Profile: Yukako Kawata

Private funds

Biography: Private funds

Yukako Kawata is co-head of Davis Polk & Wardwell's investment management/private funds group. She advises clients on the formation and operation of private investment funds and other investment vehicles exempt under the US Investment Company Act, including private-equity funds, hedge funds, venture-capital funds, fund of funds and funds investing in particular sectors or countries. She also advises clients on the establishment and operations of private-fund managers, including private-equity and hedge-fund firms.

In the private-funds practice, she advises clients on the full spectrum of legal and marketing considerations involved in establishing private funds with diverse investment strategies that are marketed to investors on a worldwide basis, including institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals. She also advises fund sponsors seeking to establish "carried interest" plans and other profit-sharing arrangements for their employees, as well as various types of after-tax and phantom employee investment programmes In addition, her practice includes the representation of institutional investors seeking to invest in private funds, such as private-equity funds, venture-capital funds and hedge funds.

Ms Kawata advises numerous private funds and private-fund sponsors and advisers as to the regulatory considerations applicable to their ongoing operations and investment activities, including compliance with the US Investment Advisers Act and the US Investment Company Act. Her practice includes compliance reviews of hedge-fund managers and private-equity fund managers under the Investment Advisers Act, as well as advice on the effect of a private fund's investment activities on the ongoing operations of other businesses affiliated with the private fund. In addition, she has obtained exemptive relief from the Securities and Exchange Commission for employee investment funds as "employees' securities companies" under the Investment Company Act.

Ms Kawata joined Davis Polk in 1982 and became a partner in 1994. She graduated from Princeton University in 1979 and in 1982 received her JD from New York University School of Law, where she worked on the Law Review and was the recipient of an American Jurisprudence Award in Torts.

She served as the chair of the specialised investment funds subcommittee of the International Bar Association from 2001 to 2003 and has served on the organising committee of the Annual International Conference for Private Investment Funds from 2000 to 2007. Ms Kawata is a frequent chair or panellist on a number of PLI, IBA and other conferences on various topics relating to private investment funds. She also serves on the New York City Bar Association's Committee on Private Investment Funds and is a founding member of the Private Investment Fund Forum of New York City.

Ms Kawata was listed as a leading lawyer for private equity fund formation in Legal Media Group's The Best of the Best (2006), Chambers Global: The World's Leading Lawyers (2001-2002, 2002-2003, 2003, 2004-2005 and 2007); Chambers USA: America's Leading Business Lawyers (2003-2004, 2004, 2005 and 2006); IFLR's Guide to the World's Leading Private Equity Lawyers (2005); and IFLR1000: The Guide to the World's Leading Financial Law Firms (2006).