Sidley Austin has hired a trio of partners from Clifford Chance in New York to boost its fund formation offering.
Cliff Cone, Michael Sabin and Daniel Drabkin have joined Sidley as partners in its investment funds group. Cone and Sabin were co-heads of Clifford Chance’s US funds and investment management practice and between them have advised clients including BlackRock, UBS, Blackstone and Tikehau Capital.
“Cliff, Michael and Dan bring a wealth of experience to our growing funds practice and have relationships with many of the top investment funds and asset managers,” said Brian Fahrney, chair of Sidley’s executive committee. “While they work together closely, they each focus primarily on a separate part of the investment funds sector of asset management, bringing broad and complementary experience to clients.”
Cone’s practice focuses on the investment management sector and broadly advises alternative investment managers, registered investment companies including exchange-traded funds (ETFs), business development companies (BDCs) and specialty finance companies with respect to the Investment Company Act and the Investment Advisers Act.
He has spent the past 18 years at Clifford Chance, where he made partner in 2013, and has extensive experience with the organisation and representation of US registered closed end investment companies, crypto-focused funds, hedge funds, private equity funds and commodity funds.
Meanwhile Sabin joined Clifford Chance as a partner in 2017 having been a counsel at Debevoise & Plimpton. He advises investment managers on the structuring, formation and operation of closed-end and hybrid private funds. He also advises sponsors and investors in connection with complex GP-led liquidity solutions and fund restructurings.
Drabkin, who made partner at Clifford Chance in 2021, advises fund sponsors across the spectrum of private capital, with experience in the formation of real assets, credit and private equity funds, and funds-of-funds. His practice also covers secondaries transactions and establishing continuation funds.
Elizabeth Fries, leader of Sidley’s global investment funds practice, said the trio strengthened “multiple aspects” of the practice in New York.
“Cliff’s work with innovative and complex registered funds, ETFs and BDCs is strategically important to our practice, while Michael’s and Dan’s private fund experience across sectors and fund sizes will further the growth in our private equity fund formation practice,” Fries said. “Dan’s experience in liquidity solutions and continuation vehicles will be particularly valuable to lead investors and sponsor clients, especially in the credit sector. We look forward to collaborating with them.”
A Clifford Chance spokesperson commented: “We thank Michael, Cliff and Dan for their contributions to the firm and wish them well for the future.”
The trio’s move comes as Sidley continues to grow its 130-lawyer investment funds practice across the US and UK. Last year the firm hired John Muno, who leads the private equity funds practice, in Chicago from Kirkland & Ellis and added Mathew Eapen, who focuses on venture capital, growth equity and technology- and healthcare-focused funds, in Boston, also from Kirkland. It also hired a trio of partners from Weil led by Ed Gander, Weil’s global private funds co-head and London private funds head, to build its offering in the City.
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