Meet Catherine Dargan, Covington's new corporate and M&A practice head

Meet Catherine Dargan, Covington's new corporate and M&A practice head

March 29, 2021, Reuters

Reuters interviewed Catherine Dargan about her role serving as head of the firm's M&A and corporate practice. and also included a discussion about  diversity within the corporate legal industry.

Speaking about diversity in Mergers & Acquisitions , Ms. Dargan says, “We are seeing more women and diverse lawyers, but M&A as a field of law has been slower to see change.” She noted that even now, it's still "very common" to see firms field teams consisting entirely of white men.

She singles out Covington's policy of avoiding origination credit for “creating a culture of opportunity. For women and diverse lawyers like me, it can make a world of difference.” She adds, “At other firms, it can be hard to break into client relationships and hard to develop opportunities. But the sky was the limit for me here.”

Regarding mentorships at the firm, she says she found lawyers who “took a lot of time to create opportunities for me, and who gave me candid feedback. The challenge for me was developing my own style.” Now in a position of leadership, she hopes to be a mentor to young M&A lawyers. “I'm incredibly encouraged every time I meet a young lawyer who is a woman and diverse, whether at Covington or on the other side. Mentorship is critical to building the next generation of lawyers in the deal space — but there's still a lot of room to improve,” she adds.