Lawrence Cohen QC

Financial Services CV

Lawrence has in-depth experience in several parts of the financial services sector.  The operation of mutual funds such as hedge funds and venture capital funds in Cayman and BVI with management in London and New York are familiar territory as is the operation of banks. 

In Fund work, liquidity issues and consequent strategies of gating (suspension of redemptions), distributions in kind, side-pocketing and restructuring have all been active topics as have managers, administrators and other professionals' liability.  In other institutions such as banks, examining disastrous investments and devising recovery strategies as well as dealing with the implications on balance sheet strength and liquidity all continue to feature.

Lawrence has published articles in both The Times (Business News) and The Financial Times dealing with topics such as unsatisfactory hedge fund valuation practices (eg. mark to model rather than to market). 

This is an area where few decided cases can be mentioned - by the time of reaching the Court room (eg. ISDA Master Agreements modified by Lehmans), attempts to navigate through uncharted legal and commercial waters will usually have failed.