Biography: Private funds

Thomas H Bell is a partner at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP in the firm's corporate department. Mr Bell specialises in investment management matters and oversees the firm's private funds practice, an area in which the firm has a pre-eminent international presence, having been chosen as the Global Private Funds Law Firm of the Year for five years consecutively (2005 to 2009) by Who's Who Legal. He advises global clients on organising a wide range of buyout funds, real estate funds, venture capital funds and other kinds of private equity funds, as well as hedge funds, offshore funds and other kinds of funds for alternative asset categories. He is a frequent lecturer before professional groups on private investment funds of all kinds.

Mr Bell represents clients such as Aquiline Capital Partners, Calera Capital, CapGen Financial, The Carlyle Group, CVC Capital Partners, Evercore Partners, Ferrer Freeman, JC Flowers & Co, The JE Robert Companies, Macquarie, Morgan Stanley, New Mountain Capital, The Sentient Group and Sterling Investment Partners.

Mr Bell joined Simpson Thacher in 1983 and became a partner in 1992. He received his BA, summa cum laude, from Dartmouth College in 1978, where he was elected Phi Beta Kappa. He received his JD from Yale Law School in 1983, where he was editor of The Yale Law Journal. Mr Bell is a past chair of the subcommittee on private investment funds of the International Bar Association. He is the founder and past co-chair of the International Conference on Private Investment Funds co-sponsored by the IBA and the ABA. Mr Bell was named Global Private Funds Lawyer of the Year for 2006 and 2007 by Who's Who Legal. He received an award for Outstanding Contribution to the Legal Profession from Chambers Awards for Excellence in 2007. He enjoys the highest ranking from Chambers Global, Chambers USA, PLC Which Lawyer?, IFLR and Legal 500.