About

As general counsel of $4bn investment manager TPG Growth, Matthew Coleman heads a small legal team. ‘The biggest challenge I have faced is the global nature of our business,’ he says. ‘No two transactions are the same, and when you add in the complexity of investing in and owning companies on five continents, the issues increase exponentially’. He adds: ‘It’s both the biggest challenge I face and the most interesting part of my job’. Coleman has already drawn considerable praise for his handling of these pressures. ‘Matt does an amazing job leading the legal work associated with the global investment strategy of TPG Growth,’ says Kevin Schmidt at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP. ‘The diversity of transactions on his plate – from minority investments in far-off countries to control investments in the US – requires an impressive range of substantive legal knowledge, wise judgement, commercial savvy and boundless energy. Matt delivers these qualities to his organization and his business colleagues in abundance’. The lean nature of TPG’s legal function requires complex and integrated systems, including an extensive network of outside counsel, and during his two years as general counsel, Coleman has built up in his words ‘a legal operation and ecosystem that provides high quality, efficient legal coverage’ for the global business. These have included building a global advisor network to support transactions across the US, Europe and Asia Pacific and monitor the Group’s entire portfolio. He has also developed a transaction manual and implemented a D&O insurance policy for all portfolio companies. With TPG’s heavy reliance on outside counsel, Coleman has firm expectations of the lawyers he hires. ‘I am really pushing our law firms to be problem solvers,’ he says. ‘We pay our firms for top-notch advice, not just and manpower and issue spotting’.