Isabel Dische is chair of the alternative asset opportunities group and a partner in the New York office. Ranked Band 1 globally by Chambers Global for investment funds, she primarily focuses on advising asset managers and institutional investors on matters that span alternative asset classes. Among the clients she counsels are ten of the top 15 secondary buyers and sovereign wealth funds across the globe, including Australia, Canada, China, Japan, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Singapore, and South Korea.
Isabel is especially skilled at structuring legally complex transactions and is known for “thinking creatively,” being “commercially smart,” and providing “incredibly thoughtful” advice, as clients have told Chambers. With experience as both a funds lawyer and a deal lawyer, Isabel is able to offer a unique perspective when advising clients.
Isabel’s keen sense of the market is grounded in her representation of both fund sponsors and investors, and in the sheer volume of her practice. Her team was named the number one legal adviser by global secondaries deal count in 2019, 2020 and 2022, according to Secondaries Investor. In 2024, her team closed 400+ secondaries transactions worth over $200 billion, 500+ primary investments representing in excess of $150 billion, and 400+ co-investment transactions.
In addition to her work with institutional investors, Isabel advises hedge funds and other private funds and their sponsors on fund formation, legal and risk management questions, and firm ownership and operations. She started her career as an associate at Atlas Venture, which one client notes “adds to her insight of how [funds] operate.” She also counsels investment advisers and institutional investors on environmental, social and governance (ESG) and responsible investing.
Experience
- Advises a Southeast Asian sovereign on more than $30 billion of strategic relationship agreements.
- Represented HarbourVest as lead buyer in the $3 billion General Atlantic fund recapitalization.
- Represented Coller Capital and another leading secondary buyer as lead buyers in the $1.5 billion single asset recapitalization of Ssangyong, an industry-leading Korean cement manufacturer, the largest GP-led transaction in Asia to date and the first single-asset recapitalization in the Korean market.
- Represented AlpInvest, HarbourVest and Neuberger Berman as lead buyers in the $2.2 billion Madison Dearborn fund recapitalization.
- Advised a Middle Eastern sovereign on its anchor investment in a new single asset secondaries fund.
- Represented HarbourVest as lead buyer in the $2.3 billion Warburg Pincus recapitalization.
- Advises a European sovereign on multiple large portfolio sales and rebalancings of fund interests collectively in excess of $19 billion.
- Advises a sovereign on two significant joint ventures in the data center space (with aggregate investments by the client in excess of $5.5 billion).
- Represented AlpInvest and Hamilton Lane as lead buyers in the $2.75 billion recapitalization of Wells Fargo PE and mezzanine funds.
- Represented a sovereign on its purchase of a $2.2 billion portfolio of 50+ fund interests from a Japanese bank, including related structuring to address various Japanese regulatory issues and the US ECI withholding regime.
- Represents an insurance company on the outsourcing of its asset management function, including multiple separately managed accounts and joint ventures in excess of $1 billion and a single separate account in excess of $30 billion.
- Represented HarbourVest as lead buyer in a $1.5 billion recapitalization of various Insight funds.
- Advised HarbourVest on its purchase of a $1.3 billion portfolio of 90+ fund interests from Cathay Insurance.
- Advised a family office on a $750 million preferred equity financing of a portfolio of private equity fund interests.
- Represents a mega investor on various seed investments in venture capital, deep tech, healthcare and real estate managers.
- Represented a sovereign on a combined $2 billion in investments across open-ended real estate programs, among many other large real estate mandates (including seed investments in real estate-adjacent strategies such as water rights).
- Advised an Australian sovereign wealth fund on the restructuring of its global venture capital portfolio and an unwinding of related fund structures in a $1.5 billion transaction.
- Advised a Canadian sovereign on its $2.5 billion preferred equity financing of a North American data center business.
- Represented HarbourVest and Lexington as lead buyers in a $1.3 billion recapitalization of several Insight funds.
- Represented AlpInvest in the recapitalization of Thompson Street Capital Partners’ approximately $1.2 billion first continuation fund.