C. Robert Bruner

Robert Bruner is the Section Chair of the Investment Management Practice Group and is based out of the firm's Dallas office. Robert’s practice focuses primarily on private equity, real estate, and hedge fund formation, including their management-level entities and their various compliance and governance obligations. Robert not only assists these investment advisors and commodity pool operators and traders with regards to the formation, organization, and operation of their investment funds, their upper-tier management structures, and their compliance with applicable U.S. federal and state laws, but also represents these investment funds and other institutional investors in their underlying fund investments, secondary acquisitions and dispositions, and co-investments.

Robert represents clients across a broad range of industries in various corporate and securities matters, including the preparation of securities filings with the SEC, such as Schedule 13D, Schedule 13G, Form 13F, Form 13H, Form N-PX, Form SHO, Forms 3, 4, and 5, Form PF, Form ADV, Form TIC-SLT, and BEA filings required for certain investment managers.

Robert has more than a decade of experience representing investment advisors in the formation and launch of private markets focused insurance dedicated funds, including launching these specialized investment products and negotiating with the insurance carriers that invest in these vehicles. These insurance dedicated fund representations largely relate to tailored mandates for separate account investments attributable to ICOLI policies, but Robert also has experience with open-ended insurance dedicated funds that are more broadly available to PPLI/PPVA investments.

Robert has experience in a variety of transactions including:

• Formation, structuring and operation of insurance dedicated funds (IDF), including relating to insurance dedicated fund of private equity funds hybrid structures and insurance dedicated fund of hedge fund structures, each of which customarily involves thorough negotiations with IDF counterparties.
• Formation, organization and operation of hedge funds, private equity funds, commodity pools, other private investment funds, investment advisers, commodity pool operators and commodity trading advisors.
• The formation of multiple master/feeder and mini/master feeder hedge fund structures with a wide range of investment strategies.
• Registration of investment advisers with the SEC, the Texas State Securities Board and the Arkansas Securities Commission.
• Compliance with federal and state laws applicable to private investment funds, commodity pools and investment advisers.
• Registration of commodity pool operators and commodity trading advisors with the CFTC and NFA.
• Representing numerous institutions, sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and family offices in their investments into hedge funds, private equity, real estate and venture capital funds and fund of funds.
• The formation of an open-ended real estate fund with taxable and tax-exempt investors.
• Structuring and forming business entities, including corporations, partnerships and limited liability companies.
• Assisting clients in general corporate matters.
• Assisting clients in buy-outs, recapitalizations and restructurings.
• Representing clients in private placements of securities.
• Representing numerous institutions and family offices in their investments into hedge funds, private equity and venture capital funds and fund of funds.
• Representing numerous institutional investors and family offices in structuring and negotiating separately managed accounts.
• Advising private equity and hedge funds in their compliance with securities laws.