Simon Currie

Simon’s work includes counseling on the application of EU single-market directives, the UK Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, and the rules of the Financial Conduct Authority, including authorization applications, conduct of business issues, prudential and capital requirements, organizational controls, conflicts, remuneration requirements, customer documentation, new product development, marketing and financial promotions, changes of control, collective investment schemes, the management of alternative investment funds, and general compliance issues. He has been closely involved in advising on the regulatory regime introduced by the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD), both during and following its legislative process and subsequent transposition and implementation.

Simon advises on the structuring, establishment, and operation of segregated accounts and segregated account investment vehicles and other investment funds, including UK domestic and offshore investment funds and separate and investment trusts. He has also advised institutional investors in relation to investment in private equity and other investment funds, including by way of acquiring secondary interests in such funds.

Simon advises a range of financial sector clients, including banks, fund managers, investment funds, investment managers, and investment intermediaries.

Simon is a member of the Law Society’s Company Law Committee, a practitioner body that reviews and comments on developments in EU and UK company law and financial services legislation and regulation, and he currently serves as chair of its Financial Services Sub-Committee

Prior to joining Morgan Lewis, Simon was a partner in the private funds practice of another international law firm in London.

• Advising a global private equity manager on its application for authorization as a full-scope Alternative Investment Fund Manager (AIFM), including handling the authorization process with the Financial Conduct Authority and dealing with management and marketing passport issues relating to the structuring and launch of a new private equity fund of funds.
• Advising a global institutional fund manager on the structuring of a new European private equity fund in the context of the AIFMD regime, including advice on AIFM authorization, marketing and management passport issues, remuneration policy, and general AIFMD organizational issues.
• Advising on the structuring and establishment of various separate account investment vehicles for use in the context of significant discretionary private equity investment mandates from European-based pension funds.
• Advising, for a number of years, a private equity fund of funds investment trust company on a range of capital raisings, capital structure, and general corporate issues.
• Advising a global fund management client on the novation of its portfolio of more than 50 institutional client advisory and discretionary mandates to a successor entity on its restructuring as a limited liability partnership, including associated regulatory issues.
• Advising an international bank on a substantial banking business transfer scheme under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 involving the transfer of the bank’s UK corporate and retail banking businesses in the UK to a new UK subsidiary bank.
• Advising a retail bank on the arrangements for the provision of custody services and on other regulatory issues relating to a dealing service provided to its customers.
• Advising a specialist private equity debt advisory firm on its application for authorization by the Financial Services Authority.
• Forming and advising a coalition of leading private equity placement agents on the application of the AIFMD and its transposition in the UK to the marketing of interests in private equity funds in the context of secondary portfolio transactions.
• Forming and advising a coalition of leading private equity fund of fund managers on the AIFMD, including advice on developments and proposals through the legislative process.
• Advising a global asset management company for a number of years in relation to a range of projects concerning its UK investment management subsidiary, including handling a project for the restructuring of the firm and its conversion into a limited liability partnership.
• Counseled an overseas securities firm on the UK regulatory and corporate aspects of the sale of its Financial Services Act-regulated subsidiaries to a financial institution in a deal involving complex deferred consideration in the form of conditional shares.
• Advised on the structuring and implementation of arrangements for group trading in the UK in freight forward agreements and fuel rate derivatives under exemptions from the FSMA 2000.
• Counseled an institutional investor on its initiation of a restructuring and winding-up of a $100 million hedge fund of funds, including the acquisition of minority investor interests and the distribution of the underlying investments.