Practice Areas & Industries: Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P.

Practice/Industry Group Overview

Fulbright & Jaworski has an active and growing investment management and investment company practice. Our attorneys represent a variety of clients that utilize our experience in matters arising under the Investment Company Act of 1940 and the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. Through attorneys located principally in our New York and Washington, D.C. offices, our practice includes representation of registered investment advisers; open-end mutual funds; closed-end investment companies; private investment partnerships, including hedge funds, high-yield debt funds, arbitrage funds, private equity funds and venture capital funds; offshore investment pools; direct investment funds; registered broker-dealers; and trade groups and others seeking guidance on regulatory matters.

Services Available

Fulbright regularly represents both sponsors and investors in connection with the establishment of private equity investment vehicles, including leveraged buy-out funds and venture capital funds, both domestic and off-shore. Our team working in this area brings extensive experience in many relevant areas, including partnership and limited liability company law, tax, ERISA, securities, investment companies, and it also brings knowledge of current market conditions and trends to its works.

We also regularly represent institutional investors making investments in the funds. In addition to our work in establishing private equity funds, members of the group are involved regularly in structuring and negotiating the funds' investments. We work with our clients from the beginning to establish clear exit strategies, whether by private sale, initial public offering, merger or acquisition. The transactions range from seed capital and other preferred stock investments to buy-outs of public and private companies, recapitalizations and spin-offs.

Our skill and commitment to service span many industries including energy, health care, media, financial services, insurance software and hardware, biotechnology, telecommunications, information technology, transportation, business services, manufacturing, retail, ecommerce and consumer products.

We represent sponsors of venture capital funds in their capital-raising and investing activities as well as emerging growth companies seeking venture capital financing. We have practiced actively in the venture capital area for over 30 years and were one of the early entrants in this field. Our model portfolio company investment agreements formed the basis of many of the agreements used in today's venture capital industry. Accordingly, we bring a vast wealth of experience to these assignments. We provide advice on the structuring of domestic and offshore entities; prepare private placement memoranda and subscription documentation as well as limited partnership agreements and limited liability company membership agreements; negotiate with investors; and structure general partner and investment advisor arrangements. We represent sophisticated institutional investors in funds and our attorneys are knowledgeable about market terms and trends. Additionally, we provide advice in connection with transfers of limited partner interests, distributions in kind, general partner management changes, dissolution and liquidation mechanics. We also represent a number of venture capital-backed portfolio companies in the computer, semiconductor, health care, life sciences, telecommunications and software area.