Goodwin Procter has long been recognized for the strength of its investment management practice, which includes extensive experience representing registered mutual funds, their independent directors, investment advisers and other fund service providers. Over the past 40 years, we have developed practical experience handling a broad range of legal, regulatory and general corporate matters affecting the mutual fund industry. We have hands-on experience in developing and maintaining a full spectrum of registered investment company products, including domestic and international equity and fixed-income funds, money market funds, index funds, bank-sponsored funds and alternative investment strategy funds. We work regularly with open-end and closed-end funds, load and no-load funds, insurance product funds, domestic and off-shore funds, proprietary and non-proprietary funds, multi-class funds, master-feeder funds, sub-advised funds, manager-of-managers funds and funds-of-funds.
As counsel for numerous fund complexes, we provide a comprehensive range of services. For example, we interact with regulatory authorities in processing registration statements, and in preparing and negotiating no-action letters and exemptive applications. We design and assist in the implementation of compliance programs, draft and negotiate service agreements, and provide advice and counsel on affiliated transactions, industry “best practices,” and other regulatory matters. We also provide tax, ERISA and litigation services for clients and have extensive experience handling high stakes securities litigation and regulatory investigations for mutual funds. As counsel for independent directors of registered funds, we advise on a broad spectrum of board-related matters, including governance structure, contract renewal, significant transactions and risk oversight.
Goodwin Procter also represents a broad range of service providers in the mutual fund industry, including major custodian banks, transfer agents, retirement plan service organizations and securities lending agents. Similarly, we have substantial experience representing companies that issue and sell variable life and variable annuity insurance products and mutual funds that serve as the funding vehicles for those insurance products. From this work, we have acquired practical familiarity from all perspectives with the underlying documents and operational processes used in the mutual fund industry and related regulatory issues, which enables us to provide practical advice efficiently on a broad range of financial services topics. We believe this provides a distinct advantage to our clients.
In 2010, Chambers USA and the Legal 500 again ranked Goodwin Procter as one of the leading law firms in the United States in the investment management practice area for registered funds. We have approximately 30 lawyers practicing in the space, with many others handling litigation or other special projects for registered funds, their boards and service providers. Our team includes former attorneys at the SEC and the federal regulatory agencies overseeing financial institutions. In addition, several of the firm’s partners have been selected for inclusion in Chambers USA and The Best Lawyers in America and are regularly invited to serve as panelists and speakers at industry conferences.