Debevoise has helped organize closed- and open-ended private investment funds, co-investment funds and separately managed accounts pursuing all major investment strategies across all geographic markets, including: buyout; senior and mezzanine debt; credit opportunities; distressed; real estate; infrastructure; energy; media and telecommunications; health care and bio-pharmaceuticals; financial institutions; emerging markets; hedge; venture capital; other sector funds; and funds of funds making primary and secondary investments.
Debevoise represents every type of private equity business, from newly established firms organizing their first funds, to independent boutiques of all sizes, to the private equity arms of insurance companies, investment banks and other large financial institutions, to the world’s largest multi-strategy alternative asset firms. In addition to representing every type of private equity firm and fund, the firm regularly represents general partners, limited partners and individual investment professionals in private equity activities.
The practice advises clients on all aspects of their businesses in addition to fundraising, including: structuring, restructuring and expanding their firms, as well as succession planning; negotiating separate accounts and strategic joint ventures; designing and implementing employee investment and compensation plans, complex carried interest arrangements and a wide range of co-investment programs and vehicles; and anticipating regulatory and compliance challenges and interacting with regulators overseeing their businesses, including in SEC examinations and enforcement actions. In addition, Debevoise advises both sponsors and institutional buyers in connection with strategic investments in private investment firms, and advises on structuring aspects in preparation of liquidity events for a private equity firm’s owners.
With full fund formation teams in the United States, Europe and Asia, Debevoise represents clients that are headquartered and pursue their investment strategies in every corner of the globe. The firm’s diverse clients, and their deal flow, global reach and active engagement in the industry, ensures that the practice stays “ahead of the curve” in the rapidly changing business, legal and regulatory landscape facing the private equity industry today. With the firm’s deep market knowledge and commercial judgment, Debevoise fund lawyers provide their clients with efficient service, and creative and commercially savvy solutions.