New Thompson & Knight partner Jessica Magee loved practicing a federal securities enforcement law and going to court as an advocate. She also enjoyed advising corporate executives on governance and compliance issues.
Now, the former Beneficient Group general counsel says, she gets to do both. And Beneficient gets a new chief legal officer from Willkie Farr & Gallagher.
“I love the people at Ben and I loved being a general counsel, but I missed investigative and trial work,” Magee said in an interview with The Texas Lawbook. “TK is where I grew up as a lawyer. Coming back here made all the sense in the world.”
A 2002 graduate of the SMU Dedman School of Law, Magee started her career at T&K, where she worked for more than seven years in the firm’s litigation practice.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission hired Magee in 2010 as a lawyer in its enforcement division. Over eight years, she rose through the ranks, including spending her final eight months as the agency’s associate director of enforcement.
In 2018, The Beneficient Company Group, an alternative asset management firm in Dallas, hired Magee as its first general counsel.
“My time at Ben was wonderful,” she said.
During Magee’s 21 months at Beneficient, she created the firm’s legal department, developed corporate compliance and governance policies, oriented the executives and board members to those guidelines and played a substantial role in two major transactions.
Still, Magee said she missed doing corporate investigations and being in court.
“I talked to my CEO and he understood and supports my move,” she said. “And I will continue working with the leadership. This is a new and challenging step in my career.”
Magee said the SEC‘s regional office in Fort Worth should be helped by the recent lift of the hiring freeze that caused the enforcement team to be significantly understaffed.
“The Fort Worth office is in a great place right now. David, Marshall and Eric are a nice combination and the staff they lead is highly skilled and as committed as ever,” she said, referring to SEC Regional Director David Peavler, associate directors Gandy Marshall and Eric Werner.
“It is a good continuity with three experts running the office,” she said.”It helps that the hiring freeze is lifted, which will allow them to bring in new talent and resources.”
Magee said that private equity firms and other financial institutions should focus on building cultures of compliance and collaboration.
“A workplace where staff at every level know that trust and accountability are not only valued but expected from each person contributes to a healthy culture in which employees feel encouraged to spot issues and work together to resolve them,” she said. Only with the foundation of a strong and substantive culture of compliance can a firm begin to effectively address particular issues or emerging trends in compliance.
“Firms should be concerned if they look inward and cannot say that they are invested in compliance through — among other things — good hiring and developing leaders and staff who embody key values,” she said.
Beneficient announced this week that Willkie Farr partner James Silk of Washington, D.C., will effectively replace Magee as the company’s chief legal officer.
“James is joining Ben at an important and exciting time, as we embark upon our next phase of growth in serving the rapidly growing universe of owners of alternative assets and removing many of the traditional barriers to liquidity faced by these investors,” Beneficial CEO Brad Heppner said in a statement.