Best Lawyers in America for Private Funds / Hedge Funds Law
Practice Area Overview
The fund formation aspects of advising hedge funds include how funds are structured and documented, often with an eye toward facilitating the fundraising function. Specific tasks include preparing partnership agreements between the general partner and investors, establishing how the general partner of the fund will be compensated, and preparing the fund’s offering materials.
The investment objectives of hedge funds vary a great deal; therefore, the degree of sophistication they require in executing transactions can vary. While there are a large number of hedge funds that primarily are focused on liquid trading strategies, many hedge funds make illiquid investments, including participating in large, complex leveraged buy-outs or take-private transactions, PIPE transactions, and activist investing.
Hedge funds operating in the U.S. are subject to the full spectrum of securities disclosure and compliance rules and regulations. Regulation of hedge funds has also recently undergone a major overhaul with the passage of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which places new or heightened regulations on hedge funds.
Hedge funds have long been cauldrons of financial innovation, and practitioners advising hedge funds by necessity must be capable of addressing the legal and regulatory issues that impact hedge funds in what can be a quickly evolving business and legal landscape.
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John Beals is a partner in Nixon Peabody's Private Equity and Investment Funds practice. He represents public pension funds, funds of funds and other institutional investors in connection with their investments in leveraged buyout, venture capital, real estate and debt private equity funds. He also advises fund sponsors in structuring and forming such funds. What do you focus on? I focus my practice on two main areas, leveraging 20 years of experience to help clients structure, negotiate and ...
Stephanie Berdik is a partner in the Investment Funds Practice Group in the Boston office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Stephanie’s practice focuses on advising U.S. and non-U.S. private investment fund sponsors on all aspects of their business, including establishment of private investment funds, portfolio investment activities, capital raising, fund regulatory and compliance matters, and firm ownership and operational issues. She has worked with a variety of private fund sponsors and, ...
Henry Bregstein is chair of Katten's Alternative Products practice. He combines a great sense of business practicality with an innovative legal mindset in his practice advising varied market participants on business structuring, financial product engineering and regulatory compliance. He is recognized as a leading adviser to investment managers and funds of all kinds, as well as to investors and distributors of alternative investments. Henry provides guidance on fund formation and regulatory ...
Willa Cohen Bruckner is a partner in the Financial Services & Products Group in the firm’s New York office. She concentrates on derivatives, structured products and alternative investments and brings to her practice over 30 years of experience as a financial services attorney. Ms. Bruckner has worked extensively in new product development and in the negotiation and documentation of a wide variety of derivatives products and complex financial transactions, and she advises on derivati...
Norm Champ is a partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, where he heads up the regulatory solutions practice in the Investment Funds Group. Previously, Norm was the director of the Division of Investment Management at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Prior to that he was the Deputy Director of the SEC’s Office of Compliance, Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) and the Associate Regional Director for Examinations in the SEC’s New York Regional O...
Tim Clark is a partner in Goodwin’s Private Equity group and a member of the firm’s Private Investment Funds practice. He has represented a wide range of private equity clients, including private equity and other alternative managers operating in the buyout, growth equity, credit, distressed/special situation, secondary, real asset (including energy and agribusiness) and venture capital sectors. His clients include established managers raising funds across multiple asset classes a...
Wendy Cohen, managing partner of Katten's New York office and co-chair of the Investment Management and Funds group, understands the business realities and challenges of the competitive world of asset management. For three decades, asset managers have turned to her to navigate the minefield of regulation that governs the structuring and operation of private investment funds. From the largest and most established hedge funds to innovative players with alternative strategies, clients rely on We...
Timothy R. Damschroder is the co-chair of the Business Practice Group. He specializes in middle market M&A transactions (typically ranging from $30 million to $1 billion) and corporate finance. He has substantial experience serving as outside general counsel to automotive, industrial and technology companies. He manages many major client accounts with responsibility for quality control, staffing, workflow, and overall client satisfaction. His middle market activities involve companies in ...
With over 30 years of experience, Bruce I. Ettelson, P.C. is widely recognized as a leading private investment funds lawyer who has been on the forefront of the industry's evolution since its early years. He is the founder of the Firm's dedicated Investment Funds Group, which was ranked in 2021 by Chambers & Partners as Tier 1 in the U.S., Asia-Pacific, United Kingdom and globally. His practice focuses on structuring and forming premier private equity funds and their management companies....
Rob Fore is a partner in the firm’s Business Law Department and a member of the Private Investment Funds Practice. He joined Goodwin Procter in 2007. Mr. Fore focuses on the structuring, formation and operation of both domestic and international venture capital, buyout, funds-of-funds and other private equity funds and their management companies. He also represents investors in venture capital and buyout funds, as well as and private equity funds and venture capital funds Prior to joini...
Matthew Giles is a partner in the firm’s Business Law Department. He is a member of the firm’s Private Investment Funds group, Real Estate Industry group, and Capital Markets practice. Mr. Giles’ practice includes real estate and private equity fund formation, domestic and international securities offerings, partnership and limited liability company law and mergers and acquisitions, with a focus on REITs and real estate capital markets. His corporate practice also includes s...
Basil represents companies in the asset management industry with in regulatory and transactional matters. He regularly counsels clients in connection with structuring and forming private investment funds, including hedge funds, private equity funds, commodity pools, commingled funds, alternative investments and credit funds, group trusts and collective investment trusts, new product development, securities offerings, and related filing obligations, investment management compliance matters, ac...
Chris Hall is a partner in the Portland office of Perkins Coie LLP. He focuses his practice on serving clients in such areas as corporate finance and acquisitions and dispositions. Chris manages complex transactions having strategic importance to a company's future. He has extensive experience with transaction structuring, and has completed a number of acquisitions and dispositions, leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations and reorganizations, as well as a wide range of public and private capital...
Sean is a corporate partner in Kirkland’s Investment Funds Group who focuses on representation of investment managers in all aspects of their business and operations, with a particular emphasis on formation of private investment funds, and in structuring and execution of secondary transactions. He is described by clients in Chambers USA as “clearly a gem” who is “hands-on, precise and articulate” and “very practical and business-minded.” Chambers Glob...
Kristin Hinson is a partner in the Financial Services & Products Group. She focuses her practice on private investment funds and funds of funds, investment adviser registration and compliance, unregistered offshore private investment funds and private equity funds. Prior to joining Alston & Bird, Ms. Hinson was a partner at Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP. She is a member of the American Bar Association and the North Carolina Bar Association, and is also a member of the New York Bar ...
David Hooper provides experienced and practical advice to help clients grow and achieve success. Whether assisting public companies, financial institutions, closely held entities, fund sponsors, or individuals, David offers sophisticated guidance in a responsive and collaborative manner on securities, mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, and corporate law matters. David is the chair of the firm’s Securities and Capital Markets Practice Group and concentrates his practice in the ar...
A preeminent corporate lawyer who has negotiated an extensive number of deals, Teddy Klinghoffer devotes his practice to merger and acquisitions, private equity investments, as well as corporate compliance and governance issues. He advises buyers, sellers, and investors in structuring, negotiating, and closing complex business transactions. Teddy serves clients across a range sectors with a concentration on healthcare, life sciences, aviation, real estate, and private equity. His clients incl...
Stewart Landefeld, partner and Chair of the firm's Business practice, has 30 years of experience counseling companies and boards in the areas of corporate governance, securities compliance, mergers and acquisitions, public offerings, private equity investments and venture capital. Stewart has provided corporate governance and other general corporate counsel to dozens of leading companies, including Microsoft Corporation, Costco Wholesale Corporation, T-Mobile, PetSmart Inc., Orbitz (Audit Com...
Marguerite’s practice focuses on advising U.S. and non-U.S. fund sponsors regarding the tax aspects of forming and operating private investment funds, including credit, buyout, venture capital, secondary and funds of funds, as well as on advising fund sponsors regarding their internal economic arrangements. Marguerite also advises various types of institutional investors in their investments in private investment funds and represents buyers and sellers in secondary transactions. In the ...
Andrew is a legal and business advisor with extensive experience in corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, finance, commercial and tax matters. His clients rely on him to act as a trusted advisor and to provide practical advice with respect to major corporate events and transactions, and he serves as outside counsel for a number of his clients. Enjoys working collaboratively with clients to develop creative and pragmatic solutions to business and legal issues. Andrew has extensive M&A a...
Stephanie Monaco provides strategic counsel to investment management firms (including dually-registered investment advisers and broker-dealers) in their delivery of investment advice to a wide variety of investment advisory clients, including private funds, managed accounts, institutional and retail account services, and registered investment companies. She leverages her prior experience as an attorney with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and decades in private practice, to...
Scott Naidech has extensive experience representing U.S. and non-U.S. private fund sponsors in the structuring, establishment, and operation of their funds. He has formed buyout, growth capital, energy and infrastructure, real estate, and venture capital funds ranging in size from $50 million to over $15 billion of committed capital. His clients include investment advisers and alternative asset managers based in the U.S. and across the globe, including Latin America and other emerging markets...
Malcolm B. Nicholls III is a partner in the Corporate Department. He has over fifteen years of experience in the private equity field, with a focus on national and international private equity transactions. Malcolm advises private equity fund managers, institutional investors and investment advisors on a broad range of issues, including fund formations, secondary transactions, portfolio investments, internal governance and divestments and distributions. A significant portion of Malcolm’...
Wes is a partner in the Corporate & Securities practice group. He provides comprehensive legal services and advice to asset managers, proprietary trading firms, single-family offices, multifamily offices, and wealth management advisors. Wes counsels them on a wide range of transactional and regulatory issues, including corporate formation, structure and succession planning, operational and administrative matters, securities, futures, and derivatives matters, brokerage and derivatives docu...
John O’Neil’s legal knowledge, business savvy, and leadership of complex transactions have earned him a reputation as a global leader in private equity fund matters. John heads the Investment Funds Practice Group, the Firm’s leading-edge global platform that provides innovative and bespoke legal strategies to sponsors and funds of all kinds. John is also a member of the Firm's Executive Committee. John has been recognized by Chamber’s Global, Chambers USA, IFLR 1000, L...
Mr. Pomerantz is a member of the firm's management committee, a co-chair of the firm's creditors' committee practice, and resident in the firm's Los Angeles office. Mr. Pomerantz sits on the Executive Committee of the American Bankruptcy Institute, the largest restructuring organization in the United States, and served as its President from April 2016-2017. His practice includes representing companies, creditors' committees, and private equity funds in complex financial restructurings and mer...
Veteran dealmaker Steve Roddenberry advises clients in corporate compliance and governance issues, public and private securities transactions, mergers and acquisitions, and private equity investments. Described as a “masterful strategist” by Chambers USA , he has built longstanding relationships with Huizenga Holdings, the Miami Dolphins, Sheridan Healthcare, and The GEO Group, among others. Steve has served as lead counsel in hundreds of M&A transactions, spin-offs, and restr...
Tim Selby is the leader of the Investment Management Team at Alston & Bird and serves on the firm’s Partners’ Committee. He focuses his practice on advising clients with respect to the structuring and management of hedge funds, managed futures funds, private equity funds and publicly offered direct participation programs. He represents a broad range of clients, employing a wide variety of alternative investment strategies, from well-established institutions to experienced fund...
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