Legal & compliance advisory

Red flags

At what point does a potential
investor become a reputational risk?

Macfarlanes adopts AI

Law firm has partnered with HarveyAI, a generative AI tool designed for legal work

Dillon Eustace appoints head of asset management and investment funds

Etain de Valera takes over from Donnacha O’Connor

Ontra expands legal operating platform

Ontra Atlas is an automated entity management solution

DIY in the wild wild East

Across Lebanon and Palestine, enterprising GPs are piloting their industry with no legislative framework or operational ecosystem, as Matthias Plötz investigates

A&M moves to Vienna

Firm has hired ex-AxFina CEO Bernhard Engel to lead Austrian office

Tikehau invests in Anthesis

Tikehau shares ownership of the ESG consultancy with Carlyle, Palatine and Anthesis employee shareholders

Atfinity partners with Scrive

Partnership aims to improve digital onboarding and client lifecycle processes

What the AI?!...Equipped.ai

CEO of Equipped.ai Ed Green shares how the firm is making operations smoother with automation

Addleshaw expands private funds team

Ben Cocoracchio joins the London team from Osborne Clarke

Law firm Allectus launches

The practice has been founded by former Mishcon de Reya partner Angeli Arora

Sidley Austin’s Chapman joins Macfarlanes

Peter Chapman has been appointed as a partner in the investment management team

Robin AI launches Obligation Management

Dashboard to allow legal teams to review, prioritise and action tasks related to contractual obligations

McGuireWoods ‘appoints’ AI legal assistant

Law firm to use Casetext’s CoCounsel to enhance quality and timeliness of legal services delivered

What’s in a name?

European Commission’s Retail Investment Strategy to further amend AIFMD and do away with ‘undue costs’, broaden definition of professional investor and ban inducements

Addleshaw grows financial regulation practice

Lisa Lee Lewis joins after a decade as Norton Rose Fulbright’s head of risk consulting

Pen to pension

How DC pension master trusts are looking to tap into PE

Comment: Avoiding the tripwires

Pinsent Masons partner Mark Shaw details how to avoid regulatory issues when distributing non-EU funds within the EU

Travers Smith grows funds practice

Previously at Proskauer Rose, Tosin Adeyeri focuses on fund formation and secondaries transactions

ndaOK launches NDA review tool

The AI-based tool automates non-disclosure agreement processing

Guernsey updates compliance audit requirement

GPs are now required to appoint an independent audit role

‘GPs are becoming more creative’

Following his move from Travers Smith to Dechert, we caught up with fund formation veteran Sam Kay to get his take on the current market

Pinsent Masons grows Luxembourg funds team

Benoît Rose joins after four years at Ogier and becomes firm’s third addition to the team this year

Regulators continue to woo retail investors in PE

As France proposes to remove further ELTIF restrictions, the FCA issues a policy statement opening up LTAF to retail and DC pensions schemes investors

France issued most number of sanctions under AIFMD between 2013 and 2022

ESMA report highlights a lack of harmonisation among EU Member States regarding sanction enforcement

Latham & Watkins hires two

Sidley’s Mateja Maher and Adrian Grocock join Latham’s London office as partners

5 minutes with… Tim Andrews, IDR

Founder and CEO of the investor onboarding hub shares how its latest fund subscription service strengthens the platform

Gowling WLG grows investment funds practice

Katherine Rainwood was previously managing partner and head of funds legal at Pemberton Capital – her practice focuses on fund formation and fund finance

Unpacking the EU Commission’s sustainable finance package

Concerns about complexity remain as bloc aligns legislation on sustainable investments and looks to regulate ESG ratings providers

FCA cracks down on liquidity management

Financial watchdog’s review finds governance failures around decision making, stress testing and redemption practices

The qualifying factor

To what extent is the QAHC regime benefiting the UK alternative funds industry?

Kroll expands valuation service through BFI acquisition

BFI’s founders and team join Kroll to further boost its valuation practice in Europe

A&L Goodbody appoints practice head

Partner Stephen Carson will lead the firm’s asset management and investment funds practice in Ireland

Stafford Capital cements legal function

Following the appointment of general counsel Jim Marsh in February, The Drawdown can reveal that the firm has now brought in a chief compliance officer

The French (ELTIF) revolution

Country further opens the door to individual investors’ capital in the private markets but operational concerns remain

IQ-EQ grows compliance offering in Asia

Company has acquired compliance firms ComplianceAsia and Lymon

The conversation: dealing with an increasingly complex fund finance lender landscape

At a recent breakfast event held in London, The Drawdown brought together expert practitioners from the fund finance community to discuss the latest trends in the market, challenges and opportunities, as well as practical guidance for fund managers

Profile: Martin Sjölund, Summa Equity

The partner and general counsel walks us through the beginnings of the firm’s legal function and its current management

Proskauer appoints finance partner

Paul Tannenbaum is experienced in fund financing transactions for lenders, borrowers and financial institutions

ACA launches portfolio management solution

Managed Performance Services aims to assist fund managers with performance measurement and reporting features

Comment: Future-proofing operational models key to supporting global GP ambitions

Elliot Refson, head of funds at Jersey Finance, says the jurisdiction’s JPF and LLC structures provide stability in a turbulent environment

LP reporting requests the biggest obstruction for PE GPs

Frequent reporting and ad hoc requests from LPs are the biggest obstruction to operations for private equity GPs, according to a new survey.

The Drawdown Awards 2023: Winners announced

Congratulations to all of the winners of The Drawdown Awards 2023

5 minutes with… Priya Iyer, CEO of Concertiv

We sat down with the CEO to discuss how a company originally conceived to cut travel costs for six investment banks has grown into a leading provider of outsourced procurement services for mid-market firms.

Colmore launches Term Intelligence

Features include benchmarking, cost projection and ILPA compliance services for LPs, GPs and service providers, aiming to improve the LPA process

Burges Salmon hires funds and financial regulations director

Jennifer Mellor has joined Burges Salmon as a director in its funds and financial regulations team

State of substance

How are GPs giving their firms the necessary mass to operate in Luxembourg?

PE firms better at shifting costs of W&I

Some 17% of PE deals saw sellers pay an insurance premium, compared to just 2% in non-PE deals

Deep dive on Alpha’s fund finance solution

Following the recent announcement of Alpha Group’s new fund finance solution, we sit down with Sam Marsh, MD institutional, and Adam Heaysman, who is heading up the new offering, to find out more

Shearman & Sterling merges with Allen & Overy

Firms hope to capitalise on combined private capital practices, among others

Travers Smith appoints co-heads of ESG and impact

Doug Bryden and Heather Gagen will lead the ESG and impact group, chaired by Simon Witney

Robin AI launches Copilot

Legal chatbot aims to automate legal contract drafting

Ontra launches contract negotiation tool

AI-powered offering should speed up negotiations while decreasing their associated costs

In-house rules: legal versus compliance

As more lawyers move into in-house roles within private equity, they can take up the mantle of either legal or compliance – but how do these functions cross and diverge?

AssetMetrix partners with Proof

Partnership sees launch of ESG tool focused on compliance with SFDR

Profile: Mark Pleaner, Lightrock

The chief compliance officer believes a dedicated compliance function is a vital catalyst across operations, deal-doing and culture

Indos Financial appoints CEO

Abi Holland is promoted to CEO from head of client relationship management

Travers Smith’s senior partner to step down

Due to exceptional family reasons, Kathleen Russ will step down as a senior partner but remain in a consulting capacity

Linklaters appoints Vergauwen as counsel

Julia Vergauwen’s practice focuses on ESG funds, Luxembourg domiciled funds and highly leveraged AIFs

Intapp acquires Paragon Data Labs

The platform aims to accelerate compliance disclosure workflows