Herrick, Feinstein provides comprehensive legal representation to investment advisers, investment companies, fund fiduciaries, broker dealers, insurance companies and other multi-service financial institutions engaged in the investment management business.
While our lawyers have substantial experience in the Investment Company Act of 1940 and the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, there's much more to us than that. Your investment business will involve tax, ERISA and corporate securities issues, and you'll need bankruptcy and litigation advice, if only to help keep you out of either. You're not looking for one lawyer to advise you on the investment acts and another to advise you on the tax consequences of what the first lawyer told you that you could do. You want one firm that takes it all into consideration and advises you accordingly. That's Herrick.
Regulatory Matters
One critical task facing investment management is the discharge of your fiduciary obligations. Preparing and enforcing compliance policies and procedures that are responsive to the interests of investors will help you serve them better, and keep you out of trouble. We offer both anticipatory and remedial counsel to comply with federal and state regulation of investment advisers and broker dealers, with ERISA fiduciary requirements, with securities and commodity futures market regulators, with anti-money laundering and consumer privacy regulations, and with performance and advertising standards established by the SEC, the NASD and AIMR.
Product Development
Our lawyers have a wealth of knowledge and experience with mutual funds, hedge funds, private equity funds, real estate funds, closed-end funds, registered and unregistered funds of funds, exchange-traded funds, ERISA accounts, wrap accounts and separate accounts. You can rely on us for every aspect of product development, from tax structuring and entity formation to registration requirements and registration exemptions. But we understand that this just gets us a seat at the table. Where we add value is in taking the time to understand both the regulatory environment you're in and the objectives of your advisory engagement. We'll insist on understanding the compliance system you have in place and how the proposed investment product will mesh with it. We also seek to understand the investment strategy for the product, not just to get the investor disclosure right but also to make sure the fund is properly structured and positioned to execute it. This approach often yields insights to you that encourage anticipatory, rather than remedial, compliance measures.
Transactions
If you just need help with an investment-specific transaction, you can rely on us for that as well. Our experience includes derivatives, investments in private placements of securities, and secondary trades of distressed debt. We also support investment managers and other fund fiduciaries through the entire process of debt restructurings, corporate reorganizations and capital recoveries. As business entities themselves, investment managers also require both corporate and regulatory counsel for joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers, reorganizations, acquisitions and divestitures. You can read about how we can help you with those activities by clicking here.
Litigation
When the SEC, other regulators, or private plaintiffs come knocking, you need counsel you can rely on to give you the best defense possible. You can rely on Herrick for counsel in litigation and arbitration proceedings relating to securities, derivatives and other investment transactions, and we can help you with informal SEC staff inquiries made during periodic compliance audits, and in formal enforcement and investigatory proceedings. Herrick attorneys have in-depth experience in every aspect of litigation, including class actions, and can represent you in multiple jurisdictions at the state and federal level.
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