Why Paul's the Mann

Winner of the Yorkshire Rainmaker of the Year 2025 speaks to Sheryl Moore

Hello Rainmakers,

Fresh from scooping the Yorkshire Rainmaker of the Year award earlier this month, Sheryl Moore caught up with Paul Mann, Squire Patton Boggs’ Leeds corporate partner and head of private equity in the UK and Europe to discover why he’s the Mann!

“They’ve been trying to get rid of me for years!” jokes Paul Mann after revealing he’s been ‘man and boy’ at law firm Squire Patton Boggs.

The chatty and affable Mann was recently named Rainmaker of the Year, an accolade he was ‘humbled’ to receive.

“It was humbling,” says Mann. “Because it was voted for by the market. I was absolutely delighted, and it was a nice surprise.”

While Mann may have been shocked, for others it was a foregone conclusion. Indeed, when I asked a fellow rainmaker who he tipped to win the coveted accolade he said: “Well the name I hear most around town is Paul Mann, so he’s my odds-on favourite.”

In fact, Mann has been ‘around town’ for more than two decades and is a stalwart of the Yorkshire rainmaker community. Armed with clients he’s had for decades and, as head of PE for the UK and Europe, Mann has made his mark in the corporate finance community.

However, it nearly didn’t happen as Mann was pondering a career in the arguably more sedate world of pensions law.

Born in Bradford, Mann’s career path was initially shaped by an unexpected source - a school computer program that suggested law as a potential career.

“I was coming up to my A level exams, and I remember going on an old school computer and doing a career thing. I put in the information about myself, and it came up with lawyer.

“I was also watching a lot of US legal dramas at the time like LA Law and it looked very glamorous. And I thought that was how it really was. Obviously, when I started working, I quickly realised that wasn’t quite the case!”

After finishing his law degree, Mann was offered several training contracts and, after doing a vacation scheme with Hammonds Suddards Edge – now Squire Patton Boggs – he joined the firm in 2003.