SRZ expands private funds practice

Schulte Roth & Zabel has added three new partners to its Investment Management and M&A Practices in its New York office.

Joining are Peter Greene, Benjamin Kozinn and Eileen Overbaugh, who are each known to represent some of the most prominent investment managers in the industry and all worked at Lowenstein Sandler.

“Peter, Ben and Eileen have advised on many significant private fund launches in recent years,” said David Efron, co-managing partner of SRZ. “They are each a perfect fit for us in terms of the caliber of their work, the clients they work with and the kind of work we want to do.”

Greene, now co-leader of the SRZ Investment Management practice, has advised many of the leading private fund launches over the past 17 years. Greene’s focus is on matters related to the formation and structuring of private funds and management companies, compliance and regulatory requirements and public to private investment opportunities.

He also serves as a member of the board of directors of the Managed Funds Association. Besides Lowenstein, he’s worked at a number of prominent firms such as: Brown Simpson Asset Management; Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld; and Pitney Hardin Kipp & Szuch.

“The lines between hedge, venture and PE continue to blur. Traditional long/short equity funds are more often testing the private transactional waters, as their public company research process organically exposes them to private investment opportunities — whether venture or PE — in the sectors in which they invest in the public markets,” said Greene. “These investments can be made within designated investment buckets in their flagship hedge funds, in single-stock overflow SPVs, or in stand-alone private funds. This trend naturally draws upon the cross-disciplinary strengths of a firm such as SRZ.”

Kozinn joins Greene in the Investment Management practice in addition to the Private Equity M&A practice as partner at SRZ having worked in both private practice and in in-house roles. His work is centered on investment advisers and investors on fund formation, structuring, compensation and regulatory and compliance issues, including alternative data. Within M&A, he focuses on middle market private equity and asset manager M&A, including complex middle market buyouts, take private transactions, minority stakes and venture investments. His previous roles include general counsel at Claren Road Asset Management and vice president and associate general counsel at Goldman, Sachs & Co. and director of hedge fund consulting at Deutsche Bank Securities.

Overbaugh joined as partner in the Investment Management Group where she advises hedge funds, venture funds and other pooled vehicles on all matters related to private funds, including formation, structuring, investor negotiation and ongoing operations. Interestingly, her negotiation experience spans seeds and strategic investments, funds-of-one, managed account arrangements, and other alternative investment relationships. Employee compensation structures and separation arrangements are also part of work with managers and their partners and senior employees.

Over the last 24 months, the 350-lawyer firm has added 13 lateral partners and promoted eight attorneys to partner. Officials said that this expansion, along with the promotion of 15 special counsels, significantly deepens the firm’s expertise in venture capital, creditor side restructuring and bankruptcy, M&A, investment funds, intellectual property, investment management and financial regulation, alternative data, crypto currency and digital assets, and individual client services.

“This expansion is part of our plan to reinforce our market-leading position as a firm that can deliver the full spectrum of services to our financial services clients,” added SRZ’s other Co-Managing Partner Marc Elovitz.

Prior hires include Alexander Kim, partner and head of the Intellectual Property Group with a focus on M&A in IP; Ned Schodek, in the Business Reorganization Group; Mike Flynn, Jeffrey Symons and Brian Miner in the M&A and Securities Group; Gayle Klein in the Litigation Group; Martin Sharkey, Gregory Ruback and Polly O’Brien in the Finance & Derivatives Group; and Douglas Mintz in the Business Reorganization Group.