Congressional Investigations

Recognized as one of the most active and respected investment management practices in the United States, our group represents all types of asset managers across the liquidity spectrum, including private equity funds, credit funds, hedge funds, venture capital, real estate funds, hybrid funds and family offices. We have successfully raised hundreds of billions of dollars for our clients, who benefit from our extensive market knowledge, industry-leading networking events, and strong relationships with all major market participants.

Our Practice

We help our clients achieve their highest strategic priorities by aligning every step of the fundraising process with our clients’ goals. The practice leverages the expertise of partners from across the firm to provide the full range of investment advisory services, including:

  • Formation of management companies and funds
  • Strategic partnerships
  • Seed Capital Agreements
  • Law of Advisors and Regulatory Compliance
  • Partner agreements and employee compensation
  • Investment Management Mergers and Acquisitions
  • Risk assessment, crisis management and private fund litigation
  • Regulatory investigations and dispute resolution

Qualities that set us apart include:

Quality Driven: — Our group is structured to offer a quality driven legal product rather than a quantity (or volume) driven legal product. We are discerning who we partner with and focusing on some quality, long-term relationships. Our team is comprised of qualified and experienced private fund attorneys at all levels who work in a collaborative environment to deliver a quality and efficient legal product to our investment advisory clients.

Full Service Experience: — Our team offers a “full service” approach. We seek to provide world-class advice in every area of ​​practice and every phase of an investment adviser’s life, from fund formation, maintenance and regulatory matters to crisis management and dispute resolution.

Innovative Team: — Our professionals have been at the forefront of product development and market innovation, and have the experience to help execute the most complex investment strategies. Our team has worked on some of the first hybrid funds, pioneering the convergence of investment objectives, structures and terms in the world of mutual funds.

Unique Diversification: — Although the market is generally divided between law firms that represent private equity funds and those that represent hedge funds, our investment advisory practice is uniquely diversified with a strong presence in both areas. Our professionals have helped raise some of the largest and most well-known private equity funds and hedge funds in the market.

Network Attorneys: — Our nationally recognized attorneys have extensive industry knowledge and are regularly on the front lines of industry issues. We often address or comment on the many challenges facing the alternative asset management industry. We offer our investment advisory clients our insight and market knowledge based on our experiences, proprietary database, and strong relationships with industry participants, including the many investors we deal with on a daily basis.

Formation of management companies and funds

Our practice is unique in the marketplace because we have selectively assisted with the sponsorship and formation of a wide variety of well-known private equity funds and hedge funds. We have extensive experience in all aspects of structuring and marketing all categories of private funds. Our clients span the gamut of fund types, including:

  • Private equity funds
  • Hedge Funds
  • Co-investment funds
  • Credit funds
  • Distressed Debt Funds
  • Fund of funds
  • Infrastructure funds
  • Intermediate Funds
  • Funds backed by real assets (including real estate, commodities and natural resources)
  • Venture Capital Funds
  • Family offices
  • Hybrid Funds

Strategic partnerships

Our team is pioneering strategies to accommodate a new wave of partnerships in the mutual fund market between leading public investors and branded fund advisors. These deals are reshaping the relationship between fund advisors and major strategic investors and our team is at the forefront of market and legal issues.

Seed Capital Agreements

We are well versed in successfully executing seed capital deals for investment advisory firms throughout the fund community. Our team includes professionals who are experts in managing investments in “seed and share” transactions and have advised both seed capital providers and start-ups. This experience gives us a holistic view of the transactional landscape and allows us to negotiate the best terms for a successful partnership.

Law of Advisors and Regulatory Compliance

Our team is trained to provide guidance to our clients on regulatory and compliance issues. We regularly interact with all major US regulatory bodies, including the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Industry Regulatory Authority Financial (FINRA), to ensure our clients’ businesses align with industry rules and standards. We also take a proactive approach to shielding our clients from potential regulatory scrutiny by developing custom compliance tools, policies and procedures.

Partner agreements and employee compensation

We routinely negotiate partnership agreements between the directors and investment professionals that make up our investment advisory clients. Over the years we have advised a multitude of funds on a wide variety of investment strategies and are therefore able to offer clients a broad perspective on structuring higher tier deals that limit liability, maximize after-tax returns and maintain income allocation flexibility. We structure these deals with each client’s unique management philosophies, investment objectives, and growth and succession plans in mind, protecting the long-term viability of the business as well as the interests of its shareholders. We also routinely collaborate with specialists in our Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Practice in structuring, implementing and operating funds whose investors include employee benefit plans subject to ERISA.

Investment Management Mergers and Acquisitions

Morgan has one of the leading investment management transaction practices in the United States. We regularly represent a wide variety of industry leaders in the full range of asset management transactions, including:

Majority acquisitions and investments:

Our partners regularly represent some of the most sophisticated regular buyers of asset management companies in domestic and international transactions, including many industry-shaping acquisitions and majority investments.

Minority investments:

As traditional and alternative asset managers in recent years have sought to maintain independence while benefiting from affiliation with larger organizations, our partners have worked with numerous industry-leading clients on minority investments.

Sales and spin-outs:

When asset management businesses are sold by their founders or parent companies or are spun off from larger organizations, our partners have regularly represented the sellers, financial institution, or management team.

Risk assessment, crisis management and private fund litigation

Alternative asset managers frequently approach our Investment Management Group to help with crisis management and other company-defining events. We take a proactive approach to helping our clients prepare for risk or navigate business-threatening challenges by developing a deep understanding of our client’s strategies that aligns with their short- and long-term business goals. With the support of our world-class Litigation Department, we provide the necessary support to our clients to resolve any conflict.

Regulatory investigations and dispute resolution

Drawing on the extensive experience of our Litigation Department, we are well-equipped to handle a variety of franchise-threatening disputes and investigations, including SEC enforcement, derivative and class actions, and other litigation matters. We have also successfully represented fund executives in the full range of white-collar matters, including insider trading allegations, and in investigations launched by nearly every conceivable government and regulatory agency, including the SEC, the Department of Justice, and the self-regulatory organizations.

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