
James Tinworth
James Tinworth is Counsel in the Investment Management Practice Group in the London office of Haynes Boone. His practice focuses on alternative investment funds and related regulatory and corporate issues.
James advises clients in relation to a wide variety of open and closed-ended fund structures established in a number of jurisdictions, both onshore and offshore, with a particular focus on hedge funds. He has significant experience advising fund managers of all sizes, investors and service providers to funds across the full range of alternative investment funds, including: private equity/venture capital, real estate, trade finance and real asset funds.
James also advises clients in relation to managed account work (including funds of one structures), fund-like acquisition vehicles, joint venture investment structures, club deal structures and carried interest vehicles.
He has particular experience in the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) and provides UK financial services regulatory advice both in the context of the structuring, establishment, operation and restructuring of investment funds and carried interest structures and in a wider context, particularly in relation to the marketing of funds.
Funds
- Advising on the launch of a new long-short equity hedge fund and related regulatory hosting arrangements (hedge fund; Cayman)
- Changing a fund's unusual Contingent Performance Reserve mechanism to a more standard performance fee mechanism with a hurdle rate and assisting with the unwinding of the legacy reserve (hedge/PE hybrid; Cayman)
- Advising in relation to the fund's acquisition of a US private company and the participation of fund investors in the same (hedge/PE hybrid; Cayman)
- Advising in relation to the launch of a new leveraged share class (hedge fund; Cayman)
- Advising in relation to a full prospectus update (hedge fund; Cayman)
- Advising in relation to the orderly liquidation of one of a client's funds, including how best to deal with certain illiquid positions and redemptions in kind (hedge fund; Cayman)
- Advising in relation to the heads of terms for the creation a fund/managed account (EU private litigation claims)
- Advising in relation to the re-launch of a fund with an entirely new strategy. Involved significant revisions to the fund's prospectus and other fund documents (hedge fund; Cayman)
- Reviewing full suite of draft documents of a venture capital fund (English Limited Partnership) that had been prepared by the seed investor (acting for the Small AIFM)
- Revising a fund's limited partnership agreement in order to be used as a SPV to acquire a particular investment opportunity (BVI limited partnership)
- Drafting Marketing Agreement (US hedge fund manager appointing UK agent)
- Regularly review and mark-up a client’s investment management agreements (UK institution managing open-ended funds)
- Reviewing various distribution agreements and drafting template distribution agreement (Swedish placement agent of private funds)
- Advising in relation to a distribution agreement (UK/Israeli distributor of regulated funds (mutual funds and ETFs
Regulatory
- Advising a manager in relation to the departure of one of the partners of the LLP and member of the portfolio management team (hedge fund)
- Structuring advice to prevent a collective investment vehicle being an Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) or a Collective Investment Scheme (CIS) (real estate)
- Structuring advice to prevent a SPAC being an AIF or a CIS
- Advising a client, which is a small AIFM, as to how to operate and potentially revise/restructure/repaper the capital call facility in place for Fund 1 and the capital call facility to be put in place for the imminent Fund 2 so that any borrowing made under the facilities would be treated as "temporary" and disregarded for the purposes of determining the correct small AIFM threshold.
- Advising a UK fund marketer in relation to the requirement to be FCA authorised
- UK fund marketing, UK National Private Placement Regime and temporary marketing permissions regime (TMPR) advice for various clients
- Advising a UK placement agent (primary and secondary offerings of private funds) in relation to Brexit contingency planning
- Advising a client in relation to whether he required FCA authorisation to carry out certain corporate finance activities in the context of a contractual dispute
Corporate
- Advising an individual on the structuring and establishment of his new hedge fund management business and drafting the LLP agreement.
- Advising a client and her team in relation to the team joining a very large (US$17bn+) hedge fund manager. Negotiating the deeds of allocation for the team joining as members.
- Advising a client in relation to changes to its regulatory hosting arrangements and related revenue sharing arrangements.
Some of these representations were handled James prior to joining Haynes Boone.
Education
Legal Practice Course, Nottingham Law School, 1999, with Distinction
B.A. (Hons), Classics and Law, Downing College, 1998
Counsel James Tinworth authored an article in Funds Europe discussing the United Kingdom’s Sustainability Disclosure Requirements. Read an excerpt below: In November 2021, the FCA issued discussion paper DP21/4 (Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (SDR) and investment labels) for initial views on a new SDR regime for asset managers and certain FCA-regulated asset owners and a proposed sustainab [...]

The UK’s Proposed Rules Regarding Sustainability Disclosure Requirements and Investment Labels
November 15, 2022