Jonathan Ross Profiled as a Law360 ‘Fund Formation Rising Star’
Akin investment management & private equity partner Jonathan Ross has been profiled by Law360 in its annual Rising Stars series as a Fund Formation Rising Star for 2023.
Among the highlights of the profile:
His Biggest Deal: The $2.75 billion formation of Angelo Gordon & Co.'s AG Realty Value Fund X in 2019, which, at the time, was the largest investment vehicle raised by Angelo Gordon.
Why a Fund Formation Lawyer?: Being a summer associate in Akin's Washington, D.C. office introduced him to fund formation. “…I was attracted to the opportunity to be the point person for clients who were operating and raising money all over the world,” Jonathan said. “Having different regulatory regimes whose matters required advice from many of the different practice groups in the firm, being the fund lawyer quarterbacking all of that seemed really interesting.”
What Motivates Him?: “We work with a lot of newer emerging managers, and it's really rewarding to be there at the beginning of something and watch it grow over time,” Jonathan said. “Our fund sponsor clients, while they manage billions of dollars, they're kind of a small business at heart and are founded by a small team…To see those clients really grow and flourish over subsequent fund raises, that's really rewarding and motivating to help people realize those goals in terms of growth of their business.”
Future of His Practice Area: Fund sponsor or general partner clients are going to see sovereign and retail investors as the two main sources of marginal fundraising.
How Industry Will Change in the Next 10 Years: While hybrid funds have been a part of Akin's fund formation work for years, Jonathan has increasingly seen and expects to continue seeing the blending of features in both private equity and hedge fund models: “It's an interesting part of what I do because there's no market standard for how you do hybrid funds, so you've got to do the structure and terms, and they're really carefully tailored to the nature and liquidity profile of how the client wants to operate the funds.”
