#102: Matt Schwartz - Financial Transactions Attorney and Mentorship Thought Leader

In today’s episode I am excited to speak with my friend Matt Schwartz. Matt is a transactional partner and law firm leader at the international law firm DLA Piper where he serves as Chair of the US Finance Practice and the Head of Venture & Growth Lending. He has been at DLA for more than 20 years since graduating from Harvard Law School (Go Crimson) and the George Washington University (Go Colonials). At DLA and in the broader legal community, Matt is deeply committed to mentorship. He is a co-founder of and leader in the national non-profit Legal Mentor Network where he has personally mentored dozens of junior lawyers and helped facilitate hundreds of mentor-mentee partnership. He is also active in charitable efforts in the San Diego community and is perhaps most known as a baseball coach and #lawdad.  In our conversation we discuss his path to transactional work, the lifecycle of a deal, the importance of learning what you want to do by getting experiences, mentoring pest practices, the network effects of being a mentor, removing the shame from making mistakes, and the upcoming DLA Piper/Legal Mentor Bootcamp (more information below). ***Want to learn more about transactional law practice? (It is free and available to anyone).*** DLA Piper & non-profit Legal Mentor Network are hosting a four-part introduction to fundamentals and best practices for new lawyers working in a transactional practice. Each session will be eligible for 90 minutes of CLE credit and the Legal Mentor Network will provide a certificate of completion for anyone who attends all four sessions. DLA Piper has underwritten the cost of the entire program which is free to any law students or young lawyers who would benefit from the content.  Session Dates Session 1: Friday, February 17 Session 2: Friday, March 3 Session 3: Friday, March 17 Session 4: Friday, March 31 You must attend all four sessions to receive the LMN certificate of completion. All session times 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm PT 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm CT 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm ET Learn more here.  🙏 Thanks to Episode Sponsors This episode is sponsored by LegalBoard, the computer keyboard designed by lawyers for lawyers. Listen to the episode for a 10% discount on the coolest (and most helpful) piece of legal computer hardware you can find. This episode is also sponsored, edited, and engineered by LawPods, a professional podcast production company for busy attorneys. 👍 Want to Support the Podcast in 2 minutes or less? Leave a Review (this helps the algorithm connect me to new listeners) Subscribe on iTunes or Spotify Purchase How I Lawyer Merchandise Share on LinkedIn or Twitter