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Private Funds

Our preeminent Private Funds Practice has represented private funds clients for over 40 years, playing a prominent role in the development of the private funds industry and earning us a unique leadership role in the sector. Working closely with lawyers in the Firm’s other practice areas, our team provides comprehensive advice to many of the world’s best-known institutional alternative asset managers, as well as smaller first-time funds and independent boutiques.

Through our representation of a diverse group of sponsors, we have established a track record for adding value to our clients’ fundraisings and have developed an acute understanding of custom and practice in the private funds marketplace. That, in turn, allows us to provide clients with the commercially driven, practical advice that they require. We represent sponsors and sophisticated investors in:

  • Private equity funds
  • Hedge funds
  • Real estate funds
  • Energy/infrastructure funds
  • Credit funds (including mezzanine, senior loan and distressed)
  • Secondary funds / fund-of-funds
  • Growth and venture capital funds
  • Other types of funds pursuing “alternative investment” strategies

In addition, we routinely structure our clients’ internal arrangements and employee investment arrangements. We also have substantial experience in M&A transactions involving private investment firms, initial public offerings of alternative asset managers, credit facilities for funds and their managers and secondary transfers of private fund investments. With dedicated fund formation teams in New York, London, Brussels, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Palo Alto, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and Houston, Simpson Thacher has an unsurpassed breadth of experience in organizing private funds of all types around the globe. We offer U.S. and English law capability in advising sponsors of private funds throughout the world.

#1 Globally
#1 in the U.S., the U.K., Asia and globally (Chambers)

Largest Fundraisings

Simpson Thacher acted as sponsor counsel on many of the largest private equity fundraisings launched in the U.S. and Europe since 2009, including:

Fund Total Commitments
Blackstone Real Estate Partners X $30.4 billion
CVC IX €26 billion
Blackstone Capital Partners VIII $26.2 billion
Hellman & Friedman Capital Partners X $24.4 billion
Lexington Capital Partners X $22.7 billion
Strategic Partners IX $22.2 billion
EQT X €22 billion
Silver Lake Partners VII $20.5 billion
EQT Infrastructure V €15.7 billion
Eighth Cinven Fund €14.5 billion
New Mountain Partners VII $15.4 billion
Stonepeak Infrastructure Fund IV $14 billion
Apax X $11.77 billion
Platinum Equity Capital Partners V $10 billion
DigitalBridge Partners II $8.3 billion
Carlyle Realty Partners IX $8 billion
Macquarie Infrastructure Partners V $6.9 billion
KKR Real Estate Partners Americas III $4.3 billion
Morgan Stanley’s North Haven Real Estate Fund X Global $3.1 billion
Rubicon Technology Partners IV $1.7 billion
Vivo Capital Fund IX $1.43 billion
Trill Impact €900 million

$15.8 billion
$15.8 billion
“Simpson Thacher is a well-oiled machine with ability to cover both sectors and geographies.”
Chambers Global 2023

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        Spotlight on
        Simpson Thacher Named “Fund Formation Law Firm of the Year” at The Drawdown Awards 2024
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        Simpson Thacher Advises Three of the Top Five Funds of H1 2024
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        Simpson Thacher Advises on Four of the Largest Private Equity Funds Raised in 2023
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        Simpson Thacher Named a Law360 Fund Formation “Practice Group of the Year” for 2023
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        Simpson Thacher Ranked Top Real Estate Funds Advisor by PERE
        Spotlight on
        Simpson Thacher Ranked Top Infrastructure Fund Formation Counsel
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        Simpson Thacher’s Private Equity Team Named New York Law Journal “Dealmaker of the Year”
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        Simpson Thacher Wins “Investment Funds Firm of the Year” at the Asia Legal Awards 2022