Leading Asset Management Partner Tom Alabaster Joins Ropes & Gray in London

Global law firm Ropes & Gray has strengthened its industry-leading asset management practice with the arrival in London of Tom Alabaster, one of the UK’s leading investment funds lawyers. Tom joins our preeminent global practice as a partner and head of funds, EMEA. 

Tom is a trusted adviser to clients in the private equity, real estate, natural resources and infrastructure sectors. Ranked in Legal 500 and Chambers UK, Tom’s clients describe him as an “absolutely awesome” lawyer who “understands the regulations but always starts with the commercial objectives,” and they note that he is “very hands-on and very responsive.” Tom has also been named by IFLR as a “rising star” and by PEI’s Private Fund Manager as one of the private fund industry’s top 30 under 40.  

Tom focuses his practice on the most critical and complex issues facing global asset managers. His experience includes advising on fund formation, fund marketing and structuring, including co-investments and separately managed accounts (SMAs); firm advisory and carried interest structuring; sponsor-to-sponsor M&A, spinouts and start‐ups; and joint ventures. 

At Ropes & Gray, Tom will join the firm’s leading asset management practice, named a Law360 “Fund Formation Group of the Year,” in 2019. With more than 250 attorneys dedicated to asset management law, the firm is uniquely positioned to offer cutting-edge advice in an ever-changing investment and regulatory environment, guiding hedge funds, private investment funds and registered funds. The firm is leading prominent asset managers in their response to the COVID-19 pandemic, providing up-to-date insights on best practices and legal considerations. 

Said Bryan Chegwidden, leader of Ropes & Gray’s asset management practice: “Tom is a sophisticated counselor and adviser.  He draws on years of experience in the US and UK steering asset managers on a full spectrum of complex issues. He sees the big picture, and understands the most technical issues so as to make decisions with a client’s business interests front and center.”  

“Asset managers around the world have long turned to Ropes & Gray because its attorneys are best-in-class advisers to a broad spectrum of the world’s most sophisticated fund managers,” Tom Alabaster said. “I look forward to collaborating with the great lawyers at Ropes & Gray to solve our clients’ most complex and challenging issues.”   

Previously, Tom served as an investment funds partner at other global law firms, and also an in-house funds lawyer and Europe and Africa CCO at The Carlyle Group.