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Toby Knapp
Partner, Co-Chair New York Transactional Practice at Baker McKenzie
Professional Background
Toby Knapp is an internationally recognized advisor with a remarkable background in guiding strategic and financial sponsor clients through complex transactions. With years of experience in the legal sector, Toby has established a reputation for being an insightful problem solver, helping industry leaders navigate their most important strategic and investment ventures. His extensive expertise encompasses a wide range of areas, including corporate governance, shareholder activism, fiduciary and investment advisory relationships, as well as capital raising transactions.
Currently serving as Co-Chair of Baker McKenzie’s Transactional Practice in New York, Toby has been instrumental in leading corporate legal practices and providing top-notch advisory services to his clients. His innovative thinking and flexibility have earned him accolades, with clients and peers alike recognizing him as a “very smart, flexible thinker” by Chambers USA. He has not only maintained a successful individual practice but also played a pivotal role in mentoring and leading teams in high-stakes legal environments.
Throughout his illustrious career, Toby has held pivotal positions at some of the country’s top law firms. His previous roles included Partner and Co-Chair at O'Melveny & Myers LLP, where he headed the US M&A and Private Equity sectors, as well as partnership roles at Jenner & Block and Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, where he focused on M&A, capital markets, and asset management. His ability to foster relationships and drive successful outcomes has marked him as a key figure in the legal profession, with a proven track record of success in private equity and corporate law transactions.
Education and Achievements
Toby Knapp’s educational background reflects his commitment to mastering the complexities of law, finance, and diplomacy. He earned his Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Boston University School of Law, a notable institution that has produced numerous influential legal professionals. Furthering his pursuit of knowledge, Toby completed a Master of Arts degree in International Law, Finance, and Diplomacy at The Fletcher School at Tufts University. This advanced education has provided a solid foundation for his understanding of the intricate dynamics between law and global finance.
In addition to his legal studies, Toby holds a Bachelor of Arts from Amherst College, a prestigious liberal arts college known for its rigorous academics and emphasis on critical thinking. He also expanded his academic pursuits through studies in Philology and International Relations at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, equipping him with a global perspective that adds depth to his legal counsel.
Toby’s proficiency and commitment to excellence in the legal field have been acknowledged by industry leading organizations. His recognition in Chambers USA as one of New York’s leading lawyers for Mergers & Acquisitions demonstrates his priority in providing strategic and insightful legal counsel while aiding clients in achieving their business objectives. He has also been affirmed in The Legal 500 for middle-market and large M&A transactions, establishing him among the top practitioners in these arenas. Furthermore, the International Financial Law Review has lauded him as a notable practitioner, cementing his status as an influential figure in the legal community.
Achievements
Toby Knapp’s accomplishments are remarkable and reflect his dedication to not only achieving personal career success but also to empowering his clients. His role in advising on crucial corporate governance and shareholder activism showcases his commitment to maintaining integrity and transparency in corporate practices. Throughout his career, Toby has harnessed a wealth of experience in managing and navigating vital investment advisory relationships, making him a trusted ally for organizations aiming to innovate in their respective markets.
As a respected leader in the legal domain, Toby has consistently remained involved in the legal community, sharing his insights with peers and engaging in practices that promote professional development. He is dedicated to fostering relationships within the legal industry and often contributes to discussions regarding trends and changes that impact financial and strategic investment landscapes.
Toby is committed to developing the next generation of legal professionals, leading with an example of integrity, resilience, and unparalleled expertise. His career is underscored by a commitment to service and advocacy, ensuring that clients receive not just legal advice, but also strategic counsel that can create opportunities for growth and enhanced performance.
Overall, Toby Knapp stands as a paragon of legal excellence and a guiding force in the complex world of corporate law. His comprehensive understanding of mergers and acquisitions, coupled with a robust background in international law and finance, enables him to provide unique and well-rounded perspectives to organizations seeking to thrive in a competitive environment. With his impressive career trajectory and commitment to client success, Toby continues to be a force in the legal community and a valuable asset to all those fortunate enough to work with him.
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Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
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- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Clay is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Clay as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Clay offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Clay's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Clay makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Clay's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Clay isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Clay instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Clay is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Clay can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.