She also debunks one myth about commercial lawyers
As a corporate lawyer, Tayla McEntee has quite a few feathers in her cap. The DLA Piper senior associate has worked with the likes of AIG, Liberty Global Solutions, Brockwell Capital, Beazley, Five V Capital, Dairy Farms Partnership and San Franscisco-based Evergreen Services Group on divestments, acquisitions and insurance matters since her admission to the bar in 2019. Her experience extends across the technology, media and consumer goods, food, and retail sectors.
She is also keeping her finger on the pulse of AI and how it will change lawyers’ day-to-day tasks. In the second part of this interview with NZ Lawyer, McEntee debunks one myth she’s heard about commercial lawyers, and explains how election year is affecting the M&A landscape.
What’s one misconception you think people have about lawyers, and how would you correct that misconception?
That we can get stuck in the detail and can't be commercial, or that we are not interested in the commercial rationale. In M&A, the more we understand about the target's sector and business and the client's rationale for buying or selling, the easier it is for us to focus on the winning the most critical points in negotiation for our clients.
What challenges are particularly pressing in the country’s legal industry?
From an M&A perspective, there is a lot of general uncertainty about the global economic climate, as well as it being an election year in New Zealand. This is making deals move quite slowly and can increase costs for clients.
More generally, I am interested to see how the increased use of AI develops our role and outputs as lawyers. On the whole, I think there is a lot of potential for AI to provide increased efficiencies so we can focus on the most critical matters, which will benefit us as lawyers, as well as our clients.
What are you looking forward to the most in the coming year?
I am shortly heading on maternity leave, but I am excited to see how the use of AI develops in lawyers' day-to-day activities, particularly where efficiencies can be made to the more time-consuming tasks.
