of the Secured Finance Network.

Liz earned her J.D., magna cum laude, from The University of Georgia in 2007 and holds a Bachelor of Science in Management from the Georgia Institute of Technology.  She is a native of Atlanta, GA where she lives with her husband, Robert, and their two young sons.

What is the best professional advice you have been given and how have you implemented it? 

Don’t be in a hurry and don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. While these may seem contrary ideas, I have found both of these pieces of advice very helpful to me in my practice, particularly after I became a mother.  Don’t be in a hurry because you need to take your time and pay attention to what you are doing, especially in our practice, which is so detail-oriented.  Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good because practicing law and raising a family are both time- and energy-intensive pursuits and much of the time you will feel you are not doing one job or the other perfectly.

Do it for you.  As in, do the best job you can do and do it for your own satisfaction of knowing you did the best job you could.  Don’t look for praise from your employer, your colleagues or your clients.  You can’t control that piece, and, if it doesn’t come, it will lead to frustration.

What is your definition of success? 

My definition of success is doing high-quality work that feels meaningful to me on a team of professionals that I like and respect for clients that I like and respect.  The team piece is critical as most working professionals spend (or used to spend) more time at the office with our colleagues and clients than we do at home.

How have you managed to stay in touch with colleagues and clients during this time of working remotely?

During this time of working remotely I have found one-on-one phone calls with colleagues and clients to be most effective in terms of helping me to feel more connected.  While Zoom happy hours and meetings can be fun and helpful for certain projects, I think a call really helps people to feel connected to each other.

How do you define a good leader? 

I think a good leader is someone who is respectful of other viewpoints and perspectives, can recognize the strengths of various team members, motivate team members to work together and help each team member feel like their contribution was valuable and valued.  This requires a certain level of unselfishness and willingness to share credit, particularly with those that may be junior to you.

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

Try to be on every phone call you can be on to learn all you can about negotiations before you are expected to be the person negotiating a document, even if it is time you cannot bill.  Looking back on my career, that time was invaluable as it allowed me to observe many different attorneys and the negotiation styles they chose to employ and helped me to develop my own.  

Be solicitous of more senior lawyers and consistently ask how you can help.  

Always ask the question if you do not understand something.  If you don’t feel you can ask the senior attorney you are working with on the matter, ask someone else on your team.  What we do is not intuitive and is very different from what is taught in most law schools, so on-the-job training is essential.

If you make a mistake, own up to it.  Most mistakes can be fixed relatively easily and quickly if you do this.