Stan Johnson, a partner at Los Angeles law firm Loeb & Loeb, has a unique approach to explaining the challenges that face middle market private equity firms: film. A history and cinema buff, Johnson broke the monotony of Power Point presentations at a recent conference to open a panel discussion he moderated with a clip from They Died With Their Boots On, Raoul Marsh‘s 1941 tribute to General George Custer‘s last stand at Little Bighorn. At the same conference a year ago, Johnson put together a medley of 20 different film clips for a panel discussion on newly launched private equity firms. He matched up themes to scenes. A firm that had no chance of raising money teamed up with Cher, in Moonstruck, yelling “Snap out of it!” at Nicolas Cage. To open a discussion on dealing with underperforming managers, Johnson turned to Arnold Schwarzenegger in True Lies dispatching a terrorist (attached to a rocket) from an airplane with the words “You’re fired.” For separating from other partners, he again chose the Governator, this time in a scene with Sharon Stone in Total Recall, in which he shoots Stone’s character in the head and says, “Consider this a divorce.”
“It took a while to put together,” Johnson told CFW. “This year I decided to keep it shorter.”
Johnson titled the 2006 talk “Middle Market Funds and the Little Bighorn; Surrounded but Winning!” Johnson told the crowd that Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse‘s trap of Custer is a fitting parallel to the competition middle market players face today from hedge funds, SPACs and mega-funds. “He’s got a smaller force,” Johnson said through a microphone, as Errol Flynn, playing Custer, swept down a hill on a horse and suddenly stopped. A cloud of dust surrounds him as a confused Custer spies the Sioux and Cheyenne gathering on the horizon. “Oops,” Johnson continued, doing his best impression of Mystery Science Theater 3000. “That’s a strategy we don’t want.”