Investment Funds
Investment Funds operate in a highly-regulated environment. We provide advice to investment funds and private equity funds about compliance with regulatory requirements for registration and exemption from those registration requirements. We also provide advice in connection with related ongoing regulatory compliance issues. We help clients structure their investment vehicles to operate efficiently in the regulatory environment.
Investment Advisers and Broker-Dealers
Just as Investment Funds operate in a highly regulated environment, so do Investment Advisers to such funds. We provide advice to Investment Advisers in registration and compliance issues. Many of our clients are family wealth management offices, and while exempt from registration requirements, they often seek our assistance in structuring compliance programs to assist them with oversight of their operations. Likewise, broker-dealers also operate in a highly regulated environment and we provide advice on issues of regulatory compliance both at the Federal level and State law level. Many of our clients are dually registered entities and we help our clients navigate the additional disclosure burdens of dual registration.
Securities Law Compliance Programs
We help financial services companies create and manage compliance programs. We also actively assist companies with OCIE inspection preparation, setting up files in a way that helps streamline the inspection process, and providing training to company personnel so that they know their rights during the inspection process. We engage directly with the SEC staff on premises during the inspection, and maintain an interface between the SEC and the company's personnel. Where issues are flagged, we help rectify the perceived problem and demonstrate to the staff that sufficient changes have been put into place in order to help prevent enforcement referrals.
SEC Advocacy
As former SEC attorneys, we can assist you in crafting comments to SEC regulatory proposals. We also represent amicus curiae participants in litigation involving cutting-edge securities-law issues.
Nonprofit Securities Offerings
We are among the few attorneys who have hands-on experience assisting nonprofit organizations navigate the landscape of securities offerings as part of their fundraising efforts. Securities issued by nonprofit corporations are exempt from registration with the SEC, but have state-law obligations that require either state-by-state filings or the perfecting of an exemption. We are able to draft disclosure documents and either field regulator inquiries or consult with and assist issuers during the process. Funds raised in this manner are generally used to lend to other persons or institutions, consistent with the mission of the nonprofit, and the spread between the funds raised and the rate of return earned becomes operating capital for the nonprofit.