Why choose our Hedge Funds lawyers?
Each of our lawyers has deep technical and commercial expertise and understanding of a range of structures, including stand-alone funds, master-feeder funds, segregated accounts, regulatory hosting platform services (including as appointed representative arrangements in the UK) and fund platforms in a range of offshore jurisdictions.
"The service feels
personalised and consistent – I am not pushed from one person to the next. Yet
there is a breadth of knowledge in key areas of investment management, funds,
tax and employment to draw on." - Legal 500 UK 2022.
Our team has great depth and breadth of experience, which is
extremely valuable for our clients. This commercial experience means that we
understand the ongoing and long-term concerns of fund managers and help our
clients grow and develop their businesses from formation onwards.
We understand the hedge funds sector and the context in which we deliver our advice. We are specialists but we do not operate in silos.
We believe that clients deserve to have certainty over legal costs and that these costs need to be agreed between us. Because we spend time getting to understand our clients and their needs we are able to work with them to offer fee arrangements, which are matched to their needs and the services we provide. We will ensure fairness and transparency where we cannot offer a fixed price (or similar fee arrangement). We will communicate with our client and ensure that there are no surprises.
Because we know and work with our clients, we give straightforward, uncomplicated advice that is down to earth, to the point and prompt.
Our core practice areas
We advise in relation to:
- The establishment, structuring and operation of hedge funds and managed accounts
- Drafting fund documentation, including offering documents
- Negotiating investment management, AIFM, distribution, depositary and administration agreements
- Negotiating side letters and seeding agreements
- Drafting shareholders and LLP agreements
- Regulatory platform hosting and appointed representative agreements
- Legal due diligence for investors
Our derivatives practice advises on and negotiates all the trading documents funds need, across all trading strategies and sizes of fund. We have extensive experience of negotiating counterparty documentation for OTC derivatives, futures, securities financing, clearing and prime brokerage with counterparties across the globe.
We take a robust, yet pragmatic and commercial, approach to negotiations. We also regularly advise on individual transactions (e.g. structuring, lifecycle events and defaults) and the regulatory landscape applicable to trading. We work with a diverse range of investment funds, financial institutions and investment managers.
We review and negotiate all of the elements of the prime and clearing brokerage documentation from fund inception through its entire lifecycle. Our experience of the alternative investment world allows us to be cognisant of and consider the commercial realities of a fund’s negotiating position at each point of its lifecycle. We ensure that, at each stage, our advice is appropriate to each client’s needs and cost sensitivities.
The documents we regularly negotiate include:
- Prime brokerage agreements
- Clearing agreements
- Margin and financing term lock-up agreements
- ISDA Master Agreements
- Collateral documentation
- Repo and stock loan documentation (GMRA, GMSLA, MRA etc.)
- Master confirmations agreements, including portfolio swap arrangements
- Futures and cleared OTC derivatives agreements
We provide client-specific advice in relation to transactions across the full range of underlyings, including:
- Interest rate swaps
- Equity derivatives (e.g. total return swaps, CfDs)
- Credit default swaps
- FX derivatives (including share class hedging and passive currency overlay arrangements)
- Commodity derivatives
- Structured repo transactions
The depth of experience of our team lead us to advise, at speed, in relation to live trading issues where advice needs to be given quickly and decisively. We have the expertise, and market experience, to provide that service.
Part of our wider Financial Regulatory group, our hedge funds team focuses on asset management regulation and derivatives/markets regulation as they apply to the sector, including:
- Compliance with FCA rules, SMCR, AIFMD, and MiFID II/MiFIR
- EMIR, SFTR and regulatory initial margin rules
- Advice on financial promotion and UK and AIFMD marketing rules
- Authorisation and regulatory perimeter issues (including CIS/AIF analysis)
Notable deals and highlights
- Re-launching a Cayman master-feeder hedge fund
and restructuring the management group following the principal moving from
Switzerland to the UK.
- Advising in relation to a large project that
involved the standard regulatory hosting/AR model where the portfolio managers
and several other employees from our client were seconded to the regulatory
hosting firm.
- Advising a client on the Most Favoured Nation
clauses in various side letters and management account agreements.
- Negotiating a marketing agreement for one of our placement agent clients and subsequently drafting a template marketing agreement for it
- Various prospectus updates, including one for a Cayman master-feeder hedge fund following the recent regulatory updates in the Cayman Islands
- Launching a new leveraged share class in a Cayman master-feeder hedge fund
Latest hedge funds news and views
Key contacts
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Brussels, Belgium
- +32 2 742 70 95
- Email Geoffroy
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