“I’ve had really bad ADHD my entire life,” Dechert LLP private equity and M&A partner and co-chair Mark Thierfelder said on this week’s Drinks With The Deal podcast, in which he discussed building his practice and his approach to law firm management.

“I was diagnosed with it when I was four or five years old. That was at times challenging. I really couldn’t sit still. But it’s turned out that ADHD, which at times was somewhat limiting, in a business like ours has led me to always seek out intensity in the practice of law and in helping to manage this great firm.”

He added: “When I’m outside the office, I seek that same intensity. I try to be outdoors. I try to focus on really intense things: driving one of my motorcycles on a dirt road going a little too fast, going down a ski slope I have no business being on, sailing a boat in really heavy conditions. Every one of those things forces me to bear down and focus and clear my head.”

Listen to the podcast with Mark Thierfelder below:

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