Kenneth E. Burdon

Mr. Burdon advises registered investment companies, business development companies and their boards of directors, public and private fund-of-hedge-funds and other alternative products, and multinational investment advisers. Mr. Burdon also represents asset management companies and other financial institutions in connection with their transactional activities, such as mergers and acquisitions, divestitures and split-offs of operational groups, as well as in connection with the regulatory and compliance implications of regulatory investigations and enforcement proceedings. Mr. Burdon’s other engagements include advising domestic, international and multinational companies on investment company status matters, including ordinary operating companies and U.S. mortgage REITs. In this regard Mr. Burdon represented Altaba Inc. (formerly Yahoo! Inc.) in connection with its registration as an investment company under the Investment Company Act.

Mr. Burdon represents fund sponsors and underwriters in developing new investment products, in initial public offerings of closed-end funds and business development companies, and in secondary financings, such as at-the-market offerings, rights offerings, public and private bond offerings, and public and private preferred equity offerings. He also counsels fund sponsors and distributors, mutual funds, closed-end funds and business development companies in connection with their routine activities, as well as in connection with non-routine matters, such as in seeking and obtaining exemptive or no-action relief from the Securities and Exchange Commission and FINRA, or in responding to shareholder activism.

In the public investment company area, Mr. Burdon has represented clients such as the BlackRock Funds; the Gabelli Funds; funds advised by Cohen & Steers; the RMR Funds; the Cushing Funds; Tweedy, Browne; funds advised by John Hancock and Oppenheimer; Prospect Capital Corporation, BlackRock TCP Capital Corp., BlackRock Capital Investment Corporation and other business development companies; and underwriters of closed-end funds and business development companies. He also has represented BlackRock, Franklin Square Capital Partners and others in developing innovative products and product structures to pursue registered and unregistered alternative strategies. In the private product area, he has represented the EIM Group in connection with a variety of onshore and offshore products, and regularly advises private fund advisers on Investment Advisers Act, registration, compliance and fiduciary matters. Mr. Burdon also has represented financial institutions, such as Thrivent, Affiliated Managers Group, The TCW Group, Société Générale, Credit Suisse and Ameriprise, in connection with their transactional activities, including counseling them on associated regulatory and compliance matters.

Mr. Burdon has repeatedly been recognized in Chambers Global and Chambers USA. He also was named as one of The Rising Stars of Mutual Funds at Fund Action’s Mutual Fund Industry Awards in 2018 and as a Rising Star in IFLR1000. He co-authors “Investment Management Regulation, Fifth Edition,” a law school course book on the Investment Company Act and the Investment Advisers Act.”