Barry P. Barbash Partner MAIN OFFICE: Washington Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP 1875 K Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20006-1238, U.S.A. T 202-303-1201 F 202-303-2201 OTHER OFFICE: New York Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP 787 Seventh Avenue New York, N.Y. 10019-6099, U.S.A. T 212-728-8293 F 212-728-9293

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Barry P. Barbash joined Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP in February 2006 as a partner and head of the firm’s Asset Management Group. He also serves on the firm’s Executive Committee. For the seven years prior to joining Willkie, Mr. Barbash was a partner and head of the asset management practice at another firm. From September 1993 until October 1998, he served as the Director of the Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Investment Management.

Mr. Barbash has a diverse practice covering all aspects of the asset management business.  He regularly advises mutual fund and hedge fund clients on a variety of transactional, compliance and regulatory matters.  His areas of expertise include mutual fund operations and regulation, hedge fund formation and regulation, private equity fund structuring and financing, venture capital fund operations and offerings, and fund governance.  He regularly represents buyers and sellers in asset management merger and acquisition transactions and advises asset managers of all types in connection with administrative and court actions brought by securities regulators.

Mr. Barbash regularly advises mutual fund, hedge fund, investment adviser, and broker-dealer clients on a wide variety of regulatory compliance matters.  When counseling these clients, he is often called upon to conduct detailed reviews of their investment management, administrative and marketing operations and to assist in the development of policies and procedures intended to enable them to meet their fiduciary and other legal obligations.

Mr. Barbash’s recent significant matters include representing major financial services firms in organizing and operating public and private funds and in developing novel and complex investment products and services.

Chambers Global (2009) and Chambers USA (2009) rank Mr. Barbash in the number one tier nationally for leading individuals practicing in the area Investment Funds: Registered Funds and among the very top practitioners in the area of Hedge Funds. He is also included in the 2009 edition of Best Lawyers in America.

Mr. Barbash is a member of the New York, Massachusetts and American Bar Associations.  He is also a member of the Program Committee of the Investment Company Institute’s Mutual Funds and Investment Management Conference; the Advisory Board of Board IQ; and the Steering Committee of the Mutual Fund Directors Forum.

Mr. Barbash serves as Co-Chairman of the Investment Management Institute sponsored by the Practising Law Institute.   He previously served as Co-Chairman of PLI’s “The SEC Speaks” (1997, 1998).  He was awarded the Presidential Distinguished Rank Award for exceptional achievement during his tenure as a member of the Senior Executive Service of the United States.

Mr. Barbash authored a chapter in Hedge Funds and Prime Brokers entitled "Corporate Governance by and for Hedge Funds" (Risk Books, 2007).

While serving as the Director of the SEC’s Division of Investment Management, Mr. Barbash was among the most senior financial services regulators in the United States, with principal oversight for, among other businesses, the multi-trillion dollar mutual fund industry.  During his tenure as Division Director, he played a central role in a number of well-publicized SEC initiatives, including:

• improving the usefulness and readability of fund prospectuses;
  
  
• responding to alleged improper trading by fund portfolio managers in securities held by their funds;
  
  
• seeking to enhance the ways in which funds communicate their investment risks to their shareholders;
  
  
• upgrading the education and knowledge of fund investors;
  
  
• participating in a major legislative effort completed in 1996 to overhaul and modernize the U.S. federal securities laws;
  
  
• developing the SEC's rules relating to the formation and operations of pooled investment entities not generally available to the public, such as private equity funds, venture capital funds and hedge funds; and
  
  
• clarifying the responsibilities of fund independent directors and trustees.

As Division Director, Mr. Barbash served as the SEC's principal contact with investment management regulators from around the globe. This experience makes him one of the best-known authorities in the world on investment management law and practice.

Prior to becoming Division of Investment Management Director, Mr. Barbash spent 13 years in private law practice with Willkie, where he specialized in the area of institutional investor law, representing investment adviser, broker-dealer, hedge fund and U.S. and offshore investment company clients.  Prior to this time in private practice, he held staff attorney positions with the SEC's Division of Investment Management and the Plan Benefits Security Division of the Office of the Solicitor of the U.S. Department of Labor, which has responsibility for the administration of the fiduciary responsibility provisions of the U.S. federal pension laws.