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For Josh, risk isn’ t something to eliminate, it’ s something to understand, weigh, and manage against the larger objective.“ It comes down to commerciality and weighing costs and benefits. It’ s like planning a military patrol: you have to ask what the overall goal is, where the biggest risks are, and what you can do to encourage simplicity and mitigate those risks without compromising the mission.”
The military influence shows up in how he handles pressure.“ People take their cue from you,” he says.“ A fellow veteran told me early in my career that people will sometimes treat routine work issues like dire emergencies, when really, they just need to be prioritized accordingly. If you can hold onto that perspective, you skip the panic and go straight to solving the problem – that’ s where you add the most value.”
Years after leaving military service, Josh still approaches each matter with similar questions: What’ s the objective? What stands in the way? How do we move forward? What needs to happen next? That feedback loop- objective, obstacle, solution, next step- shows up whether he’ s reviewing a financing arrangement, a fund document, or a transaction agreement. It’ s a mental framework carried straight through from the Army to the deal table.
Path to private equity
After leaving active duty in 2015, Josh enrolled in Northwestern University’ s joint JD – MBA program through the Pritzker School of Law and Kellogg School of Management. After graduating, he joined Kirkland & Ellis as a restructuring associate during a period that included surge in restructuring activity spurred by the Covid-19 pandemic, an experience that gave him a multidisciplinary perspective.
“ I’ ve heard restructuring described as the last bastion of the generalist in Big Law, and I think that’ s fair,” Josh says.“ In restructuring, you have to understand how a company’ s business model, capitalization table, strategic transactions, commercial contracts, and litigation all intersect with the bankruptcy code, so you get comfortable picking up new subject matters quickly and leading processes across multiple workstreams and practice areas.”
As Clearlake has built out its platforms into liquid credit, private credit, and other private markets solutions alongside the flexible mandate that is core to its private equity roots, that breadth has become more valuable as legal questions move across strategies. Looking back, the move from restructuring to private markets wasn’ t as big a leap as Josh initially expected.“ When I first came to Clearlake, I saw it as stepping into a brand-new specialty,” he says. The real difference was one of perspective, not subject matter.“ The longer I’ ve been here, the more I’ ve realized the role rewards curiosity and sound judgment across practice areas, rather than deep specialization in one,” Josh says.“ To some extent, good lawyering is good lawyering.”
While Clearlake’ s growth has expanded both the volume and variety of issues Clearlake’ s legal team is called on to navigate, Josh sees consistency beneath the complexity.“ There’ s rarely a typical day. The legal questions are varied, but it always comes back to the same process.” He focuses on understanding timing, asking the right questions, evaluating key risks and opportunities, and collaborating with business teams to come to a decision.
Kirkland & Ellis ___________________________________________________
With a global platform of more than 4000 lawyers in 24 cities across the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, Kirkland & Ellis provides elite legal advice and a relentless commitment to client service. Kirkland is a market-leader in each of its core practice areas including private equity, M & A and other complex corporate transactions; investment fund formation and alternative asset management; restructurings; high-stakes commercial and intellectual property litigation; and government, regulatory and internal investigations. We are honored that Joshua Robinson began his career at Kirkland and grateful for the longstanding relationships we have cultivated with Josh and Clearlake.
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