Isabel Dische is chair of the alternative asset opportunities group and a partner in the New York office. Ranked 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 various European, Asian and Canadian sovereign investors on their primary, co-investment and secondaries programs.
- Represented a Southeast Asian sovereign investor in two secondary sales of large portfolios of interests with deal sizes of approximately $1.7 billion and $2.1 billion, respectively.
- Represented an Asian sovereign investor on the negotiations of a $1+ billion fund-of-one arrangement with a leading credit fund manager.
- Represented a Southeast Asia sovereign wealth fund and a U.K. pension fund on their provision of approximately $500 million warehouse facility for an energy opportunities fund being launched by one of the world’s largest global alternative asset managers. In addition to structuring, the credit facility and negotiating the underlying credit documentation (including a related subscription finance facility), Ropes & Gray advised with respect to underlying derivatives regulatory issues stemming from the structure and negotiated the terms of the fund structure that held the warehoused assets. In tandem, we also advised our clients with respect to co-investments into several of the underlying oil and gas assets being warehoused for the new fund and a related PIPE transaction.
- Represented an asset manager on their sale of nearly 100 fund interests in connection with the liquidation of several fund-of-fund vehicles.
- Represented the lead buyer consortium in a $1.4 billion fund recapitalization transaction involving several different vintages sponsored by a North American private equity sponsor.
- Negotiation of seed capital investments in and on behalf of fund sponsors.
- Represents a U.S. investment adviser with respect to the launch and operation of its over 30 distinct hedge fund strategies, including equity, fixed income, currency, asset allocation and special situation strategies.
- Represents a credit fund manager on their co-investment platform and various SMA/fund-of-one arrangements.
- Represented a U.S. investment manager in connection with a bespoke Brazilian total return swap arrangement in connection with their investment in a portfolio of receivables.
- Represented The Hanover Insurance Group in connection with a $250 million accelerated stock repurchase program.
- Regularly advises “buy side” clients on the negotiation of ISDA master agreements, triparty agreements for collateral posted under ISDA master agreements, securities lending arrangements, Master Repurchase Agreements, Global Master Repurchase Agreements, tri-party custodial undertakings, prime brokerage arrangements, term commitments and securities lending arrangements.
- Regularly advises clients on the implications of Commodity Futures Trading Commission rulemaking, including the rescission of registration exemptions, changes in position limits and aggregation, and the inclusion of swaps in the definitions of commodity pool, commodity pool operator and commodity trading advisor.