The following is an excerpt from Practice Perspectives: Vault's Guide to Legal Practice Areas.
Bissie Bonner is a partner in registered funds. She represents regulated investment companies, including closed-end tender offer and interval funds, business development companies, and exchange-listed closed-end and mutual funds, as well as private funds tailored for individual investors, across alternative asset classes such as private credit, private equity, infrastructure, secondaries, and liquid alternatives. Named a Rising Star at the 2023 With Intelligence Mutual Fund & ETF Awards, Bissie has significant experience in connection with the organization and operation of regulated funds, including disclosure issues, regulatory compliance, corporate governance, policy changes, reorganizations and restructurings, repurchase and tender offers, and secondary offerings. Bissie graduated from Georgetown University and received her J.D. from Columbia Law School.
Rajib Chanda is Global Head of Asset Management and a member of the firm’s Executive Committee. Hailed as a Trailblazer by The American Lawyer for his legal contributions to the democratization of access to private market investments by ordinary investors, Rajib leads the registered funds practice and is Co-managing Partner of the Washington, DC, office. He regularly represents the world’s leading asset management firms and has helped design, develop, and structure investment products publicly described as “revolutionary” and “category-killing.” A graduate of Brown University, Rajib received his J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School.
Describe your practice area and what it entails.
Rajib: Simpson Thacher’s registered funds practice advises investment managers on forming investment vehicles so that ordinary people can access financial opportunities previously available only to large institutions. Through our team’s work, we’ve helped expand access to private markets and alternative assets, frequently through vehicles and strategies that have never been done before.
Bissie: Unlike that of most practice groups, registered funds’ work runs the gamut. We advise investment funds and their investment advisors on fund formation, fund securities offerings, share repurchases, and fund corporate transactions, including joint ventures and other M&A deals, as well as the day-to-day operations of funds, including compliance and disclosure.
What types of clients do you represent?
Rajib: Our clients fall into two main buckets. They are either private markets firms that historically sold to institutions and now create products for individual investors or large asset managers that historically sold funds consisting of stocks and bonds to individual investors and now want to expand their offerings to include alternative assets.
Bissie: We represent a wide range of clients, including Blackstone, KKR, Carlyle, Apollo, Sixth Street, Golub Capital, StepStone, UBS, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley. As Rajib mentioned, our clients include funds regulated under the Investment Company Act of 1940, such as tender offer funds, interval funds, and business development companies, as well as investment vehicles that are exempt from regulation, such as private funds and operating companies.
What types of cases/deals do you work on?
Bissie: The bulk of my work revolves around fund formation but extends to various capital markets and M&A transactions, as well as disclosure and compliance. On any given day, I probably work on four different fund formations and advise upward of 10 clients on assorted legal matters.
Rajib: One of the most interesting aspects of our practice is that we are industry-based as opposed to skills-based. For investment vehicles that are registered with the SEC, our fund formation work is akin to a capital markets practice. For products that are privately offered, our work more closely aligns with the firm’s private funds practice. There’s a very heavy regulatory element, as we often seek exemptions from or are engaged in negotiations with the SEC. The vehicles we advise have ongoing compliance obligations, so there’s a public company advisory practice element. Finally, many sponsors team up to offer products through joint ventures or acquisitions, and we handle this type of work as well. In short, we do all the legal work, but for specific types of clients in a specific industry.
To offer a couple of examples, we helped design and launch KREST, KKR’s fund that offers retail access to private real estate investments, and BCRED, a Blackstone fund that provides retail access to private credit transactions. These and other products have changed the market.
How did you choose this practice area?
Bissie: I chose registered funds because I really enjoy the regulatory aspect. I love puzzles, and clients come to us with complex business ideas that require us to analyze different sets of federal securities laws as well as ERISA and tax. The regulations are constantly changing, so there’s always something new to learn. Junior associates enjoy excellent opportunities to become an expert in a new or developing area, allowing them to add value quickly.
Rajib: I began working in registered funds somewhat fortuitously and found that I really like the industry and the people I work with. Client relationships are deep and continuous. Many of our associates have spoken with the same clients every day for years. Additionally, because Congress places a high priority on protecting individual investors and the SEC is such a strong regulator, you have ongoing communications with government authorities as well, which is another interesting aspect of the practice.
What is a “typical” day like and/or what are some common tasks you perform?
Bissie: Given the many different types of clients we advise and the various projects we handle, every day is different, which I love. Much of my work day is devoted to answering client questions. A lot of what our clients do doesn’t fit squarely within the regulations, and clients look to us to answer difficult questions based on our knowledge of the law, our collective judgment, and our team’s experience. Our deep bench of lawyers are always available to help one another with thorny issues. It’s very much a team sport.
Rajib: My two main roles are, on the one hand, to attract, nurture, and retain talent and, on the other hand, to attract and retain clients. We do a lot of training, mentoring, and recruiting, and I’m very proud that our associate attrition rate is incredibly low. We’ve grown tremendously over the past decade, which has kept people active and excited to be here. For example, our group had only three lawyers in 2014, and we’ve grown to 125 lawyers in 2025. Our client roster has likewise expanded exponentially. I spend a great deal of time talking to clients and potential clients about what they’re working on and what they need help with. I answer questions, and much of what I do now is at a strategic level.
What training, classes, experience, or skills development would you recommend to someone who wishes to enter your practice area?
Bissie: I would advise taking Securities Regulation. Negotiations is also a helpful class. I also took Financial Statement Analysis (sometimes called accounting for lawyers), Corporate and Partnership Tax, and M&A. Any class related to funds, securities, or types of investments funds would be helpful.
Rajib: I encourage young lawyers to get in the habit of caring about the things your clients care about. Read The Wall Street Journal or the Financial Times. Seek to understand the economic environment we’re in and the themes at play. This will help you understand why you’re doing what you’re doing and will ultimately inform how you advise clients. One characteristic that I value most in an associate is open-mindedness. Develop a willingness to try new things. For better or worse, there is not a lot of repetitive work in our practice, and you need to become comfortable with this and confident in reaching up, down, and across to others to solve our clients’ issues. Lawyers who have a collaborative mindset and believe that they are better on a team than individually are well-positioned for success.
What is the most challenging aspect of practicing in this area?
Bissie: The most challenging aspect is also what I like most. Our work requires deep and careful analysis of a variety of statutes, rules, and SEC guidance, and there are many gray areas. Developing strong regulatory and analytical skills and understanding how laws fit together will make you a very capable and versatile lawyer.
Rajib: Young lawyers may feel like they’ve been thrown into the deep end, but you’ll always have the support of the entire team. To be honest, sometimes even the most-senior lawyers in our group feel like they’ve similarly been thrown into the deep end because so much of what we do has never been done before. For our juniors, the firm provides a robust and comprehensive curriculum that runs throughout the year. Every other week, we have an “agenda lunch” where associates give presentations on matters they’ve worked on, and the following week, we offer a training session focused on skill and knowledge development. There are lifelines all around.
What is unique about your practice area at your firm?
Rajib: Simpson Thacher stands out from other firms in our singular focus on the cutting-edge juncture of private equity and individual investing. We’re the market leader in this space, and we work on the most exciting investment vehicles. Much of what we do is the first of its kind.
Bissie: We’re “in the lab” with our clients from the start to help develop and build products. Not every type of fund works for every type of strategy, so we guide and shape investment vehicles in a way that is unusual in the market.
What are some typical tasks that a junior associate would perform in this practice area?
Bissie: Junior associates are critical in terms of project management. In connection with a fund launch, juniors are the keepers of the checklist, which gives them visibility into every aspect of the launch. They work closely with documents, preparing initial drafts and overseeing revisions as the project moves forward. The same holds true for the other types of work that we do, such as securities offerings or M&A transactions. Junior associates also review and draft SEC filings and work on various compliance and disclosure obligations. In addition, clients frequently have questions that require legal research, so junior associates handle this as well. The knowledge junior lawyers absorb and the skills they gain are incredibly broad; they learn from the get-go to become jacks-and jills-of-all-trades.
Rajib: I’ve noticed that lawyers often try to turn themselves into hammers and spend their careers searching for nails. To me, it’s more useful to try to become a Swiss Army knife. Develop a wide range of skills and a broad knowledge base. Our multidisciplinary practice affords these unique opportunities.
How do you see this practice area evolving in the future?
Rajib: Ten years ago, private markets were unavailable to individual investors; now there are about a trillion dollars of assets under management. Many say that we’re in the early innings, but I believe we’re still in spring training and the regular season hasn’t even started!