The Legal 500

Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP’s ten-partner team ‘isn’t the highest-volume hedge fund practice, but its selective reputation attracts a high-quality roster of clients who typically have complex requirements’. It is an approach that has ensured the firm’s place at the forefront of regulatory and transactional developments dominating the alternative funds space in 2010. The practice focuses on high-end fund work for some of the largest funds and fund managers, including new clients BlackRock and JPMorgan Asset Management, and in 2010 it represented eight of the top 15 largest hedge funds. Describing the firm’s successful strategy, one client notes that ‘the team works hard to learn where we draw our lines and provide advice that is consistent with our expectations’. Chief among the practice’s institutional clients is Goldman Sachs, for whom it has acted as primary outside counsel to its direct managed hedge fund and fund-of-hedge-funds businesses over the course of an 11-year relationship. 2010 saw the practice advise on a host of matters, including establishing various feeder funds and handling M&A and seeding transactions. From structuring and formation issues to tax and regulatory matters, ‘the team is great up and down the line from senior partner to a uniformly strong band of associates’, with particular mention going to tax expert Brian Kniesly. In 2010, the practice acted as counsel to three major financial institutions on structuring and transactional issues related to the Volcker Rule’s mandated spinout or other disposition of their proprietary trading businesses. Other highlights included advising on the formation of Attara Capital – a hedge fund set up by a former co-chair of Atticus Capital – and acting for longstanding client Highbridge Principal Strategies on forming a number of senior loan funds. ‘Smart, hardworking and thoughtful’ senior partner Lawrence Barshay heads the group, while David Selden and Jonathan Adler deliver ‘fantastic service, advice and work product’.

Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP has a rarefied reputation in the hedge funds industry, thanks to its 40-year history advising institutional investors, investment advisory firms and funds. Fielding 100 attorneys with hedge funds expertise, including 17 partners, the team has the critical mass and knowledge base to offer a high-end service to a large number of individual funds (the practice represents over half of the Alpha 100). Clients include FrontPoint Partners, Credit Suisse and Deerfield Capital Management. It further strengthened its capability in 2010 by hiring Daniel Hunter, bringing his expertise in European feeder and hybrid funds over from Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP. The team brings to bear tailored expertise in tax, derivatives and employment matters, and recently formalized its regulatory capability with the launch of a dedicated compliance practice comprising over 70 lawyers, many of whom have experience with the SEC. The practice has been advising investment banks on novel structures for their proprietary trading businesses, and former institutional managers on establishing their own operations. One such example is its advice to FrontPoint Partners on its pending spin-off from Morgan Stanley. Fund formation work – traditionally the practice’s biggest strength – remains depressed, but 2010 saw the team advise Paul Orwicz on forming Sursum Capital Management to trade in the TMT and energy sectors, as well as creating two distressed debt and equity funds for Alden Global Capital. It is this ability to straddle industry sectors and investment strategies that holds great appeal to clients, who appreciate the vast experience and seniority of Paul Roth and abilities of Stephanie Breslow.

Sidley Austin LLP’s investment management practice fields more than 100 corporate, securities and derivatives lawyers globally, covering the full scope of funds work, including mutual, hedge and private equity funds, as well as REITs. Clients comment that this ‘huge bench of talented lawyers has an in-depth understanding of the law and gives sophisticated legal advice’. In 2010, the team expanded significantly as David Tang and Mark Whatley joined the San Francisco office from Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Falk & Rabkin, PC to enhance its emerging technologies and VC capability, while emerging markets expert Alyssa Grikscheit joined the New York office from Goodwin Procter LLP. The US team has ‘one of the best practices in the country in the regulatory arena’, and supplements its domestic capability with a formidable global footprint. It has been advising European and US clients on the implications of the Dodd-Frank Act and related SEC, CFTC and state regulations, as well as acting as outside counsel to the Managed Funds Association on OTC derivatives matters. Other highlights included advising Soroban on launching its $200m hedge fund and, in a reflection of the continuing trend of hybridization, advising Garrison Investment Group on forming a series of hybrid funds specializing in distressed investments in real estate, corporate and other financial assets. In addition to the extensive experience of David Sawyier (‘one of the first lawyers specializing in this field and therefore knows how and why it developed the way it did’) and William Kerr (‘extremely smart and knows the hedge fund market inside out’), Chicago-based Bradley Howard is ‘akin to a junior Bill Kerr, a great technical lawyer with an exhaustive knowledge of relevant rules and regulations’, while Michele Ruiz is ‘conscientious and hardworking’.

Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP’s investment fund management practice comprises over 50 attorneys and also calls on the broader expertise of the firm’s equity derivatives, credit and tax groups to advise comprehensively on structured equity and credit techniques to create new hedge and alternative fund products. The practice’s hedge funds work originated from its historic strengths in private equity and has developed into a ‘small but high-end fixture in the marketplace’ that can comfortably represent over half of the top 20 hedge fund managers, including FrontPoint Partners and Highbridge Capital Management. It advised Morgan Stanley on the spinout of the former and advised the latter on regulatory implications of its purchase of 55% of Brazilian asset manager Gavea Investimentos. Bespoke fund formation, management, acquisition and regulatory are all strengths for the practice and ‘indicative of the breadth the team brings to the equation’. In 2010, Yukako Kawata advised the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association on the application of the Volcker Rule relating to banking entities and their investments in, and sponsorship of, hedge funds. Leor Landa and Nora Jordan are also recommended.

Nestling within its global investment management department, Dechert LLP’s 20-lawyer US hedge funds team draws from the wider pool of resources afforded by this structure to deliver ‘very high business acumen and industry knowledge, coupled with a professionalism that is sometimes lacking in this industry’. It has been steadily increasing its capacity to handle the volume of representations demanded by its multinational client base: following Richard Horowitz’s arrival in 2009, in 2010 the team hired Holland West, former head of Shearman & Sterling LLP’s global funds practice. This brings to ten the number of New York-based partners focusing on hedge funds, with ‘cerebral’ practice head George Mazin and the ‘conscientious’ Kevin Scanlan ‘working hard to understand clients’ concerns and risk tolerance, and tailor advice accordingly’. The team has been heavily involved in advising its clients on reorganizing their funds and management companies, which included the creation of SPVs to manage redemptions during the financial crisis. The workflow has not been limited to managing the fallout of the financial crisis, though, and 2010 saw the team advise on establishing a multi-tier investment fund complex targeting natural resources investments in Mongolia as well as representing a large company on creating a European fund structure.

‘An excellent mid-size hedge fund firm with strong regulatory capabilities’, Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP has the breadth across its investment fund and structured products practices to handle a high volume and variety of representations for clients such as PineBridge Investments and Capital Fund Management. Spread across the firm’s New York, Chicago and Washington DC offices, 16 partners make alternative hedge funds and structured products their primary focus, with six partner appointments in 2010 alone showing the firm’s commitment to providing a ‘high-class, business-oriented service’. 2010 saw the team acting for Renaissance Institutional Equities Funds and Renaissance Institutional Futures Funds on restructuring of both funds. Additional highlights include advising Vermillion Asset Management and Viridian Partners in connection with an agreement to sell equity in the GP to Purchaser, a newly formed investment management firm. The $30m transaction was part of a roll-up of six separate transactions by Purchaser, which bought controlling interests in the general partners or managing members of hedge funds. Fred Santo heads the practice from New York, and is ably supported by Henry Bregstein, global chair of financial services and New York co-managing partner, whose expertise in domestic and offshore securities and commodities-focused hedge funds is valued by clients.

Ropes & Gray LLP has ‘a superb investment management team in Boston’, with high-end hedge funds work a core focus for the ten-partner team. Headed by Laurel Fitzpatrick, this ‘excellent set of lawyers’ has depth across the board, as well as a niche capability in derivatives and futures to supplement its tax, ERISA and restructuring prowess. Despite the dearth of new funds in 2010, the team represented Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Co on the formation of GMO Credit Opportunities, which was set up to invest in long and short positions on distressed bank loans, bonds, notes and other issuer obligations. It also advised Pacific Investment Management Company on its fund formations, including a number of alternative fund structures such as a bank trust fund project. Other highlights for 2010 included advising Blackstone’s Strategic Alliance Fund and Strategic Alliance Offshore Fund on seed investments in multiple hedge funds. Boston-based Leigh Fraser and New York-based Sarah Davidoff are both recommended.

Although Seward & Kissel LLP’s investment management practice is smaller in size than many of its competitors, it punches above its weight in terms of scale and sheer volume of representations carried out by the team. Its impressive track record dates back to the hedge fund industry’s inception with its representation of AW Jones & Company, considered to be the first hedge fund. Its seniority in the industry is reflected in the sophistication of its clients, with clients such as Blackstone Alternative Asset Management, Morgan Creek Capital Management and Indus Capital Management seeking advice on restructuring, consolidation and regulatory compliance in the wake of the financial crisis. In all, ten partners and 40 other attorneys staff the investment fund formation and management group, with New York-based practice head John Tavss receiving plaudits as ‘not only an excellent lawyer but a nice man to deal with’. Highlights for 2010 included advising Atalanta Sosnoff Capital on selling a 49% economic interest to Evercore Partners for $69m. It also advised Toronto-based asset management firm Sprott Inc on its acquisition of US investment management and broker-dealer firm Global Resources Investments, which was unique in that it involved a cross-border, stock-for-stock transaction between government-registered financial services businesses. Clients particularly praise partners John Tavss and John Cleary.

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP fields a ‘well-respected team that leaves clients satisfied that they are in safe hands’, particularly when it comes to Steven Vine’s ‘extensive knowledge of hedge funds’. Vine heads a team of 15 investment fund partners that is predominantly centered on New York, and can also call on investment management expertise in the Los Angeles, Washington DC and Texas offices, as well as a broader global network where necessary. This gives the group capacity and capability to handle a high volume of transactions, which it does to winning effect, although the depth of expertise beyond partner level is sometimes questioned. The group attracts a broad array of prominent hedge fund sponsors, including Soros Fund Management, FRM, Oak Hill Investment Management, Carlyle and AIG.

Goodwin Procter LLP’s hedge fund practice has steadily developed over the years from its prominent private equity practice, providing an ‘extremely strong overall level of service, especially in all hedge fund-related matters’. Its client base includes a mixture of institutional sponsors, such as VC-oriented Sequoia Capital, and financial services firms, such as Bank of America Merrill Lynch, but the emphasis is weighted more towards investor-side representations. The team acted for Bank of America Merrill Lynch on structuring and offering a series of real estate funds for private investors, as well as on the review and negotiation of its investments in various private funds. Sponsor-side representations have been on the increase, with the team advising Sequoia Capital on hedge fund and compliance matters, including the formation of Sequoia Capital Global Equities, an offshore hedge fund to supplement its existing platform. It also advised Boston Private Financial Holdings on negotiating and closing its hedge fund subsidiary Westfield Capital Management, and, in an indication of the firm’s broader investment management capability, it advised Axiom International Investors on establishing a new investment platform to permit asset managers to access the European UCITS market. Practice area leader Elizabeth Shea Fries is highly recommended.

The ‘hardworking, responsive and creative’ six-partner team at Lowenstein Sandler PC is considered by clients to be ‘one of the best teams of hedge fund attorneys’, a reputation that has attracted prominent global asset managers such as Ahab Capital Management and Davidson Kempner Capital Management. Key to the practice’s popularity is Robert Minion, who heads the investment management group and is roundly regarded as being ‘at the very top of the list in this practice area in the US’. In addition to serving as lead outside counsel to the aforementioned funds, he also acts as lead outside counsel to Cerberus Capital Management. Regulatory compliance is a particular strength for the practice and the team has been busy advising its clients on how to navigate the impending changes arising from the Dodd-Frank Act and Volcker Rules in 2010. David Goret joined the team in 2010, bringing with him his expertise as general counsel and chief compliance officer at GSC Group.

Morgan Lewis’ team advises over 250 global hedge fund managers, including 30 with $1bn-plus assets under management, of which six are among the world’s largest hedge funds. The ‘depth of the team is above average, with a broad understanding of the issues regarding fiduciary responsibility and market terms’, although some clients note that ‘some younger attorneys need more training and experience’. Its investor-side practice is ‘one of the very best’ and includes major institutional clients such as South Carolina Retirement System and CalPERS, both of which recently sought advice on withdrawing from a number of commingled hedge funds, as well as on establishing several new global captive hedge funds. The practice also represented eight leading insurers on their fund-of-funds workout with Tremont and the Madoff trustee, and assisted Morgan Stanley with its $125m global captive hedge fund investments. Louis Singer and Jedd Wider jointly head the team and are ‘extremely hardworking: working extraordinary hours and through complex issues to reach a reasonable conclusion’.

Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP’s six-partner group focuses on high-end, innovative representations for a mix of start-up fund managers and deeply entrenched institutional sponsors and investors, and this approach saw it report a rise in new fund formations, product re-launches and M&A towards the end of 2010. The US hedge funds team is mainly concentrated on the West Coast, but the firm’s global capability is a particularly big draw, and the practice advises US and non-US private investment funds as well as sovereign wealth funds on investing in alternative funds. While it does not seek to compete in terms of sheer volume of work, the practice is excellent for bespoke funds. Demonstrating the cross-border, cross-practice capabilities the practice brings to bear, 2010 saw it advise Passport Capital on all aspects of its private fund manager business, as well as its role as an activist investor. This included the hostile ouster of the management of JSM Indochina, an AIM-listed company, in a public proxy contest. It also advised Trust Company of the West with respect to the structuring, funding and launch of a private fund that participated in the new US TALF loan program investing in asset-backed and mortgage-backed securities, which raised over $350m. Michael Rosella heads the investment management team from New York, while San Francisco-based Mitchell Nichter leads on hedge fund matters.

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP has made a concerted effort to focus on high-value, large funds, eschewing cookie-cutter representations. Its strength in private equity is mirrored by its hedge fund capability, which affords the team the ability to work equally well on traditional or hybrid fund structures. It is ably supported by a leading investment management merger and acquisition team led by asset management M&A expert Robert Goldbaum. While sector consolidation and restructuring has been the order of the day since 2008, the tail end of 2010 saw a small rise in new fund formations, particularly for investments in distressed assets and Asian markets. The group advised Wellspring Capital Management on the formation and final closing of Wellspring Capital Partners V, with $1.2bn of capital commitments marking Wellspring’s largest fund to date. It also advised BlackRock on forming BlackRock Asian Credit Hedge Fund, which was formed to trade corporate bonds in Asia. Other fund clients include Blackstone Group, KPS Capital Partners and Clearlake Capital Group. Deputy corporate chair Marco Masotti and investment management practice head Robert Hirsh constitute ‘a formidable combination’ when it comes to hedge fund matters.

Proskauer Rose LLP ‘provides an excellent level of service in this area, which sets it apart from other mid-sized hedge fund firms’, with investor-side and VC capabilities particular standouts. While the team is small, its three partners and five associates collectively draw praise for their ‘efficiency, responsiveness and extremely solid knowledge base – they are conservative in their approach, but will generally give you the lay of the land and all relevant options’. While its strengths on the investor side are widely reported, it also has a considerable and growing reputation for sponsor-side representations for clients such as Apex Capital Management, Alpine Associates, Atlantic Investment Management, Bay Harbour Management and Helios Advisers. 2010 saw a shift to more prototypical hedge fund work as well as an emphasis on new hybrid structures. Highlights included advising Castle Hill Asset Management, a new asset manager, on its spin-off from Axial Investment Management and the formation of two new funds. It also advised hedge fund manager Spectrum Management Group, a longstanding client, on the creation of new onshore and offshore hedge funds for a single large institutional investor. Chris Wells heads the practice and is ‘top-notch on all fund-related matters and structuring’, while ‘rising star’ Amanda Nussbaum ‘is the go-to person on the tax side’.

San Francisco-based Shartsis Friese LLP has the West Coast ‘locked down when it comes to VC and new hedge fund startups’. The eight-partner investment management advisory group has the depth of expertise to cover a spread of transactions for entrepreneurial startups, the practice’s specialty and core strength, and also for major institutional sponsors. Its client list includes $1bn-plus entities such as Cavalry Asset Management, Pring Point Capital, Osterweiss Capital Management, and Weintraub Capital Management, alongside new fund formations for startups. What the team lacks in size it more than makes up for in partner-led client interaction, with clients praising the ‘level of attention paid by partners’. The team’s track record includes advising on managerial succession issues and partnership disputes as well as standard fund formation issues. Neil Koren and tax specialist Geoffrey Haynes are recommended.

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP has developed a solid reputation as ‘one of the best firms for hedge fund M&A’. Special mention is reserved for ‘innovative’ lead partner Philip Harris, whose regulatory and transactional expertise on international and US structures attracts a prominent array of leading hedge funds. While its core reputation lies on the transactional side, it also has an excellent fund formation offering: for example, 2010 saw the practice advise Fortress Investment Group on the formation and capitalization of Fortress Credit Opportunities Fund. It also advised Citigroup in connection with SkyBridge Capital’s definitive agreement to acquire the fund-of-hedge-funds, seeding and hedge fund advisory businesses from Citi Alternative Investments. In addition to his transactional expertise, Harris has extensive experience in crisis management, advising on crisis situations involving private funds such as Durus and Amaranth as well as the Madoff fallout.

Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP has a ‘small but budding practice’, which caters to a broad client base of hedge funds, as well as having a pre-eminent funds-of-funds practice acting for longstanding clients such as UBS, Central Park Group and Ramius. The last two years have seen the practice’s focus shift towards the distressed arena, in keeping with the market’s appetite for those types of assets. In addition, it has played an active role on macro funds, feeder funds, funds of funds, seed arrangements and managed account platforms for clients such as Mizuho Alternative Investments, SkyBridge Capital and JPMorgan Asset Management. It advises hedge fund managers on regulatory compliance and on providing sufficient liquidity to satisfy investor demand, including pay-to-play initiatives. Jeffrey Uffner heads the practice from New York.

Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP’s ten-partner team routinely advises on a broad range of hedge and alternative fund matters, including public and private acquisitions, restructuring, PIPEs and minority investments, and can call on its wider European and Asian network on cross-border matters where necessary. Its client base includes some 20 blue-chip hedge funds, with prominent names such as DE Shaw and Eton Park showing that this practice can stand alongside the firm’s renowned private equity practice. The team has a deliberate focus on sizeable, complex transactions and advised on some key deals in 2010: for example, it acted for UK-based asset management firm Man Group on its acquisition of GLG Partners, effectively creating a hedge fund giant managing $63bn in assets. It also represented Harbinger Capital Partners in the take-private transaction of LightSquared, a $1.85bn mobile satellite services provider, and advised Fortress on restructuring Florida East Coast Industries’ $1.6bn debts, one of the largest out-of-court restructurings in 2010. Boston-based Joseph Basile co-chairs the practice alongside Doug Warner, who operates out of New York alongside the majority of the US team. Jeffrey Tabak is also recommended.

The ‘indispensable’ investment management team at WilmerHale delivers ‘outstanding levels of service in its core investment fund formation regulatory compliance competencies’. It fields a number of attorneys with prior experience in the investment management division of the SEC, giving the practice valuable knowledge on asset management regulatory issues. This expertise saw the team called on to advise State Street Bank and Trust Company and State Street Global Advisers on a case brought by the SEC alleging improprieties in the management of various bank funds that resulted in the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in sub-prime investments. The case resulted in the second-largest settlement by dollar value of any case brought by the SEC in 2010, and addressed a number of issues relating to the duties of an investment manager allocating separate account assets among funds. It also provides securities regulatory advice to a client base that includes broker-dealers and investment consultants such as Citadel Advisors and Barclays Global Fund Advisors. James Anderson heads the practice from Washington DC, while Boston-based partner Leonard Pierce is considered a ‘trusted adviser whose business acumen, expansive knowledge, calm demeanor and uncanny precision forms the bedrock for the rest of the team’.

Bingham McCutchen LLP’s strengths traditionally are geared towards the registered funds market, but the firm has steadily developed a reputation as a ‘quiet market leader’ for hedge and alternative funds. It has a sponsor-side client base that includes Gottex Funds, Icahn Capital, Henderson Global Investors, Threadneedle, Common Sense Investment Management, Guggenheim and TT International. It is routinely called on to provide fund formation advice for both US-focused platforms and emerging market funds, and provides ‘an excellent level of performance across all key service criteria’, with ‘a level of responsiveness that outdoes the top law firms’. Highlights for 2010 included advising the management entities of the Gracie Credit funds on selling its business to Moelis & Company, and representing Matrix Redux Emerging Markets Fund – a joint venture between Redux Research and Matrix Alternative Asset Management – on its launch. The group also represented TT International on launching several hedge funds using a Cayman master/feeder structure. Thomas John Holton is ‘a gifted lawyer who dependably combines high-quality advice, a depth of practical legal knowledge and experience with superlative client service’. The international scope to his practice is supplemented by the US funds capability of the ‘terrific’ Richard Goldman.

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP’s investment management practice received a substantial boost following the arrival of ‘big-picture strategic thinker’ Drew Chapman and his funds practice from DLA Piper LLP, bringing with him a reputation for ‘fantastic client service, great depth of knowledge in the alternative investment field, and a dedicated, creative and smart team’. The group’s five partners focus primarily on hedge funds, but operate within the wider financial services department and are able to bring to bear the firm’s broader resources and expertise in prime brokerage, derivatives and regulatory compliance where necessary. Despite its relatively small size, the practice attracts some of the largest hedge funds and asset management firms, as well as financial institutions and insurers, and on down to mid-size firms and emerging managers with growth potential. The team’s regulatory capability, coupled with its expertise on esoteric products and fund structures, means it is routinely called on to advise on complex high-end transactions. For example, in 2010 it advised an alternative asset management firm with $12bn of assets under management on its participation in the US Department of the Treasury’s public-private investment program, which involved the launch of a fund to acquire toxic assets from financial institutions. It also advised an investor group and the joint official liquidators on the seizure of control of a hedge fund from its investment manager and represented a multibillion-dollar hedge fund in connection with its global restructuring.

Debevoise & Plimpton’s investment management practice ‘may be better known for its private equity capability, but the hedge fund team is also quite good’. Lawyers in London and Frankfurt lend the two-partner US team an international footprint. Utilizing the firm’s regulatory, tax structuring and structured products expertise, the practice has the capability to advise on transactions or the formation of complex fund and funds-of-fund structures for investment boutiques or major institutions such as AIG. Past experience has included advising on the acquisition and sponsorship of high-yield hedge funds and funds-of-hedge funds for Mackay Shields, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse First Boston, as well as advising Tudor Investments and individual asset managers on a joint venture primarily focusing on arbitrage. New York-based Byungkwon Lim leads the team, with Kenneth Berman in Washington DC providing regulatory compliance advice.

Linklaters’ presence in the UK and internationally is widely regarded as unparalleled in the alternative investment management space, and its US practice has made good progress; New York-based Scott Bowie was recently appointed as global head of the investment management group. The team’s work is dominated by representing its enviable private equity client base on their alternative and hybrid fund structures, and its particular focus on complex, high-end matters saw it at the forefront of key market trends in 2010, such as the resurgence of the secondaries market. KKR has long been a key investment management client for the firm, and in addition to KKR’s extensive private equity requirements, the group advised on the structuring, formation and regulatory approval of an alternative investment vehicle organized as an Irish investment limited partnership for the purpose of investing in Australia. Other key clients include Blackstone and Fortress Investment Group, while its institutional investor track record includes representation of Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse. It also advised Longroad Asset Management on forming a private investment fund to invest in loans, notes, bonds and other debt and equity instruments of financially distressed companies. A 26-attorney team supports Scott Bowie, Stephen Culhane and Lorna Bowen in New York.

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP’s ‘private equity practice has no peers’, and the eight-partner team has used this reputation to build a broader private funds practice with expertise on hedge and alternative funds, often representing clients that are subsidiaries, affiliates or spin-offs of its private equity investment clients. The practice’s dual private equity and hedge fund capability means it is ideally placed to advise on hybrid fund structures. It is a heavily sponsor-oriented practice, with key clients in 2010 including Advantage Partners, Blackstone and Primus Pacific Partners, although it also handles investor-side representations for clients such as Citigroup. Defining factors of the team’s success include ‘consistently outstanding work with true experts in the field who make clients their top priority’, which feeds into the high-end nature of the work. Regulatory compliance and restructuring remained a major source of work in 2010, although the end of the year marked a slight increase in M&A work for institutional sponsors. The ‘smart and hardworking’ Michael Wolitzer is considered to be ‘in a class by himself’.