“The K&E fund team always provides excellent work and advice, even in very difficult or urgent circumstances.” “Travers Smith has a renowned law firm specializing in fund financing with particular strength in the real estate sector. The team on the lender side consists of a number of well-known partners with a number of employees in the starting blocks. Weil, Gotshal & Manges (London) LLP is heavily involved in many of the key private fund trends, with an increasing focus on advising ESG and renewable energy funds, as well as long-term and long-term funds. The “highly experienced” practice provides new managers with strategic advice on fund creation and fundraising, and continues to advise senior general partners on the formation of large-cap funds. GP-led secondary transactions are another growing area of work for the team. Ed Gander leads the team and is “very experienced, commercial and an excellent sparring partner.” Other important names to consider in practice include the “priceless” James Bromley, Stephen Fox, who operates beyond primary fundraisers and complex secondary fundraising, and James Sargent, who is praised as “responsive, thoughtful and highly commercial.” The 4 partners offer expertise in various asset classes such as private equity, real assets, ESG criteria and loans. Jacquelyn Volpe is the most important senior associate of the group and is “very responsive and efficient”. DLA Piper LLP (U.S.) continues to maintain its reputation as a leading offering on the investor side, providing “well-designed, comprehensive and personalized advice” to more than 250 institutional investors, including some of the largest and most active sovereign wealth funds, foundations, insurance companies, public pension plans and financial institutions. Recently, the team has also focused more on working on the sponsors` side, developing a particular strength in the formation of real estate, energy and infrastructure funds.

This dual focus is exemplified by the Group`s management structure, with key specialist practitioners spread across the Chicago and Austin offices. The former includes Jesse Criz – the co-chair of the investment management practice – and Nathaniel Marrs – who oversees the work on the promoter side, while the latter forms the basis of Criz`s counterpart, David Parrish, and Marrs` antagonist, Nicole Brennig, an investor specialist. Another example of the firm`s ever-growing commitment to sponsorship mandates was the recent arrival of Ken Muller, formerly Kirkland & Ellis LLP, in the San Francisco office. At Slaughter and May, listed funds are managed by the Investment Funds and Asset Management department. When it comes to working on ETFs, the team is often engaged to advise on bespoke transactions, with a focus on closed-end funds and their managers. Clients benefit from the firm`s strong corporate and M&A offering, and the Group regularly supports strategic acquisitions and divestitures, as well as the development of wealth management activities. Key contacts include Paul Dickson, an expert in asset-backed partnerships, and Jan Putnis, who leads the Financial Regulation Group and has extensive experience working multi-jurisdictionally for asset managers. Nick Pacheco is also recommended. Lawyers at Boston-based Sullivan & Worcester LLP advise a number of alternative investment funds, including real estate funds, non-registered commodity mutual funds, private equity funds, offshore funds, and joint and collective investment funds linked to banks, in all areas of fund formation. The team also supports regional, national and international venture capital firms that invest in start-ups in a variety of sectors, particularly software, telecommunications, therapeutics and energy. The representation of institutional investors is another pillar of the practice. Nicole Rives and John Hunt are the main contacts.

“Tom Smith, who leads Debevoise`s global fund finance practice, is the most important person I work with. He is highly commercial and always balances his knowledge and understanding of our risk appetite with legal risk and market knowledge. He has led several fund financing innovations, including ESG margin guns, hybrid facilities and net asset value facilities. In addition, it brings together experts and participants from across the industry through targeted information events and is very active at conferences. He is supported by a large number of outstanding employees such as Almas Daud and Gregg Young. “We work with Linklaters` real estate fund team as they provide consistent, comprehensive and commercial advice to our European fund platform in each of our jurisdictions. We rely on the team to follow our precedents, develop them for our different products and support each of these product customer teams. Linklaters is very good at managing us as clients and helping us identify the workflows each week where we can progress.

“Legal issues are dealt with in detail from the client`s business point of view. It may seem obvious, but many companies no longer offer such convenient services. “Steve Cowins is a lawyer specializing in world-class real estate funds. Practical, commercial and friendly. He understands the industry very well. Much more than a “simple lawyer”. “The team has good strength in depth and excellent commitment from partner level to the employee. We rely heavily on Macfarlanes and the private equity team to gain market knowledge and ensure we stay current on our fund structures and fund terms.

`A true expert in his field` Based in Bristol, Tim Simmonds leads Osborne Clarke LLP`s financial institutions group, which specialises in real estate funds and works for institutional managers, real estate fund managers and large institutional investors.