Sarah Davidoff > Ropes & Gray LLP > New York, United States > Lawyer Profile
Ropes & Gray LLP Offices

1211 AVENUE OF THE AMERICAS
NEW YORK, NY 10036
NEW YORK
United States
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Sarah Davidoff

Work Department
Asset Management
Position
Partner
Career
With a career spanning more than two decades, Sarah Davidoff is a partner in the asset management group and a co-head of Ropes & Gray’s Client Program. The world’s largest and most prominent US and non-US alternative asset managers turn to Sarah for guidance on issues relating to the formation, fundraising and operation of their private equity funds, growth funds, hybrid funds, credit funds and hedge funds. In Chambers USA, Sarah’s clients have commended her as being “uniquely talented,” praising her ability “to take the legal theory and really put it into practice” and to be “a strategic advisor” that is “incredibly proactive” and able to “mobilize all the capabilities of Ropes & Gray.” As such, Sarah’s clients “very much view her as a critical partner,” recognize that Sarah “universally has the highest regard or her peers” and notice that, “of her competitors, she [is] their top referral.”
Sarah has particular expertise with spinouts, reorganizations, asset management M&A transactions, seed arrangements, high net worth access products, structuring internal compensation programs, designing bespoke and hybrid investment vehicles and launching innovative fund products. Sarah’s esteemed client roster and proven track record of making an impact on fund managers, and, more recently her cutting-edge work in advising on cryptocurrencies, demonstrates she is among the top women in the industry. Sarah regularly advises clients at the forefront of the constantly evolving regulatory and compliance landscape, is a frequent speaker at conferences, forums and other seminars in the private funds industry, and has contributed to a number of well-known legal publications.
Education
- JD, New York University School of Law, 1996
- AB, with High Distinction, University of Michigan, 1993
Lawyer Rankings
United States > Investment fund formation and management > Alternative/hedge funds
(Leading partners)The highly experienced alternative and hedge funds team at Ropes & Gray LLP regularly handles the full range of hedge fund matters, jointly led by San Francisco’s asset management specialist Melissa Bender, New York’s Morri Weinberg, Boston’s Leigh Fraser and Peter Laybourn. Bender’s expertise includes leading the firm’s crypto blockchain department, while Fraser specializes in representing hedge fund sponsors. The team services a roster of major clients including private credit sponsor CIFC asset management, MFN Partners, and Pacific Investment Management Company, on onshore and offshore private funds, structuring products, and the full range of regulatory matters. Head of the hedge fund team, New York-based Laurel FitzPatrick leads on advising on evergreen and open end credit funds, and assists with representing both registered and unregistered fund managers. Sarah Davidoff is another key contact in the New York office, advising private fund sponsors and providing strategic counsel to national and international hedge funds.
Lawyer Rankings
- Alternative/hedge funds United States > Investment fund formation and management
- Leading partners United States > Investment fund formation and management > Alternative/hedge funds
Top Tier Firm Rankings
- Investment fund formation and management > Alternative/hedge funds
- Finance > Financial services regulation
- Dispute resolution > E-discovery
- Dispute resolution > M&A litigation: defense
- Dispute resolution > Securities litigation: defense
- Healthcare > Life sciences
- Investment fund formation and management > Mutual/registered/exchange-traded funds
- Dispute resolution > Securities litigation: defense
- Healthcare > Service providers
Firm Rankings
- Finance > Capital markets: high-yield debt offerings
- Finance > Capital markets: equity offerings
- Media, technology and telecoms > Cyber law (including data privacy and data protection)
- Labor and employment > Employee benefits, executive compensation and retirement plans: transactional
- Tax > Not-for-profit (Fortune 1000 private foundations, national trade associations, and charities)
- Intellectual property > Patents: licensing
- M&A/corporate and commercial > Private equity buyouts: large deals ($500m+)
- Investment fund formation and management > Private equity funds (including venture capital)
- Tax > US taxes: non-contentious
- Antitrust > Cartel
- Dispute resolution > M&A litigation: defense
- M&A/corporate and commercial > M&A: large deals ($1bn+)
- Intellectual property > Patents: litigation (International Trade Commission)
- Real estate > Real estate
- Finance > Restructuring (including bankruptcy): corporate
- Dispute resolution > Securities litigation: defense
- Government > State attorneys general
- Labor and employment > Workplace and employment counseling
- Finance > Capital markets: high-yield debt offerings
- Finance > Fintech
- Antitrust > Merger control
- Intellectual property > Patents: litigation (full coverage)
- Finance > Structured finance: derivatives and structured products
- Media, technology and telecoms > Technology transactions
- Intellectual property > Trade secrets (litigation and non-contentious matters)
- Antitrust > Civil litigation/class actions: defense
- M&A/corporate and commercial > Venture capital and emerging companies
- Dispute resolution > Appellate: courts of appeals / Appellate: supreme courts (states and federal)
- Finance > Capital markets: debt offerings
- Finance > Commercial lending
- Dispute resolution > Corporate investigations and white-collar criminal defense
- Finance > Structured finance: securitization
- International trade and national security > Customs, export controls and economic sanctions
- M&A/corporate and commercial > Shareholder activism