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Legal Trends, Deal Activity, and Chicago Sports with David Pivnick of McGuireWoods LLP 11-21-25
00:11:33
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- [00:00]
A
This is Scott Becker with the Becker Private Equity and Business podcast. Today's discussion features David Pivnick, who's a brilliant lawyer and partner, McGuire Woods. We try and handle a mix of serious subjects and non serious subjects. David's actually valedictorian of his law school class. He's an incredible leader at McGuire woods, an incredible lawyer. David, let me start with sort of I'll start on the legal and business side and then we'll move to the sports and Chicago beer side and some of the more fun topics that may or may not interest some of our audience, although some more interested in that than the business legal stuff. What are you watching and what are you most focused on? As we head into the start of 2026, the business climate seems to be all over the place. What are you sort of watching and where you must focus going into the next year?
- [00:53]
B
Yeah, I mean I think one of the things I'm, I'm focused on, and I've said this before on prior podcasts, I'm always interested in where the DOJ is focusing its enforcement actions. I think, you know, both as things sort of settled down after a shift in administration not that long ago, there's been some changeover in different offices around the country. Now coming off the heels of a government shutdown that delays some cases and backs things up, I think it will be interesting to see where enforcement priorities lie, you know, continuing to see an increased focus on things that relate in some way, shape or form to the opioid epidemic and always interested to see how those things play out. And I've had some recent discussions with government agencies on different cases, different matters related to that. And then similarly always interested in seeing, I think as we're getting a few years past the pandemic or at least the I recognize Covid has not fully gone away, but since the main throes of the pandemic, interesting to see what kind of billing and reimbursement issues and investigations have come out of both issues relating to Covid funds but also services provided during COVID So those are the things I'm actively monitoring and then you know, continuing to keep an eye, you know, less in my day to day but and what the deal market looks like and seeing how interest rates and availability of credit are impacting deal flow and what our clients are focused on because certainly spending a lot of time with with the private equity industry and working on diligence or handling litigation post closings. Always interested in seeing how the market is developing.
- [02:40]
A
And let me ask you this question when you're in the position of defending clients that might be in fights with the Department of Justice, I mean, typically you're working with large, large clients that are in really interesting spots. Are they happy when the government shuts down and can't move progress on their cases, or they feel opposite that they feel like it slows down a chance to resolve things and get a cloud behind them. What's the take from people that are under attacking the government? When the government slows down for a.
- [03:08]
B
Period of time, I don't think there's anyone who's really happy. I don't have clients that sort of look at that as good news. It's not like it's going to go away. I think clients sort of fit in two buckets. There are some who are not looking to rough things or move things along on an expedited basis and are sitting there saying, this, this is what it is. We're in no rush. And when the government comes back, when the shutdown's done and they resurface, fine, we'll move forward. And I think there are clients who are annoyed because they are looking to get things done. Whether it's, you know, the interest in selling a platform that's, that's under investigation, whether it's just not wanting to have, as you put it, a cloud hanging over them, which I think certainly is something that dictates people's perspective on these things. I think those are the dynamics that come into play. And certainly some people are annoyed by a shutdown and by sort of having a pause in movement because they want the forward progress and to drive things to a resolution sooner than later. So I think those are sort of the two, you know, extremes. I see things that it's really more from folks who are indifferent about it to folks who are upset about it because they want things to proceed, not a lot of folks who are sort of excited about it because they were. They're hoping for the delay.
- [04:30]
A
Right. Your point is well taken. If anybody runs a company and is planning to exit or sell or refinance or just know what they can do with their business practices, not having resolution can cause trouble with those situations. So, for example, you have a big piece of litigation, you can't sell, you can't exit. Refinancing can be hard. So a lot of things become challenging if you can't get it resolved. And if the government's sort of on a hiatus, you can't get it resolved. Fascinating. And you do a lot of work also in advising clients, in working with other attorneys on diligence on deals. You know, how big a problem is this for this company that we're looking to acquire or trying to sell? And what does that market look like? Is the deal market getting busier again? What are you sort of seeing out there?
- [05:19]
B
Yeah, I mean, certainly if, if our sort of internal team is any indication, I think the deal market is getting busier. You know, I think our corporate and M and A team in and our healthcare teams are both fairly busy as we approach year end here. And there's a lot of transactions that are in the process of closing near term, like this month, and many that are slated to close by year end. And so I think they've been a bit more of a lull earlier in the year and things seem to be trending very favorably and on our end, keeping it busy and then talking to peers at other firms, et cetera. I think that's pretty consistent with what I'm hearing that there had been, you know, some softness in the industry and in deal volume earlier in the year, maybe towards the end of last year, but things seem to be bubbling up and getting busy again now, which is, which is great and hopefully will continue both for our clients and for us.
- [06:14]
A
Thank you. I'd like to ask you another question and we'll just switch quickly to sports. On the sports side, what's your take on the Chicago Beers? Is it the worst 7 and 3 team you've ever seen or is it not? The defense seems to be like, you and I could be playing defense for them, but the offense seems to be scoring points. What's your take on this team?
- [06:37]
B
I mean, my, my biggest take is they're, they're better than I expected. I. I had moderately high hopes coming into the season. I was pretty underwhelmed through September even. Even with the Bears obliterating my Cowboys in Chicago, I was still fairly skeptical of how legitimate the Bears were. But as the season continues to progress and they continue to rack up wins and they've had some nice fourth quarter comebacks and a little bit of clutch play, I'm starting to become more optimistic. I'm not convinced that they're fully legit. I don't know that they're going to hold on and win the division. But I think, you know, about a month ago or a couple of weeks ago, I said do. I think this was more of a mirage than a real thing. And I think they've probably turned the corner down where it's starting to look like more of a real thing. They have a legitimate chance to make the playoffs. And at a minimum, I think this is a very promising year in the development of the team, you know, as they move forward here. So I am cautiously optimistic on that front for the Bears.
- [07:47]
A
Thank you. And then the other, really, Chicago sports story right now that doesn't get a lot of attention from everybody because not everybody is a hockey fan. You know, it's a smaller percentage. I. I think football's number one. Baseball's right there. Basketball, then hockey in terms of the general audience in the United States, and then probably maybe soccer after that in terms of the audience in the United States. But the Blackhawks, the Chicago Blackhawks are playing the best hike we've seen in seven or eight years. What is your sense there? I mean, that seems like for real, bearing any injuries and sober. They seem like a real team.
- [08:25]
B
Yeah, I think the Blackhawks are. I think they have an incredibly bright future. This was a year I thought was going to show meaningful improvement, get out of the basement and be much more competitive day in and day out. That is all unequivocally true, but I think they have a decent chance at actually making the playoffs this year. They're currently sort of sitting right on the cusp of a playoff spot. They're fourth in their division, but they look really good. They're playing competitive hockey night and night out. They're young players on the roster have made meaningful strides. Like Bedard is becoming an absolute superstar. That was always going to be his future. But you got to give the guy credit. I mean, he looked at last year, he was sort of middle of the pack in the NHL in skating, and he recognized that that was a weakness. And he spent this offseason adding about 10 pounds of muscle, but also really focusing on his skating. And this year, he's been a top 5% skater. If you look at, like, total bursts of speed over 20 miles an hour, for example, he's at the 97th percentile in the NHL this season. So he's taken something that was a weakness, or at least not a strength, and made it a real strength. And when you've got the rest of his skills, I think we're going to see a lot more nights like last night where he puts home a hat trick with goals in three different ways. And, you know, Oliver Moore is contributing. Artyom Levshinov looks terrific this year after being a little bit shaky last year and even in the first few games. So I think the roster's got a ton of young talent. We have an absolute metric ton of salary cap space for the next several years even without the cap rising. So they're going to be able to get their guys side long term and bring in, you know, free agent support. And our farm system is absolutely loaded with basically all of our top prospects having incredible seasons. So I think, you know, the Blackhawks are more competitive this year. They may have an outside chance at the playoffs. I don't know that it's a lot more than that for this season, but the future is incredibly bright, you know, for the next decade. Plus. I they got to get Bedard signed long term, but that'll happen. And everything else is is trending unbelievably favorably in the right, right direction. It's an exciting time to be a Blackhawks fan.
- [10:39]
A
I mean, it's literally amazing how it moved along because we've been talking about this farm system forever and obviously the catalyst this year when they're getting some great play from some veterans too. But between Conor Bedard coming back at a whole different level at 20 years old, Frank Nizar playing good, good hockey, the defense being managed well and playing well in the goaltending being great, it's a whole different game. And you're right, everything you read about the farm system says they got about the best list of prospects in the entire in the entire game. And it's insane to see this turnaround happen that would win so long before. David, I want to thank you as always for joining us today on the Back of Private Equity and Business podcast. Just fantastic to visit with you again. David Pivnick, one of the smartest people I've ever had a chance to work with. As good as they come. Thank you for joining us today.
- [11:28]
B
Thanks for having me, Scott. Appreciate it.