IN-PERSON
London
May 20, 2026
May 20, 2026
London Hot Topics 2026 brings together fund managers, investors and financial institutions for a half-day programme examining the regulatory, tax and market developments shaping the investment management landscape in the year ahead.
This will be the first London Hot Topics event since the combination of McDermott and Schulte, bringing together an expanded range of perspectives across the investment management landscape.
Through focused panel discussions led by senior practitioners from across McDermott Will & Schulte, the programme will provide practical, commercially grounded insight into the issues currently affecting managers and investors, including regulatory change, liquidity considerations, private credit dynamics and capital formation trends.
Advises private fund managers on regulatory and compliance matters with a particular focus on the Investment Advisers Act of 1940.
Chris works with clients on a variety of regulatory matters, including SEC investment adviser registration, operating effective compliance programs, managing conflicts of interest, assessing cross-border applications of US regulatory requirements, review of marketing materials, compliance with trading-related laws and handling the regulatory implications of management company restructurings and transactions. He also regularly leads training sessions for clients, including on topics such as marketing private funds, SEC rule proposals and trading-related matters.
Chris works closely with clients undergoing SEC examinations and responding to deficiency letters and enforcement referrals. He also leads compliance testing and review projects with private fund managers to identify material risks and evaluate the measures in place to address those risks. He has advised private fund managers on regulatory issues relating to blockchain technology and digital assets his entire career and actively practices in that space.
Chris actively participates in industry-related initiatives and events, and is a member of the Private Funds Subcommittee of the Federal Regulation of Securities Committee of the Business Law Section of the American Bar Association.
He is a member of the firm’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee and the Latin Affinity Group.
Karen is highly experienced in advising clients on UK and EU financial services regulation, providing practical and solutions-driven advice on a broad range of issues including authorisation, marketing, governance, prudential rules, senior managers regime, conduct, custody, trading, AML, regulatory reporting, clearing, and regulatory change.
Karen’s practice covers a wide range of matters, including assisting clients in developing and implementing compliance strategies that align with regulatory expectations.
She regularly advises funds and fund managers on the requirements under the UK AIFM Regulation and the EU AIFMD. This includes assisting clients in navigating the UK and EU authorisation, marketing regimes (e.g., passporting, pre-marketing and NPPR notification frameworks, as well as UK financial promotion rules) and ESG disclosure requirements under the SFDR and UK SDR. She works with clients in interacting with local regulators including the UK Financial Conduct Authority and the EU European Securities and Markets Authority.
Karen brings notable experience in providing regulatory support to clients in the context of M&A transactions (including assisting with change in control approvals and conducting regulatory due diligence), capital markets fundraising, cross-border regulatory approvals, and derivatives regulations.
Investment fund formation and structuring
Seed and strategic investments
UK and US regulatory compliance
Cryptoasset and digital asset funds
Investment manager acquisitions and reorganizations
Shelley Eisenhandler is President of Eisenhandler & Co., and for more than 20 years has been at the forefront of compensation trends and data for managers of hedge, credit, private equity, and real estate funds, serving hundreds of clients. Since forming Eisenhandler in 2023, she has developed its proprietary MarketLook™ database, which analyzes compensation data from more than 200 alternative investment managers across all employee functions, levels and regions.
Shelley’s advisory work also encompasses pay equity, diversity and inclusion, and the integration of technology into human capital programs. She has supported alternative asset managers and organizations in the fintech and digital asset sectors on a range of human capital initiatives, including compensation design and organizational effectiveness. Shelley is a frequent speaker on compensation and human capital strategy topics at alternative asset management industry events.
Principally advises investment management clients on the structuring of UK management companies, covering all relevant partnership and tax issues.
Nick also advises more widely on UK and international tax issues relating to the taxation of private investment funds, their UK investors and managers.
He is a Chartered Tax Adviser and associate of the Chartered Institute of Taxation, the leading body in the UK for taxation professionals dealing with all aspects of taxation. He is also a member of the Tax Committee of the Alternative Investment Management Association.
Nick has written and spoken on UK, EU and international tax issues for various publications and engagements, particularly in regards to how changes in tax codes and regulations affect hedge funds and their UK managers. For the past three years,
He has co-authored the UK chapter in the Chambers Alternative Funds Guide – a guide examining key industry trends and regulatory and tax matters impacting funds, managers and investors.
Nick is listed in The Legal 500 UK as a leader in his field.
Co-Head of Investment Funds, London. Advises entrepreneurial and institutional investment managers, other financial services firms and investment funds, especially hedge funds, credit funds, hybrid funds, co-investment funds and distressed funds.
Chris joined the firm in 2002 to establish the London office.
He has over 30 years of experience advising many of the highest profile and most innovative private funds across a wide range of strategies. He provides practical and strategic advice on the structuring and operation of funds and investment management firms, including fundraising, strategic transactions and seed investments, investor issues, investment transactions and financing as well as regulatory and compliance matters.
Chris is named in the “Hall of Fame” by The Legal 500 UKand has received an “Outstanding Contribution” award for his services to the hedge fund industry (The Hedge Fund Journal Awards 2017).
He has also been named as a leading funds lawyer in:
- Chambers UK
- Chambers Europe
- IFLR1000
- PLC Cross-Border Investment Funds Handbook
- Expert Guide to the Best of the Best (which named him as one of the top 25 funds lawyers worldwide)
- Expert Guide to the World’s Leading Banking, Finance and Transactional Law Lawyers
- Best Lawyer
- Who’s Who Legal: The International Who’s Who of Private Funds Lawyers
- Who’s Who of Professionals.
He has been described by clients in Chambers UK as “fantastic – practical, commercial and knows his stuff”, “a first-class mind and brings a high value-add as a lawyer”and as a “go to lawyer for dealing with a complicated hedge fund” and in The Legal 500 UK as “excellent” and “knows the industry inside out.” Clients praise his “huge breadth of knowledge” and “brilliant commercial awareness” as well as his “deep knowledge and experience in the fund industry.”
Chris has participated in the UK Financial Services Authority’s Legal Experts Group in respect of AIFMD and has been an active participant on various AIMA and other industry committees on matters relating to the hedge fund industry.
He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and seminars, including invitation-only conferences for clients of prime brokers and other industry participants.
Chris has also written on a wide range of hedge fund and regulatory topics. He was the first general editor of the Chambers Alternative Funds Guide – a guide examining key industry trends and regulatory and tax matters impacting funds, managers and investors.
Co-Head of Investment Management Regulatory and Enforcement. Advises private funds on regulatory and compliance matters, particularly the Investment Advisers Act of 1940.
Kelly supports clients undergoing SEC examinations, including by handling deficiency letters and enforcement referrals and uses that experience to assist clients with exam preparedness.
She practices in the intersection of regulation and emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, alternative data, web scraping and electronic communications.
Kelly also advises clients on data privacy and cybersecurity.
She regularly conducts client training sessions and is a sought-after presenter at leading industry conferences.
Focuses her practice on the representation of private funds (including hedge funds, private equity funds and hybrid funds) and investment advisers in connection with their structuring, formation and ongoing operational needs and on regulatory and compliance matters.
Amy has a diverse practice advising private fund managers that employ a variety of investment strategies and has broad experience structuring and negotiating seed and strategic investments. She also advises investment managers regarding the structure and sale of their businesses, and structuring and negotiating joint ventures, co-investment vehicles, managed accounts, “funds of one” and other strategic relationships.
Amy is a frequent speaker on issues facing the investment management industry, most recently addressing the current regulatory landscape for hedge funds.
Vlad Maly has a broad corporate practice, representing clients on general corporate matters, capital markets and derivatives transactions in the context of cross-border financings and acquisition strategies in the context of public M&A.
With his extensive knowledge in the equity derivatives field but broad corporate background, he delivers to clients cross-disciplinary advice covering wide range of products, including equity-linked capital market transactions, structured repurchase transactions and various monetization and hedging strategies involving listed and unlisted shares and LP interests, forward purchases, total return swaps, public and private convertible debt, back-leverage transactions, and other hybrid instruments.
Vlad assists private equity firms, investment banks, corporates, sovereign wealth funds, asset managers, and family offices with acquisitions and disposals of investments, non-traditional finance structures, and portfolio risk transfers.
Member of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee. Focuses on bespoke financing transactions, with particular emphasis on specialty finance, litigation finance and fund finance.
Polly has experience acting for hedge funds, private equity funds, litigation funders, specialty finance companies, and investment banks in a wide range of opportunistic financings spanning the spectrum of debt and equity.
She works closely with the firm’s Investment Management team on liquidity solutions for investment funds and their managers and is a member of the firm’s multidisciplinary, cross-border litigation finance team.
Focuses practice on counseling commodity pool operators, commodity trading advisors, other derivatives and commodity professionals and private investment fund managers on operational, regulatory and compliance matters.
Jake regularly advises hedge and private equity fund managers with respect to futures and swaps trading; the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s exemptions, registration and reporting requirements; and compliance with the requirements of the National Futures Association, as well as CFTC and exchange rules concerning OTC and listed derivatives.
He conducts training sessions with respect to regulatory compliance matters and helps guide firms through regulatory examinations. Jake also has expertise in the formation and ongoing operational needs of hedge funds and other private investment funds and provides guidance on a variety of regulatory, compliance and risk management issues related to the implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act.
Jake rejoined the firm from T. Rowe Price where he was vice president and managing counsel after serving as special counsel at Schulte for 6 years. Prior to Schulte, Jake was at the CFTC, where he was special counsel in the Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight. At the CFTC, he drafted new regulations and worked on a broad range of matters related to CFTC registration and compliance.
Focuses on alternative investment funds and their managers.
Lee advises on the establishment, restructuring and management of private funds across a range of strategies, including hedge funds, private equity and credits funds, and hybrid funds, as well as advising on the setup and operation of investment management companies.
He also provides general corporate and UK, US and EU regulatory advice.
Lee is recognized as a “Next Generation Partner” in Investment Fund Formation and Management – Hedge Funds by The Legal 500 UK.
Jack Thorne is a litigation partner and Co-Head of the London Trial Group. He focuses his practice on litigation and dispute resolution, advising across a broad range of domestic and international disputes, with a focus on commercial litigation and arbitration, finance litigation, and corporate insolvency. He has particular experience dealing with cross-border disputes arising out of corporate and financial transactions, including claims involving breaches of warranty and misrepresentation, as well multi-party/group litigation, including in the areas of data protection and securities.
Jack advises on complex litigation at all levels of the English civil court system and also has experience handling significant cases before various arbitral tribunals, including the London Court of International Arbitration, the International Chamber of Commerce, and the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre.
He primarily acts for clients in the banking, finance, private equity, private capital, advertising, and media industries but has experience in a wide range of sectors, including energy, telecoms, insurance, sports, and live events.
Jack is a recommended lawyer for Dispute Resolution (Commercial Litigation) by The Legal 500, where he is described as being “a standout performer”, “an excellent all-round lawyer” and an “outstanding litigation partner” with “impeccable judgment that is essential for top litigators and a real ability to connect with clients”, as well as being “meticulous in his approach” and providing “extremely clear and comprehensible advice on highly-complex litigation”.
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