Why Us

Why us

• To help curb regulatory and reputational risk, we offer scalable collaborative fractional c-suite support with an economies of scale alternative by lawyers with extensive in-house experience working with the spectrum of asset manager organizations
• Across the entire forest not just the trees, we provide a high level of executive collaborative gap support across the asset manager General Counsel, Chief Operation Officer and Chief Compliance Officer skill set
• Complex “real world” experience under one firm means cross function, cost-efficient and proactive not reactive to increase the likely-hood of success
• Former General Counsel, Chief Compliance & Chief Operating Officers to leading asset management firms

Our skill set spans the private fund industry

• We work with the spectrum of niche to conventional strategies
• Major SEC or NFA registered advisory to smaller exempt advisers
• We execute the spectrum of niche to conventional offering structures (domestic & offshore)
• Deep counter-party expertise and relationships
• Each professional with more than two decades of both major asset firm (in-house and outside law firm) experience
• Expertise and solutions from partners not junior associates share knowledge acquired from relationships and resources not otherwise available to a single client organization
• Think out of the box solutions to meet the need of target investors across high net worth, family offices, fund of funds and spectrum of complex institutions

Where we can help - fractional "General Counsel" support

• Top tier (in the trenches) proactive support across the interconnected framework of building, managing and projecting safety of assets at every phase of a private fund manager’s growth-cycle
• Private fund managers, small to well established alternative asset management organizations
• Private fund manager without in-house counsel seeking to lower large law firm legal costs or project an edge to investors
• Our team brings extensive and deep experience serving as in-house GC, CCO or COO for some of the world’s leading alternative asset management firms and leading emerging managers
• Interdisciplinary team with practical business perspectives. Former in-house counsel, general counsel, and company compliance and executive officers Corporate board member perspectives
• Bespoke GC co-source or outsource for registered or exempt investment or commodity advisers, hedge or private equity funds

Where we can help - fractional "Compliance Officer" support

• Bespoke CCO co-sourced or outsourced support to executives of registered or exempt investment or commodity trading advisers, hedge or private equity funds
• Implement or augment benchmark to best practices compliance framework
• Implement benchmark to best practices compliance manual, policies and procedures, processes and controls
• Enterprise wide or focused diagnostic review, analysis, recommendations and implementation for SEC or investor due diligence readiness
• Collaborative administration and support with your team across SEC readiness, investor readiness, marketing, asset gathering and trading

Where we can help - fractional "Operating Officer" support

• Offer bespoke COO co-sourced or outsourced for both SEC registered or exempt investment or commodity advisers
• Implement benchmark to best practices operational framework, policies, procedures, policies and controls
• Enterprise wide or focused diagnostic review, analysis, recommendations or implementation, gap analysis of enterprise risk, trading relationships across counter-parties, fund administrator, brokers, prime or mini prime brokers
• Reduce operational costs to create alpha
• Counter-party set-up expertise, risk management, select best fit and cost-effective to firm strategy, AUM across prime (mini prime) brokers, custodians, administrators, auditors, etc

Benefit of an optimal business operation for both exempt and registered investment firms

• Augment productivity and cost-efficiency for clients no matter the scope of work
• Offer benefit of increasing efficiency with multi-faceted skills sets under one firm
• Help avoid pitfalls to increase likely-hood of business success
• Readiness for institutional investors or an SEC inspection
• Curb compliance, legal, trading and counter-party risk
• Avoid investor reputational risk or rejection by peer selection

Counter - parties

• Analysis of existing counter-parties and service providers relative to existing and future infrastructure such as fund administrators, accountants, custodians, prime brokers, law firms, to name a few
• Established relationships and know-how of counter-parties to increase operational efficiencies, reduce fixed costs and better manage risk

Strategic business support across:

• Business Marketing strategy – help identify target investors and ideal offering structures
• Strategic advice or support – do’s and don’ts to both communicate and raise assets
• Marketing guidance on solicitation and establishing pre-existing relationships
• Investor material guidance and review across pitch book, fact card, etc.
• Advise on preparing benchmark to AIMA ready due diligence questionnaire tailored to client to proactively address due diligence or regulatory audit red flags
• Marketing processes & controls covering investor solicitation prior and post sale
• Negotiating and entering into agreements with third-party marketers
• Periodic review, marketing, legal, operational and compliance gap analysis of above
• Advocate for your company− before regulators, investors
• Anticipate legal needs− and develop and implement policies, practices and strategies aligned with business objectives
• Create and assess compliance programs −aligned with your business and designed to meet company business expectations and legal requirements
• Make informed decisions based on trusted legal advice− on a wide range of topics working with legal counsel who understand your business and industry
• Serve the Board − including developing Board charters, providing guidance and support on corporate secretary and Board minutes matters, guiding on Board education and reporting
• Outsourcing non investment key functions is common for the hedge fund industry generally, but even more so for emerging managers as they grow their business, see SEC- acceptance and growing trend toward outsourcing CCO and why it is not enough to simply have check the box support, 2015
• Red flags: top reasons an investor will veto an investment, unwillingness to provide adequate transparency, inadequate or inappropriate compliance policies and procedures, poor separation of duties, inadequate personnel or lack or relevant experience in critical roles.
• The majority of studies show the higher failure for [newer Firms] compared to established Firms is often due to business mistakes rather than investment issues.