Our firm provides a full range of legal services. The firm's corporate practice is conducted on a national and international scale. Our corporate group regularly structures and advises on complex and demanding corporate transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, strategic investments and joint ventures, leveraged buyouts and financings. The real estate group represents developers throughout the metropolitan New York area providing advice on all aspects of public and private financing and investment, including partnership structuring, construction contracts, hotel management, leasing and dispositions. Our litigation practice involves a variety of business and commercial matters before the federal and state courts. Litigation matters include securities, telecommunications, commercial, intellectual property, employment, collection and bankruptcy. We also offer a full range of tax planning for domestic and international corporations, partnerships, tax-exempt entities and estate planning matters.

Our firm strives to provide its clients with legal advice in a manner that is attentive to the cost and time sensitivities of any given matter. The firm's clients include domestic corporations and financial institutions, venture capital and buyout funds, and corporations and entities that conduct commercial and financial activities. The Firm's clients operate in a number of different industries, including manufacturing, communications, consumer and luxury products, hospital management, information processing, insurance, investment banking, textiles, new media, software, wireless, brokerage, hedge funds and venture capital.

The Financial Services Group

Drawing upon the collective experience of our corporate, securities and tax attorneys, our Financial Services Group has been widely recognized as providing skilled legal guidance to all types of clients in such diverse areas as Private Investment Funds, Venture Capital Investment, Investment Advisory Representation, Compliance Policies and Regulatory Reviews. Our extensive experience in representing the financial community provides us significant economies of scale and the background to respond to most legal issues without time-consuming or costly research and analysis.

Private Investment Funds

The Financial Services Group regularly provides legal assistance to both domestic and offshore private investment funds in the alternative investment arena (e.g. hedge funds, venture capital funds, commodity pools and group trusts), regarding the structure and formation of new funds, as well as the reorganization and restructuring of existing funds. We have structured and organized a wide variety of funds such as long/short funds, global macro funds, emerging market funds, risk arbitrage funds, convertible arbitrage funds, high yield bond funds, distressed debt funds, bank debt funds, country funds (e.g. Ukraine, Japan), sector specific funds (e.g. technology, Internet, health care, biotechnology), fund of funds and multi-manager funds.

Venture Capital Investment 

We have extensive experience representing venture capital funds, portfolio companies receiving venture capital and investors in venture capital transactions. We regularly assist corporate and angel investors in conducting due diligence of portfolio companies, guiding them through both legal and business concerns. Transactions range from early stage seed rounds through late stage venture rounds involving the issuance of preferred stock, convertible debt instruments, warrants, and secured and unsecured bridge debt.

Investment Advisory Representation

We regularly advise clients as to the initial registration and notice filing requirements under both federal and state laws, as well as ongoing compliance and other issues relating to the operation of their business, including advice concerning investment advisory agreements, record-keeping, engaging in soft dollar transactions, principal and agency transactions, sub-advisory arrangements, allocation practices, insider trading policies and employment matters. We often guide clients through contract negotiations with retail and institutional investors, custodians, brokerage firms and solicitors.

Compliance Policies and Regulatory Reviews

The Financial Services Group assists its clients in developing, reviewing and enhancing their compliance policies and monitoring the efficacy of such systems. We regularly review and revise compliance manuals, investment advisory agreements and marketing documents and provide legal guidance on questions concerning trading and investment practices.

Our firm has developed a proprietary regulatory review. This review ordinarily encompasses a review of documents that are required to be maintained by a client under federal and state securities laws. Ordinarily, we also inspect the client's physical operations and interview the client's staff. The review culminates in a report issued either by the Financial Services Group or by an independent auditor. The report is designed to highlight areas of concern and provide guidance to improve those concerns. These regulatory reviews are tailored to the specific needs of each client.