Cooley Expands Fund Formation Group With Key Regulatory Hire

New York – July 6, 2022 – Stacey Song has joined Cooley’s market-leading fund formation practice group as a partner in New York. She arrives from Fried Frank and brings a wealth of experience counseling investment advisers and private funds on a range of securities regulation matters, as well as insights gained from working as senior counsel at the US Securities and Exchange Commission. 

“Stacey’s background will boost our ability to provide top-flight guidance to our venture capital and other private fund clients in regard to the Investment Advisers Act,” said John Dado, partner and head of Cooley’s fund formation practice. “Her overall securities law knowledge and deep experience as a problem solver in relation to all manner of compliance and regulatory matters will also be a tremendous asset to our fund and emerging company clients. As the regulatory boundaries in the US continue to expand, and as the regulatory landscape for cryptocurrency investing continues to take shape, her skills and experience are going to be invaluable to our clients.”

Song regularly advises on complex compliance and regulatory matters in the face of newly developing securities law trends and regulations – including registration issues, fiduciary duty, advertising and marketing – and the structuring and ongoing management of private funds and other alternative investment vehicles. She also brings a strong skillset related to the regulatory implications of seed and stake deals for private fund managers, as well as M&A transactions involving controlling interests in fund managers.

As former senior counsel in the private funds branch of the SEC’s Division of Investment Management, Song served as the primary adviser on all legal matters relating to private funds, providing interpretive guidance to other divisions and offices within the SEC and across the industry.

“I am excited to join Cooley’s dynamic global fund formation practice and collaborate on opportunities across the firm, while also mentoring junior team members on building fund formation regulatory capabilities,” Song said. “I look forward to growing the portion of my practice dedicated to advising crypto- and Web3-focused venture funds and other clients in the fast-growing market.”

With a team of 60+ lawyers focused full time on fund formation, Cooley is primary fund counsel to more than 600 investment fund organizations. In 2021, the team advised 490+ fund clients on closings, with more than $61 billion committed to these funds, and is on pace to have another high-volume year. The global practice represents venture capital, growth equity, private equity, and fund of funds managers with primary operations and/or investments in the US, Asia and Europe. The group also runs Vanilla by Cooley, a proprietary, cloud-based solution for raising and administering private closed-ended investment funds, and TheFundLawyer, a blog with legal and tax insights for VC managers.

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