Meet our Crew: Joachim Mogck

Welcome to "Meet our Crew", an interview series where we take a closer look at the talented individuals who work at Orbit. We are proud to provide premium fund advisory services to our clients, and through this series you will get to know our team of experts on a personal level. After all, we believe that the people behind our success are just as important as the services we offer. So, buckle your seat belt, prepare for liftoff, and get ready to get to know the people who make it all happen!

In today’s interview, we are talking to Joachim Mogck.

Hi Joachim, so nice of you to join us!

Hi, I’m glad to be here.

Let’s start with an easy one, what is your role at Orbit?

I am one of the founding partners of Orbit and lead our LP advisory practice. I have been advising institutional LPs for over 10 years. We are the first fund advisory team in Germany to exclusively focus on LP advisory and our clients value the outstanding expertise resulting from such highly specialized focus as well as the comfort to know that we will not use our insights to negotiate on behalf of a GP against them in upcoming transactions. Our clients include some of the largest European LPs, from the public as well as the private sector, like European and German institutions, insurance companies, pension schemes and family offices.

Where are you from and what was growing up there like?

I am from the south of Germany, born and raised in Baden-Württemberg. I grew up in a small village that is surrounded by vineyards. In that area, you either work somehow related to the car industry or inherit a vineyard. My parents do not own a vineyard and engineering was not for me. So I left to study law in Heidelberg and San Francisco, then lived in Strasbourg before finally moving to Berlin some 10 years ago.

If it wasn’t engineering or winery, then what was your childhood dream job or career?

I love writing so much that I considered studying literature and becoming a writer. I don’t think that plan really failed – my old German teacher once joked that lawyers are the better poets. Then, early into my law career, I knew I wanted to build a new kind of law firm. I stumbled upon many things in the law profession and in law firms that just felt so outdated. This could not be “it”. I was surrounded by all these smart, motivated and forward-thinking young law talents. There had to be an environment that was up to date, personally and in terms of culture, collaboration and values, but also in terms of style and technology.

Adding on to that, what was your vision when starting Orbit? And what strategy are you employing to make that vision a reality?

Well, to build this new kind of law firm and to do it from scratch. To challenge perpetuated concepts while building a premium boutique law firm and key player for fund advisory. The strategy for that is easy to summarize: Find the right people, have a clear concept and only do what you are really good at. And, above all, DO IT!

What, in your opinion, is one thing that creates a successful team?

Good people - in a professional as well a personal sense.

If there are good people that share certain core ethics and, at the same time, are diverse - and I mean not only in terms of gender but also in terms of cultural and personal background as well as type of character - things can become rather simple. All left to do is making sure that these people get everything they need to execute on their natural abilities and enthusiasm.

Who is someone you admire professionally and why?

My wife. She has a very busy job and is responsible for a very large team. But she always remains authentic and professional and has a natural set of leadership skills that makes it look easy when she takes on all these things.

That’s a great answer. Now, what is one thing in your industry that you’re excited about at the moment?

Legal advisory is evolving – I think this must be clear to everyone by now. We are entering a very transformative time. Clients rightfully start asking if they are getting value for money with lengthy memos or if there should be more value from legal services. All areas of legal services and the entire business model will need to revalidate themselves – and each part that fails this re-evaluation will eventually become redundant and be replaced (through smart programming or automation). For that reason, we have been focusing on value creation for clients since day one. We applaud the coming transformation and our response is our client-centered advisory model. Legal advice is not an end in itself but needs to contribute something meaningful to the business of our clients. One example is our Orbit Fund Scoring, the next step for legal due diligence. Orbit Fund Scoring provides investors with a fully visualized fund due diligence through an online platform. No more endless due diligence reports with lawyers’ gibberish where clients are left to figure for themselves which findings could really be blockers. Instead, we offer a concise and intuitive visualization of where exactly a fund is standing in the market. We provide visualized scores in respect of each single fund term as well as the entire product so it can be compared to other funds of the same asset class. Our clients are used to economic scoring models, why should legal services get through with ambiguity and without providing clear data? We want to provide our clients with much more relevant information to enable smarter investment decisions.

Lastly, could you give a tip to a young person who is just starting their career?

It’s a marathon, not a sprint - so have faith in yourself and the ones you choose on your way. And do not only listen to tips of old people. They are only telling?their?success stories – write your own one.

Thanks for taking the time to be here, Joachim!

Thank you for having me.

You can find more information about Joachim and how to contact him?here, on our website.