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James Phelan

William Fry

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Position: Partner, Asset management & Investment Funds
Rating:
  • Highly regarded
Bar Admissions:
Ireland
Practice Areas:
Investment funds
Jurisdictions:
Languages:
English
Biography

James Phelan is a Partner in our Asset Management & Investment Funds Department, specialising in advising asset managers in relation to the structuring, establishment, regulation, distribution and ongoing management of a wide variety of investment funds in both the UCITS and alternative arenas.  He is expert in the UCITS regulatory regime and includes a number of significant UCITS platforms (including UCITS ETFs) among his clients. James also has significant experience in steering clients safely through a variety of regulatory reviews and regulator-driven themed inspections and has advised fund directors extensively in relation to corporate governance standards and in relation to the Central Bank of Ireland's fitness and probity regime. James is a member of various key industry working groups, including the Irish Funds UCITS Regulation and Innovation Working Group.

Recent transactional highlights
  • Advising Europe's leading independent UCITS ETF provider on all aspects of Irish law pertaining to the sale of their ETF business to the largest asset manager in the UK; 
  • Advising one of the world’s leading ETF issuers in relation to the ongoing expansion of their Irish UCITS ETF platform, with the addition of a range of new sub-funds tracking mainstream indices; 
  • Established of an award winning ETF designed to provide exposure, via the RQFII investment programme, to the "A-share" equity markets in China.
Practice areas
  • Financial Services Regulatory
  • Investment funds
  • Hedge funds
  • Private equity funds
  • Real estate funds
Sector specialisations
  • Financial Services
  • Investment management
Bar admissions
  • Law Society of Ireland
Association memberships
  • Irish Funds UCITS Regulation & Innovation Committee
Address:
Dublin
Tel:+353 1 489 6590 Email:Contact this practitioner Website:https://www.williamfry.com/our-people/bio/james-phelan