Q&A: Partner didn’t plan to work in corporate group but now can’t imagine a different career

While Faegre Drinker partner Brittney Yocum had a rather traditional trajectory from law school to her career, she was in for an unexpected twist when she was found herself working in a corporate group at her first firm, igniting her passion for mergers and acquisition work.

Now, she’s using her talents in middle-market work, supporting clients—many of whom run family-owned businesses—who are ready to forge a new path and navigate the logistical and often emotional decisions that come with selling their business.

Read on to see how Yocum guides clients through the transition, and what she anticipates 2026 could look like for the M&A sector.

How did you come to be involved in merger and acquisition work?

My career path followed a traditional trajectory from law school to being a summer associate at a law firm and then practicing at a law firm.

As a law student, I actually envisioned a career in litigation, but I’m grateful that the first firm that I worked at placed me in the corporate group, and in that corporate group is where I discovered my passion for transactional work, and then within a few years, realized I was most interested in mergers and acquisitions.

What about it interests you?

I really like the blend of legal, strategic and business considerations that come together with each transaction. I enjoy getting to know my clients’ businesses when they are at the stage that they are considering an exit when I’m working on the sell side. And also understanding what matters most to them to help them structure a deal in a way that helps meet their goals.

What kind of M&A work are you best known for?

I am best known for and do the most work in middle-market M&A, and really that means that most of my transactions are in a price range that’s less than $100 million. Many of my clients are closely held or family-owned businesses.

I do work with some private equity-backed businesses, which looks different than a closely held or family-owned business. But even with the private equity-backed clients, the types of deals that I’m doing would fall within middle-
market M&A.

What’s the biggest deal you’ve worked on?

The first M&A deal that I brought to the firm myself was a deal where I represented a founder who was a good friend who I met through showing horses with his wife. And because he and I were such close friends, I really understood the psychological impact that going through the sale transaction had on him, because he had grown this business from nothing. He was very concerned about the future of his employees and whether he was doing the right thing and selecting the right buyer. How that impacted him as a person, [and] having such direct insight into that because I was close to him had a lasting impact on how I now view transactions where I’m representing similar sellers.

Working on that transaction, [I learned] the importance of gaining your client’s trust and communicating with the client through the whole sale process and really being available to act as a trusted adviser to him. A lot of our conversations weren’t necessarily about substantive deal points in the purchase agreement. It was more about a sale process in general [and], what he should be looking for in a potential buyer. There’s a lot more of a broader view of the transaction than simply just the legal terms in the purchase agreement.

What are the keys to closing a deal?

I would say the keys to closing a deal are keeping both parties focused on their shared goal of getting a deal done, and if each of those parties has a clear understanding of what their non-negotiable deal points are, versus where they are willing to compromise, and they’re able to communicate those positions well with the other side, then it’s easier for the parties to find the practical solutions.

When issues come up along the transaction, the parties need to work together to find the solutions to be able to get to closing and avoid getting stuck on issues that won’t move the deal forward. And that’s something I like about doing deal work … that both parties are trying to get to the same end goal. It’s just a matter of what needs to happen on the path of getting to that end goal, and where the parties will negotiate or compromise on points. But at the end of the transaction, both parties should feel like winners.

What are the biggest lessons you’ve learned?

Really hard work [and] long hours are essential to becoming an excellent attorney. I think a key aspect of being successful is also prioritizing client service, which looks like responsiveness, gaining the trust of your client, communicating well with them. All of those are important areas to focus on in order to become a successful attorney and specifically a successful M&A attorney.

What’s your best advice for aspiring M&A attorneys?

My best advice goes hand-in-hand with the lessons I’ve learned. My advice would be to work really hard and always prioritize client service when they’re just starting out. That might look like treating the supervising attorneys that they’re working with like their clients and being very responsive and proactive when working with other attorneys.

And then when they reach the point in their careers that they’re working directly with clients, it’s having that same service mindset when it comes to helping clients and being committed to their clients to help them achieve their goals.

What are your best M&A predictions for this year? What sectors do you think will heat up or cool down?

My prediction—and also my hope—is that M&A activity will pick up as market conditions stabilize and there’s greater certainty around economic trends in U.S. trade policy.

I believe that service industries will continue to show resilience and strength, because they are less susceptible to some of these market conditions and have been areas of M&A that have consistently been busy, and I think that they’ll continue to stay busy.•