Tag Archives: Cole-Frieman & Mallon LLP

Cole-Frieman & Mallon LLP Announces New Partner Scott E. Kitchens

Firm Adds New Denver Office to Expand Practice

Cole-Frieman & Mallon LLP, a leading boutique investment management law firm, is pleased to announce Scott Kitchens has joined the firm as a partner. He will be opening the firm’s new Denver office and will focus his practice on advising private funds and investment advisers in relation to structure, formation and ongoing operational needs. Mr. Kitchens previously worked in the investment management practice group of a large international law firm. He has deep ties to the Colorado investment management community and is committed to growing the firm’s local practice.

“I am excited to welcome Scott to the firm and build out the Denver office together” said Karl Cole-Frieman, co-founder of the firm. “We also know that Scott’s reputation in the Denver community is exceptional, and we believe Scott will propel our firm to be the leading investment fund practice in Denver.” Matthew Stover, CEO of Denver based fund administration firm MG Stover & Co. noted that “the alternative fund industry in Colorado is growing and we believe that Cole-Frieman & Mallon will be a strong addition to the community. We also know that Scott will bring great experience to the new office.”

Mr. Kitchens’ background includes notable experience with venture capital, private equity, and similar closed-end fund structures. “I am very excited to join Cole-Frieman & Mallon and launch its Denver office,” said Mr. Kitchens. “I have known the attorneys at the firm for many years and am confident that we will continue our strong expansion in the investment management space.”

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About Cole-Frieman & Mallon LLP

Cole-Frieman & Mallon LLP is a premier boutique investment management law firm, providing top-tier, responsive and cost-effective legal solutions for financial services matters. Headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in Atlanta and Denver, Cole-Frieman & Mallon LLP has an international practice that services both start-up investment managers, as well as multi-billion dollar firms. The firm provides a full complement of legal services to the investment management community, including: hedge fund, private equity fund and venture capital fund formation, adviser registration, counterparty documentation, SEC, CFTC, NFA and FINRA matters, seed deals, hedge fund due diligence, employment and compensation matters, and routine business matters. Cole-Frieman & Mallon LLP is also a recognized leader in the burgeoning cryptocurrency fund formation space. The firm publishes the prominent Hedge Fund Law Blog which focuses on legal issues that impact the hedge fund community. For more information please visit us at: colefrieman.com.

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Bart Mallon is a founding partner of Cole-Frieman & Mallon LLP and the founder/editor of the Hedge Fund Law Blog.  Mr. Mallon directly at 415-868-5345.

Bart Mallon Speaking at Financial Services Conference

Moss Adams Event on September 26, 2011

On September 26, 2011 Bart Mallon, co-managing partner of Cole-Frieman & Mallon LLP, is scheduled to speak on a panel with respect to recent regulatory issues affecting asset managers. The panel is entitled “Dodd-Frank and the Impact on the Asset Management Business” and also features David E. Tang, a partner at Sidley Austin LLP, and will be moderated by Bryan Cartwright of Moss Adams.

While we do not yet know the exact topics for the panel, there has been a number big picture issues which will affect fund managers over the next several months. Some of these issues include:

After the event we will

provide a review of the major items discussed during the panel.  An overview of the conference is reprinted below and more information can be found here.

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09/26/2011
9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. PT
Hilton Hotel
San Francisco, CA

What’s happening in the investment community now, and where are asset management companies headed?

Join Moss Adams LLP, Arizona State University emeritus professor Dr. Stephen Happel, and US Bancorp former chief economist John Mitchell for an economic update. We’ll also discuss a range of issues and developments affecting broker-dealers, RIAs, hedge funds, and asset managers. Topics will include:

  • Impact of the Dodd-Frank Act
  • Retention and succession
  • Producing superior AUM growth
  • Transaction and advisory activity
  • Accounting and auditing roundup

Alongside our annual Community Banking Conference, this event will provide you an opportunity to network with banking professionals during lunch and at our joint reception.

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Cole-Frieman & Mallon LLP is a hedge fund law firm which provides comprehensive formation and SEC/CFTC regulatory support to start-up and established hedge fund managers.  Please contact us if you have any questions.

Bart Mallon

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Announcing Cole-Frieman & Mallon LLP

Friends:

We are pleased to announce today the merger of our respective firms to form Cole-Frieman & Mallon LLP, a law firm focused on the hedge fund industry.  Below is our press release announcing the merger.  We look forward to continuing to provide top-tier legal services to both large and start-up managers and will continue to focus on bringing useful information to the hedge fund community through the Hedge Fund Law Blog.

Many thanks to everyone who has supported this website and our practices over the years.

– Karl Cole-Frieman & Bart Mallon

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Cole-Frieman LLP & Mallon P.C. merge to form 3rd largest hedge fund practice based in San Francisco

– Combined firm has over 200 hedge fund industry clients

San Francisco, July 27th, 2011 – Two fast-growing San Francisco based law firms, Cole-Frieman LLP and Mallon P.C., today announced an agreement to combine businesses. The combined firm, known as Cole- Frieman & Mallon LLP, will be a boutique generalist firm focusing on hedge fund managers and hedge fund investors. Karl Cole-Frieman and Bart Mallon will be Co-Managing Partners of the eight person firm, which is headquartered in San Francisco and has a satellite office in New York. With 215 clients in the hedge fund industry, the firm also managed over 100 hedge fund launches in the last two years.

Cole-Frieman & Mallon LLP provides advice on a broad range of corporate, regulatory and litigation matters including hedge fund formation, adviser registration, CFTC and NFA matters, ISDAs and counterparty documentation, loan trading and distressed debt transactions, seed deals, employment and compensation matters and regulatory inquiries.

The firm will also manage the widely read and highly influential Hedge Fund Law Blog (http://www.hedgefundlawblog.com), which focuses on legal issues that impact the hedge fund community.

“This merger will create an industry leading firm that provides a full suite of services to hedge funds and others in the alternative investment community,” says Karl Cole-Frieman. Mallon notes, “Many larger managers are opting to bifurcate their legal work between our firm and a large law firm. Whether the client needs start-up support or more tailored advice, we are able to provide high level, cost-effective services which consider the manager’s needs from a business as well as a legal perspective.”

“There are few firms that can provide an institutional quality product at a reasonable price point. With Cole-Frieman & Mallon LLP we get the benefit of top notch expertise, as well as the personalized service and attention of a boutique firm” said Dennis Carlton, General Counsel of WMD Asset Management, LLC.

Bruce Wilson at North Creek Advisors, LLC adds “Cole-Frieman & Mallon LLP bring to the table a deep understanding of the hedge fund business and hedge fund operations. They are business partners, as well as counselors, who engineer the solutions for their clients.”

About Cole-Frieman & Mallon LLP

Informed by significant in-house and private practice experience at some of the most prestigious Wall Street firms, hedge funds, and law firms Cole-Frieman & Mallon LLP has the business acumen and market knowledge to

provide legal solutions for a wide range of financial services matters. With offices in San Francisco and New York, Cole-Frieman & Mallon LLP has a nationwide practice that services both start-up managers as well as multi-billion dollar firms. Cole-Frieman & Mallon LLP provides a variety of services including: hedge fund formation, advisor registration and counterparty documentation, CFTC and NFA matters, seed deals, internal investigations, operational compliance, regulatory risk management, hedge fund due diligence, marketing and investor relations, employment and compensation matters, and routine business matters. For more information please visit us at: http://www.colefrieman.com/.

Karl Cole-Frieman can be reached at 415-352-2300.

Bart Mallon can be reached directly at 415-868-5345.

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Hedge Fund Registration Rules Finalized

Registration required by March 30, 2012

We are obviously a bit late on reporting that the hedge fund registration regulations were finalized by the SEC recently (see releases at end of the post).  We are not going to detail all aspects of the regulations in this post, but we will be examining some of the more important issues related to the release over the coming weeks and months.

We do want to provide a quick overview of some of the more important items with respect to the new regulations.  These include:

  1. registration for many hedge fund managers will be required by March 30, 2012 [note: managers will need to file Form ADV with the SEC no later than February 14, 2012 to meet this deadline]
  2. Form ADV has been amended in a number of ways which provide more information regarding a fund’s activities and counterparties
  3. Exempt Reporting Advisers (“ERAs”) will need to complete and file a truncated version of Form ADV by March 30, 2012 [note: ERAs will be subject to recordkeeping requirements and will be subject to SEC examination]
  4. many currently registered fund managers will need to switch from SEC registration to state registration during the first part of 2012

IA Registration Overview and Exemptions

After the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act it was clear than many fund managers would be required to register as investment advisers with the SEC.  In general the following are the registration requirements/exemptions for asset managers:

  • managers to only hedge funds (no managed accounts) must register as an IA with the SEC if Regulatory AUM (discussed below) is over $150M
  • managers to hedge funds and managed accounts must register as an IA with the SEC if Regulatory AUM is over $100M
  • mid-sized advisers ($25M to $100M) will be subject to state registration, if applicable [note: some mid-sized advisers will be subject to SEC registration regardless]
  • managers to only VC funds are exempt from registration;
    • VC funds may have up to 20% of their assets in non-VC investments
    • while managers to VC funds will not be required to register as IAs with the SEC, they will still be Exempt Reporting Advisers and will thus need to completed the truncated Form ADV by March 30, 2012
  • non-U.S. managers who have a place of business in the U.S. and have U.S. clients (either directly or as investors in their fund) will generally be required to register as an IA with the SEC or will be deemed to be an ERA [note: non-U.S. managers with U.S. clients or investors will only be exempt from IA registration with the SEC in only limited circumstances]
  • private equity fund managers are generally going to be treated the same as hedge fund managers according to these regulations

Other Items

The following are some of the important items from the releases:

  • Form PF – Release 3221 makes specific reference to a “Form PF release” which indicates that the SEC will be moving forward with the highly controversial reporting form.
  • Regulatory AUM – a new definition for AUM called regulatory assets under management will be used when determining the thresholds for registration. The big issue is that the definition will include leverage (gross assets) and will also include uncalled capital commitments.  The Release 3221 essentially states that the new Regulatory AUM definition is necessary for more consistent

    reporting of AUM and because Form PF will essentially rely on the new definition.

  • Buffer for Mid-Sized Advisers – there is a buffer zone around the $100M mark for certain managers.  This buffer is put into place so that managers do not have to continually switch to and from SEC registration as AUM increases or decreases.  The buffer is $10M each way meaning a manager will not be required to register with the SEC until AUM reaches $110M and a SEC registered manager would not need to de-register or switch to state registration until the manager had less than $90M AUM.
  • Family Office – family offices are exempt from SEC IA registration.  The SEC defined the term “family office” (see Release IA-3220).

The SEC press release announcing the new regulations and providing an overview of the new regulatory requirements can be found here.

The full releases are below:

  • Release IA-3222 [Exemptions for Advisers to Venture Capital Funds, Private Fund Advisers With Less Than $150 Million in Assets Under Management, and Foreign Private Advisers]
  • Release IA-3221 [Rules Implementing Amendments to the Investment Advisers Act of 1940]
  • Release IA-3220 [Family Offices]

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Cole-Frieman & Mallon LLP provides registration, compliance and other legal services for hedge fund managers.  Bart Mallon can be reached directly at 415-868-5345; Karl Cole-Frieman can be reached at 415-352-2300.

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