The Private Equity and Hedge Fund Group represents public pension plans, insurance companies, family offices, and other institutional investors in a wide variety of alternative investments, both foreign and domestic. Such alternative investments include private equity funds, mezzanine debt funds, infrastructure funds, credit opportunity funds, and all manner of hedge funds. The Group’s members have worked with funds organized under Delaware or other states laws and those organized as limited partnerships or companies under Cayman Islands law and the law of other tax havens. Our public pension plan clients include the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), the Utah Retirement System and the Public Employees’ Retirement System of Mississippi, among others. Our other institutional clients include a number of insurance companies, trusts, and tax exempt entities.

Attorneys in the Private Equity and Hedge Fund Group advise clients on issues related to the organization and operation of limited partnerships, limited liability companies, trusts and other investment vehicles, the internal mechanics for how those investment vehicles operate, and laws relating to fiduciaries, securities, ERISA, tax, and other regulatory matters. The Group’s collective experiences in these areas enable us to effectively represent the specialized needs of our institutional investor clients. The Group’s exposure to a large volume of fund transactions also enable us to understand and advise our institutional clients with respect to “market” terms.

The Private Equity and Hedge Fund Group is devoted to helping our clients navigate the evolving legal and economic landscape related to alternative investments. We are advising our clients on structural, tax and other regulatory issues as our clients (i) negotiate investments in new funds, (ii) restructure investments in existing funds, and (iii) consider and address changes in the economic environment and regulatory regime that impact alternative investments.

Representative services include:

• Negotiation of documents governing our clients’ investments in private equity and hedge funds, large and small, domestic and foreign, including limited partnership and LLC agreements, opinions, side letter agreements, subscription documents, and other fund documentation.

• Planning and negotiation of custom fund structures and terms in which our clients are the sole or lead investor.

• Restructuring existing investments in domestic and foreign hedge funds, requiring the review and negotiation of complex legal structures in order to protect our clients’ investments and rights and to secure more favorable terms.

• Negotiation of investment management agreements for managed accounts.

• Creation of an emerging manager development program, requiring the preparation of LLC agreements, management agreements and investment advisory agreements and negotiation with the managers leading each separate program.

• Assisting clients with maintenance of their alternative investments, including review of most favored nation side letter elections, review and negotiation of credit facility acknowledgments and related deliveries, and amendments to fund documentation.

• Private Equity and Hedge Funds