America's Leading Lawyers for Business 2010: Investment Funds

Chambers & Partners has compiled its independent and objective list of America's Leading Lawyers for Business based on comments gathered from thousands of interviews with clients and lawyers from Maine to Hawaii. This guide — which is designed to reflect market opinion — contains a view of the firms and attorneys who are considered leaders in their field.

In Chambers' 2010 review of national legal talent in the area of "Investment Funds," our Firm and our lawyers are listed among the best in the country.

Chambers' comments:

Private Equity: Fund Formation
Nationwide Ranking: Tier 2

The Firm: This midmarket focused practice has been well positioned throughout a difficult economic time, with a broad spread of work across private equity, hedge and real estate funds. It also has significant recent experience of the issues connected with infrastructure funds and a sizable secondaries team, which advises on both the buy and sell side. The firm's reputation in this field is largely based on its general partnership (GP) representation. It represents clients like American Capital, CVC and Sun Capital, but also acts for a smaller number of limited partnerships (LP).

Sources Say: "Provides sophisticated advice on a real-time basis."

Key Individuals: Bruce Ettelson's private fund formation experience has won the respect of clients: "He can reel off any provision you need, straight off the top of his head," says one. When it comes to representing midmarket and emerging fund sponsors, Chris Kallos is highly recommended. His expertise and demeanor "create great confidence," according to interviewees. New York-based John O'Neil recently advised the Audax Group on the formation of a private equity and mezzanine fund. Clients are particularly impressed with his responsiveness: "You can ask him any question without prior notice and he will answer you as if he has prepared for hours." In the same office is Kirk Radke, who is best known for his transactional buyouts practice, but also has experience advising global private equity firms on debut fund-raisings.

Reprinted with permission from Chambers USA, America's Leading Lawyers for Business 2010 — www.chambersandpartners.com.