Investment Funds
Recognized as one of the premier practices in the industry, our Investment Funds Group leverages its extensive market knowledge and deep, long-term relationships to help sophisticated clients reach their most important goals. We have been at the forefront of some of the industry’s most creative and innovative product developments, helping clients set market trends instead of reacting to them.
For decades, Paul, Weiss has advised a marquee list of the world’s most well-known fund managers in all aspects of the organization and operation of investment funds across the liquidity spectrum. Our firm represents eight of the top 10 private equity firms in the world, responsible for over $2 trillion in assets under management. Our client list includes fund managers with a variety of strategic goals, including first-time fund managers launching debut funds, established firms raising successor vehicles, and sophisticated managers looking to diversify their firms. At any stage of the fund lifecycle, our clients receive informed yet innovative advice based on decades of experience and unparalleled market knowledge.
Our broad network of relationships with the leading fund managers in the marketplace equips us with unrivaled data about evolving trends and market dynamics. In addition to our proprietary database of thousands of fund terms and precedents, we offer cutting-edge technological innovations focused on efficient solutions for investors and managers. We prize our strong working relationships with all major institutional investors, including sovereign wealth funds, state pension plans, corporate retirement funds, endowments and family offices.
To help them achieve their most important strategic priorities, we align our clients’ business goals with each step of the fundraising and investment management process. Our collaborative “one-team approach” allows us to deliver unmatched service and to function as an extension of a client’s general counsel office. We advise on both day-to-day questions and firm-defining decisions with respect to the full range of investment advisory services, including:
Fund Formation
We are one of the few law firms with broad capabilities raising capital across the liquidity spectrum. Our deep insight and market credibility on a diverse range of investment fund strategies allows us to seamlessly navigate across asset classes, including private equity funds, growth equity funds, credit funds, continuation funds, infrastructure and real asset funds, and hedge funds.
Funds Regulatory & Compliance
As investment funds face increasing regulatory scrutiny, maintaining compliance amid the rapidly evolving regulatory landscape is paramount. Our practice focuses on reducing future risk by keeping fund managers ahead of the enforcement curve. Our team has performed hundreds of transactional due diligence and risk assessments on behalf of investment fund clients of all strategies and asset classes. With numerous former government officials providing intimate insight into the workings of U.S. legislative bodies, we design and assess compliance programs, and provide thoughtful structuring of their products and internal operations in order to mitigate regulatory and compliance risks.
Liquidity Solutions
We are at the forefront of the buoyant and ever-changing secondary market. Our experienced lawyers offer cutting-edge legal guidance on the full suite of transactions in the secondary market, including single-asset and multi-asset continuation funds, strip sales, tender offers, fund recapitalizations and restructurings and LP portfolio acquisitions and disposals.
Upper Tier Arrangements
Our team understands the economic incentives and pay practices that drive value creation at fund managers. At each step in the lifecycle of a fund manager, Paul, Weiss lawyers work side-by-side with our clients to overcome challenges and create bespoke and novel solutions for upper tier and management company issues, including partnership agreements among principals and investment professionals.
Our firm’s preeminent Asset Management M&A and Investment Management Litigation practices further bolster our comprehensive, full-service offering to our investment funds clients.
“Simply put, this team is the best on the street. They have exceptional technical expertise, unparalleled market color and insight, and finely tuned commercial instincts.”
- Chambers USA
Recognition
Chambers USA: Band 1 in Private Equity Fund Formation and Hedge Funds
- Law360: Fund Formation and Private Equity “Practice Group of the Year,” awarding numerous “MVPs” and “Rising Stars” in fund formation, private equity and asset management
- Regularly featured in Private Equity International and Private Debt Investor awards, including Law Firm of the Year and numerous rising stars
- Top-tier firm in private equity and alternative fund formation by The Legal 500
