Overview
Walt Draney is a partner in the firm’s Corporate and Securities Group and has been practicing law since 1999 when he joined Chapman and Cutler LLP.
Walt works in the securities area, with an emphasis on investment company and traditional securities offerings. He represents a wide range of clients in the structuring and negotiation of public and private securities transactions, including underwriting arrangements, disclosure documents, registration with the SEC and listing on NASDAQ and the NYSE. Walt has extensive experience representing registered investment advisers and funds registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940 in connection with both new products and ongoing matters including numerous public offerings of exchange traded funds (ETFs) and closed-end funds. He also advises publicly held companies in corporate governance matters, including public company board meetings, proxy materials, periodic reports required to be filed with the SEC and ongoing disclosure and securities law matters.
Representative Matters
- Fund counsel to exchange traded funds (ETFs) in matters relating to organization and structuring, federal registration and compliance issues
- Counsel to the ETFs using derivatives-based portfolios, including first of kind “Defined Outcome” and “Single Stock” ETFs
- Counsel to NYSE closed-end investment companies in connection with initial public offerings and shelf registration follow-on offerings of common stock
- Counsel to SEC registered closed-end investment company structured to invest in marketplace loans
- Counsel to US rail holding company in senior notes and debt exchange offerings
- Designated counsel to underwriters in connection with common stock offerings and senior note offerings of NYSE-traded energy company
- Counsel to agents/underwriters in connection with medium-term note program of public utility company
- Counsel to publicly traded bank holding company in stock merger transaction
- Counsel to index provider and sales agent in connection with exchange-traded note offering of global financial holding company
- Counsel to issuers and broker-dealers in connection with equity-linked certificate of deposit and structured notes offering programs of global financial holding companies
- Counsel to energy sector closed-end investment company in connection with master limited partnership PIPES transactions
- Company counsel in connection with common stock offerings and trust preferred securities offerings of a NASDAQ Global Select listed bank holding company
Practice Focus
- Bond Counsel
- Broker-Dealers
- Business Contracts
- Corporate Counseling
- Corporate Finance and Securities
- Cryptocurrency, Digital Assets, and Blockchain
- ESG Counsel and Sustainable Finance
- Fintech and Marketplace Lending
- General Corporate
- Investment Advisers
- Investment Management
- Investor-Owned Utilities
- Mergers and Acquisitions
- Private Funds: Fund/Sponsor Representation
- Private Investment in Public Entities (PIPEs)
- Public Finance
- Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)
- Registered Investment Companies
- Rule 144A and Other Exempt Offerings
- Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance
- SEC and Stock Exchange Compliance
- SEC Registered Offerings (Debt and Equity)
- Utility Finance
Admitted
Illinois, 1999
Education
University of Illinois College of Law, J.D., cum laude, 1999
- Notes Editor, University of Illinois Elder Law Journal
University of Illinois, B.S., College of Commerce, cum laude, 1995
Insights
Publications
- October 2014
- Co-Author, "Interval and Tender Offer Closed-End Funds: Investment Company Alternatives to Traditional Funds," Journal of Investment Compliance. Vol. 20, No. 4, 2019, doi: 10.1108/JOIC-08-2019-0048.
Presentations
Presenter, "Special Purpose Acquisition Companies and Closed-End Funds," Practising Law Institute's Alternative Finance Summit 2019: Marketplace Lending, Cryptocurrency and Crowdfunding, August 2019.