Paula Laird

Partner, Squire Patton Boggs

Biography:

Paula currently heads up the European Financial Services team within Squire Patton Boggs, which constitutes 53 lawyers specializing in all forms of financial services.  In this role, Paula is required to address the concerns of colleagues across jurisdictions and at all levels within the team and provide a clear strategy for the team to follow.

Paula’s own practice centers around her expertise in structured asset-based lending and asset finance transactions, both domestic and cross border. Her practice also spans banking and corporate support, typically acting for major financial institutions and corporates on asset finance transactions including operating leasing, receivables finance, asset-based lending, sale of leasing/asset finance portfolios and securitization.

Before joining Squire Patton Boggs, Paula was head of banking at an international law firm and, prior to that, head of legal and company secretary at a UK-based bank.  Paula is a highly-respected practitioner in the ABL and asset finance fields, having been consistently recognized by leading legal publications including The Legal 500 and Chambers UK.

Paula epitomizes the emerging breed of successful women business leaders, combining a ferocious work ethic with considerable empathic skills, sharp intellect and high-level business acumen.  She is especially good at getting to the heart of an issue, both when negotiating for her clients and when dealing with the colleagues whom she leads.

What advice would you offer to women just starting out in the industry?

Seize every opportunity! Focus on being a real expert in your field. This will involve some hard yards in the early part of your career, but will pay dividends in the long run. We are living in interesting times which presents a fantastic opportunity to develop a more diverse skill set. There will be as many possibilities for the young talent in our industry to work on distressed cases as with performing businesses, not to mention Fintech and some of the other exciting developments which are changing the market. Seeking out opportunities in order to develop as broad experience as possible will position anyone perfectly for those senior positions in the future.   

What do you know now that you wish you knew in the beginning of your career?

The importance of networking. It is never too early to build a professional network. This is particularly important for women because they have less obvious forums where they can engage with others in a business context. However, the value of having a good network cannot be underestimated. What you know is vital, but whom you know can help you demonstrate your expertise more widely and help to grow your profile. Also don’t be afraid of self-publicity.  Done in the right way, it gets the message out there that you are confident and capable and can be trusted with those important decisions.

What kind of role has mentoring and/or sponsorship played in your career?

It’s been vital. I have been fortunate to work with a number of people over the years who have really shaped the development of my career. I am now involved in a number of mentoring and thought-leadership programs, so that I can try to pass on that knowledge to women coming through (or aspiring to come through) to the senior ranks.

What do you think the industry could do to attract and retain the best and the brightest today?

We should all regard it as our responsibility to contribute to the development of a more diverse industry. This will by definition have a greater chance of attracting the very best, simply because there is a wider pool of individuals to draw from. Banking, private equity and other similar professions have historically tended to be less diverse because they are tough and involve people having to make compromises on a personal basis. Changing perceptions takes time but our industry should be at the forefront of challenging any behaviors which run contrary to the impression that the industry is other than one where talented individuals can progress and thrive based purely on merit.