Experience
Our attorneys have expertise related to a broad range of complicated legal issues facing hedge funds and private equity funds. We have regularly advised hedge funds, private equity funds and “fund of funds” operating in various jurisdictions and across a multitude of industry sectors. We possess considerable expertise in structuring alternative investment funds and readily assist clients in deciding whether they should utilize side-by-side, master-feeder, mini-master, trust or segregated portfolio company structures. In addition, we represent private equity and venture capital funds and their portfolio companies in all aspects of investment and divestiture, including fund formation, private placements, control or minority equity investments, leveraged buyouts/ management buyouts/ management buy-ins, recapitalizations and going-private transactions.
Very few firms have attorneys as broadly trained as we do. Our fund lawyers all work on structuring funds, counseling advisory clients on seed arrangements, acquisitions and the sale of equity interests, as well as providing regulatory and compliance advice. Our depth of experience with respect to alternative investment funds that invest in commodities and future interests is also another factor that distinguishes us from other firms. We have experience forming dozens of commodity pools (both publicly offered and privately placed) and in providing ongoing regulatory and compliance advice to the commodity pool operators and commodity trading advisors that manage these types of funds. Our attorneys have experience in drafting formation documents and preparing the disclosure documents to be used to offer commodity pool interests, as well as all other offering and ancillary documents.
Accolades
Our attorneys hold leadership positions in the alternative investment fund community and have received appointments such as the presidency of the New York Hedge Fund Roundtable, the chair of the Futures and Derivatives Committee for the Bar Association of the City of New York, the CPO/CTA Committee of the Managed Funds Association and the Committee on Investment Funds for the Bar Association of the City of New York, and former membership to the Steering Committee of the Managed Funds Association Lawyers Advisory Committee. Our attorneys also serve on a number of other industry-related organizations, such as the Futures Industry Association, the Managed Funds Association, 100 Women in Hedge Funds and the Alternative Investment Group of the Carolinas.
In addition, Tim Selby is listed in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business and Chambers Global: The World's Leading Lawyers for Business, where he is recognized for his expertise in the hedge fund and managed futures sectors.
Bringing Value to Our Clients
Alston & Bird’s alternative investment expertise is matched and complemented by our transactional, regulatory and tax practices. Being able to draw from a broad range of experience relevant to the underlying activity in which a fund will be making investments enables our attorneys to understand our clients’ businesses intimately and positions us to counsel clients beyond the scope of traditional hedge fund structuring issues. That is, we are well-positioned to truly understand our clients’ business.
For example, our commodity pool clients are supported by our futures regulatory experience; our equity fund clients are supported by our securities regulatory practice, which includes a former deputy chief counsel of the Division of Corporation Finance and a former chief of the Office of Mergers and Acquisitions in the Division of Corporation Finance of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); our fund clients are supported by our Chambers-rated tax practice; our real estate fund clients are supported by our Chambers-rated real estate and real estate finance practice; our alternative energy fund clients are supported by our Chambers-rated renewables and alternative energy, climate change and carbon management practices; and our clients facing Bank Holding Company Act issues are supported by our Chambers-rated banking regulatory practice. Additionally, our legislative and public policy practice group works to keep all of our fund clients informed of regulatory changes and developments that may affect them, usually well in advance of published legislative developments.