Michael S. Hong is an associate in the Corporate Department and a member of the firm’s Private Funds Group. Mr. Hong focuses his practice on the formation of a variety of private investment funds, including buyout funds, hedge funds, hybrid funds, distressed funds and funds of funds. He has experience with the development and negotiation of the organizational documents of such funds, their managed accounts, the preparation of their offering materials and the development of their fund-raising strategies. His private investment fund formation clients have included:

• Apollo;
  
  
• Avenue Capital;
  
  
• BlackRock;
  
  
• Fortress Group;
  
  
• GSO / Blackstone;
  
  
• Harvest Partners;
  
  
• Oak Hill Capital Management;
  
  
• R3 Capital Partners;
  
  
• Reservoir Capital;
  
  
• Rock Creek; and
  
  
• Wicks Group.

Mr. Hong speaks and writes articles about developments in the private funds industry. Most recently, he was a guest speaker at an event hosted by the Alternative Investment Financial Executives Association (AIFEA) and was a panelist at the Yale School of Management Private Equity Club's 10th Annual Private Equity Conference. Mr. Hong also contributes to the firm’s Investment Management News: Market and Legal Update quarterly newsletter.

Mr. Hong also has extensive experience with transactions involving sales, purchases and joint ventures of a variety of alternative investment asset managers. His past representations include:

• Affiliated Managers Group in its acquisition of private equity fund of funds manager, Pantheon Ventures, for approximately $775 million;
  
  
• the spin-out of approximately 75 former Lehman Brothers professionals in the formation of their new hedge fund, R3 Capital Partners, and its subsequent acquisition by BlackRock;
  
  
• Ore Hill, a U.S. based credit specialist fund manager, in a sale of 50 percent of its interests to Man Group; and
  
  
• the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority in its acquisition of an interest in Apollo Global Management.

Prior to joining the Investment Management Group, Mr. Hong was a member of the firm’s Mergers & Acquisitions Group, where his representations included:

• Soros Fund Management in its private equity investments in Helios Towers Africa and ExteNet Systems;
  
  
• the sale by Wellspring Capital Management of its capital stock in Vatterott College to TA Associates;
  
  
• Mistral Equity Partners in its convertible preferred stock PIPE investment in Jamba;
  
  
• MasterCard International in its acquisition of Orbiscom;
  
  
• Primus International in its acquisition of ACCRA Manufacturing;
  
  
• Schaller Anderson in its sale to Aetna;
  
  
• Airgas in its acquisitions of both the bulk gas and packaged gas businesses of Linde AG;
  
  
• MacAndrews & Forbes in its leverage acquisition of Clarke American, a division of Honeywell; and
  
  
• Time Warner in its $17.9 billion acquisition of the cable properties of Adelphia Communications.

Mr. Hong obtained his joint J.D./M.B.A. from the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law and Joseph L. Rotman School of Management. He was awarded the Gerald W. Schwartz Gold Medal upon his graduation from the Faculty of Law and was a Dean's List student during his time at the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management. Mr. Hong also served as a Senior Editor of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law Review.