Hill Dickinson adds new Funds and Financial Regulation practice

Full-service law firm Hill Dickinson has introduced a new Funds and Financial Regulation practice with the lateral hire of investment funds and regulatory partner James Kaufmann.

The addition of a dedicated Funds practice to the firm’s London City offering is the latest development in the firm’s strategic growth plans that has seen more than 15 partner lateral hires arrive in the last year. Clients of the firm who operate in the investment space will now have greater access to specialist advice in areas of financial regulatory work including cryptocurrencies and blockchain-related issues; and hedge and retail funds.

James joins Hill Dickinson after four years as a partner at law firm Howard Kennedy and previous roles, among others, as general counsel and head of compliance, and anti-money laundering officer, at leading FCA-regulated fund platform RWC, now known as Redwheel.  

His work is focused on working with investment funds and investment managers on every part of their business, including establishing managers and funds, fund/product formation, corporate and regulatory matters, and business life cycle events. 

Craig Scott, Hill Dickinson’s head of Business Services, said the creation of a specialist Funds practice at the firm sent out a strong message to the market, saying:

“The hire of James and the establishment of a City-based funds and financial regulation practice is the next natural step for our national Private Equity and ECM practices. The recent shortlisting of our team for the Private Equity team of the Year in the 2023 Lawyer Awards reflects the strong flow of work from our institutional investment client base and we are increasingly receiving demand for new fund formation and financial regulatory sector advice. 

“James has many years of industry experience both in private practice and from his in-house regulatory roles to establish our practice in London, and we are excited to add him to the firm and our growing national Corporate practice.”

James Kaufmann said: 
“The opportunity to create a new and truly client-focused Funds and Regulatory practice is something I’m hungry to drive forward. The areas I specialise in can be fraught with complexity. My role is to demystify the language, determine and explain the required process and successfully guide our clients through it, with the added back up of market-leading national teams in many related areas of the law our clients are likely to need.”

The firm’s new Funds and Fin Reg practice will operate in synergy with a strengthened national tax practice, which was bolstered in February this year with the hire of corporate tax partner David Klass from the City office of US firm Orrick, whose broad tax practice covers corporate and commercial transactions, debt financing, investment fund structuring, and tax advisory work across all of the main UK corporate taxes.

David Klass added: 
“I am delighted to be joined by James and the wealth of expertise that he brings to the firm. Getting the tax part of the initial fund structuring right is key, and I look forward to working alongside James in helping the Firm’s fund practice grow.”