Tim Mackey is the Chief Legal Officer and Group Compliance Officer at SoftBank Group Corp., the Tokyo Stock Exchange-listed investment holding company with over $160bn invested in telecommunications, internet services, AI, smart robotics, IoT and clean energy technology providers, including the SoftBank Vision Funds and SoftBank Latin America Funds (Vision Funds), and a range of Japanese domestic companies. He was a Milbank associate from 2005-2014, spending time in our Tokyo and Singapore offices. We recently spoke with Tim about his role at SoftBank Group and his experience at Milbank.
Tell us about your current role at SoftBank. What is a typical day like for you?
SoftBank Group Corp. (SBG) is the parent company of SoftBank Corp. (domestic mobile communication company, also listed in Tokyo Stock Exchange) and several Japanese domestic companies. Through the SoftBank Vision Funds, we are one of the biggest technology investors in the world. We also own Arm, a semiconductor architecture company, and have large holdings in T-Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, and numerous other technology and telecommunications companies globally. As a global company with exposure to countless different industries and spaces, the range and diversity of issues we confront makes the job both fascinating and challenging. My day starts – after ploughing through overnight emails – by catching up with senior management on both the legal and business sides in Silicon Valley. The rest of the day is spent either dealing with the “issue of the day” with the Tokyo or global legal team, or in meetings with the CEO and other senior management. Come 5:30 pm, it’s time to connect with the team in London and work through their issues. Two to three times a week, senior management will get together to discuss strategy with our CEO, usually over dinner. I often have late evening calls with the government affairs team in Washington, DC or with the legal group in New York to round out the day.
How did your experience at Milbank prepare you for your current role?
I started as a first-year attorney in the Tokyo office, which even then had a heavy project finance focus. The small corporate team of which I was a member handled pretty much everything else. We did anything from the 20F and other NYSE filings for NTT, Japan’s largest telecom, to outbound corporate work for many Japanese trading companies and utilities investing in power and other projects. We helped on project finance deals, handled inbound investments in Japan by offshore Milbank clients, and even worked on a few theme park transactions. From 2010 to 2012, I worked in the Singapore office, where we did several Indonesian IPOs and a range of corporate and structured financing work, as well as M&A transactions. I worried that I was too much of a generalist – turns out it was exactly the right preparation for the role of CLO of a company like SoftBank Group.
How has your perspective on the legal industry changed since you’ve moved in-house?
I wasn’t as aware of industry shifts while in private practice, but now I truly believe the industry is at a crossroads. It is ripe for disruption, although with so many lawyers in important governmental positions around the world, there will continue to be pushback in the name of “protecting the public.” I would like to see the industry keep pace with innovation while maintaining a risk-sensitive – rather than risk-averse – approach to too much change too quickly.
What trends are affecting your business currently?
While SoftBank is a long-term growth investor, we invest in the technology space, so some of our portfolio companies are very much “at the whim of the markets” on a day-to-day basis. At the corporate level, geopolitical events also play a huge role in our decision-making. At SBG, we tend to focus on the long term – where technology is going and where opportunities to disrupt a market exist. So, while we do watch the short-term trends and the geopolitical issues of the day, we are able to take a longer view of the horizon and don’t need to get quite as excited as the media and others may about these matters.
From your view in-house, do you have advice on how outside counsel can serve clients better?
The relationship between a law firm and a client has to fit the client. This was always the case, but I sense it is exponentially more so now than ever. Not all Japanese companies move as fast as we do. Not all have the same risk appetite. I have found the law firms that are proactively trying to understand our goals and risk appetite are the ones that provide the most successful results. I’ve also had a lot of opportunities to see some extremely innovative companies that we’ve invested in, particularly in the AI space. As we all become “augmented lawyers” – not just through our phones – it seems that the only way lawyers and law firms can truly differentiate themselves is by better understanding each specific client’s needs.
Did any partners at Milbank serve as mentors who had an impact on your career? Do you do any mentoring yourself?
The partners in the Tokyo office when I started, Gary Wigmore and Darrel Holstein, were both early mentors. Having had a long history with Milbank in Asia, Gary taught me a great deal about making use of the WHOLE firm. Darrel was the partner I worked with most on a daily basis. He encouraged me to test his convictions on the issues, to debate with him when I disagreed, and to have the courage to challenge myself and him – within reason! – and not fear being wrong. This remains my mantra for the legal team at SBG.
My philosophy for SoftBank Group legal is that we are “Vision Counsel” – we need to see and understand the desired result and be effective advisors and lawyers when we provide counsel to the other teams. The goal I set for the team is to always have a “here’ show” mindset. Even if the answer is “you can’t do that,” we need to think about the desired result and provide an answer that starts with, “If I understand correctly, what you want to achieve is X and here’s how you can achieve the same or similar result.”
What keeps you busy outside of the office?
Besides dinners and (fortunately) golf with other senior management? I spend as much time as I can with my family at our house in the mountains outside of Tokyo, either playing golf or outside in the garden. With the help of my son, I built a large putting green covered by an outdoor gazebo last year, and this year’s plan is to build a barbecue gazebo with a ramp to our deck.
