Simon is a financial services lawyer specialising in asset management. He advises fund sponsors/managers, service providers, fund boards, trustees and investors based in the UK and around the globe. Simon provides his clients with succinct and practical commercial advice. He is able to offer targeted guidance on specific matters and bring his extensive management skills to bear on more complex projects, including on a multi-jurisdictional basis.
Simon’s practice encompasses a broad range of specialist areas relating to the asset management sector, including fund establishment and closure, marketing and distribution, regulatory compliance, derivatives trading, depositary, custodian and trustee services, collateral management, investment due diligence and more. It also covers a broad range of investment funds, including alternative investment funds (AIFs) and undertakings for collective investment in securities (UCITS) (including exchange traded and fund-of-funds).
Simon’s career has seen him working in both private and in-house practice and he has acted as in-house counsel for a number of top financial institutions including The Bank of New York Mellon, Macquarie Bank, and BlackRock.
Prior to commencing his legal career, Simon attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and served for five years as an Army officer, undertaking leadership roles in the UK and overseas.
Expertise
- Undertakings for Collective Investments in Transferable Securities (UCITS)
- Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs)
- Fund marketing and distribution
- Regulatory compliance
- Derivatives
- Repo trading
- Securities lending
- Structured products
- Depositary and custody services
- Collateral management
- Investment management agreements
Experience
- Undertaking a pan-European UCITS V implementation project for an international depositary services provider
- Structuring total return swap access to the China ‘A share’ market with a domestic Chinese counterparty for a London fund-of-hedge funds manager
- Working with a NY/London asset manager to implement a Dodd-Frank & EMIR compliance programme
- Completing and integrating the acquisition of a large ETF business for a London asset manager
- Advising an international asset manager client on its substantial shareholding monitoring and reporting infrastructure
- Acting as a panel speaker at the BNY Mellon Regulatory & Technology Conference 2016 and the European Buy-Side Technology Summit 2015
- Advising on the establishment and promotion of structured tax-efficient investment products for sophisticated investors in the UK, Austrian and Swiss markets
Please note: The experience list above may include examples of work completed prior to joining Keystone Law.
Career
Simon qualified as a solicitor in 2010. Prior to joining Keystone Law in 2016, he worked at the following firms:
- The Bank of New York Mellon
- Milbank Tweed Hadley McCloy
- SJ Berwin
- Kirkland & Ellis