Law360, New York (March 28, 2017, 10:46 AM EDT) -- The private equity industry completed another robust year in 2016 — in terms of raising capital and deploying capital — and 2017 is shaping up to be a similarly strong year. According to McKinsey & Co., buyout funds raised more than $210 billion in 2016, a 33 percent increase over 2015. While global private equity deal activity declined slightly in 2016, the trend since the financial crisis continued on an unmistakably positive path, and deal volume was up in North America for the year. The central takeaway from our perspective, though, is that while this has nominally been another good year for the private equity industry, it has been another challenging year for private equity professionals looking to put money to work. And this challenging environment has further demonstrated the ability of clever deal professionals to make lemonade from lemons when faced with adversity. Some of the trends that we've observed over the last year are set out below....