Paul S. Levy L’72, Senior Managing Director of New York investment firm Joseph Littlejohn and Levy, and the newly installed Chairman of the Law School’s Board of Overseers delivered the Law & Entrepreneurship Lecture “Private Equity: Difficult Investing in a Difficult Time.” He began with an explanation of how he made the transition from law practice to investment management.

“I didn’t particularly enjoy practicing the law. I was chafing at the bit to strike out on my own. My legal training taught me about process that has served me well in structuring deals.”

In 1983 he was with the investment firm Drexel Burnham & Lambert in New York. “I was one of two people in the Special Situations Group working on the firm’s clients that had gotten into trouble, based on their balance sheets.” He shared a lesson he learned very quickly, “when you’re working with a troubled company, speed is of the essence.”