Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP‘s ’deep expertise’ across all types of funds is appreciated by their client base of global fund and asset management firms and their independent fund directors and trustees. The firm supports registered open-end mutual funds, exchange traded funds, closed-ended funds and business development companies. Margery Neale and Lior Ohayon jointly lead the department from New York, with the former also chairing the registered funds practice where she has extensive experience in the creation and operation of registered open-end mutual funds, ETFs, closed-end funds and BDC’s among others. Further key names in the department are New York based Elliot Gluck who contributes extensive knowledge in closed-end fund capital markets offerings to the team while in Washington DC Benjamin Haskin regularly acts for broker-dealers on various fund products. In New York Jay Spinola is a member of the 1940 Act Bar and has extensive experience with ETF products, regulations and related corporate matters. Anne Choe and Neesa Patel Sood are based in Washington DC, with the former focusing on securities regulation and ETFs, and the latter advising closed-end funds on secondary offerings, tender offers and other transactions. Barry Barbash retired in June 2023.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

‘Willkie Farr has impressed me as a broadly collaborative & diverse culture, supported by leading technology, where attorneys pitch in across clients to do the very best legal work. The partners we work with directly exemplify this culture, and I also value the specialist expertise they've tapped within the firm to keep us abreast of litigation, regulatory, tax, and enforcement developments/risks across the industry.’
‘Partners Margery Neale & Neesa Sood work remarkably well as a team, coordinating and communicating effectively with each other, our board, and management to ensure continuity and coverage of our legal needs and questions. I'm confident we could not find better legal counsel, and sleep easier knowing they're helping us serve our shareholders effectively.’
‘The Board leveraged Willkie Farr's expertise across a broad array of transactions, including mergers, fund consolidations, and changes to sub-advisers and portfolio management teams.’
‘Ben Haskins and Neesa Sood were engaged as our new counsel based on their demonstrated breadth of legal expertise and knowledge. Our decision to retain them paid immediate dividends. With demands on the Board and its counsel coming often with short turnaround times, their expertise, responsiveness, and good humor were immediately evident in their interaction with the independent Trustees.’
‘Willkie Farr is exceptional. Neesa Sood and Ben Haskins provide great diversity of thought and experience. They read Everything very carefully, whenever possible doing soliciting clarifications and making corrections before the documents are presented to the trustees.’
‘Neesa and Ben are cordial and polite, but they are appropriately assertive when sharing differences of opinion with management in the boardroom. They don’t dominate the conversation, but they don’t hesitate to add additional color and facts to the conversation, if they feel additional consideration is needed.
‘Deep expertise, and access to full firm resources. The team we have has great judgement and years of experience. Their culture of collaborative work is evident. We are extremely well served by this team.’
‘Reliability, honesty, focus and trust - 4 words that make a relationship truly work. We work closely with Willkie partner Jay Spinola and those words mentioned above are exactly what he brings to the table. He stands out among all the attorneys we have seen over the last 20 years.’

Key clients

Credit Suisse Asset Management and Credit Suisse Funds
Flaherty & Crumrine Closed-End Funds
Gabelli Closed-End Funds
T. Rowe Price Funds
Independent Trustees of the Delaware Funds by Macquarie

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