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Richard M. Cutshall

Richard M. Cutshall is Co-Chair of the firm’s Financial, Regulatory and Compliance Practice, Co-Chair of the firm’s Private Funds Group, and Co-Chair of the firm’s Investment Management Group. Rich has experience representing clients in a variety of investment management, general securities, and corporate matters, including the representation of mutual funds, ETFs, and other funds registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940; fund and ETF independent directors; unregistered investment funds; federally registered, state registered, and federally and state exempt investment advisers; broker-dealers; and an array of public and private companies.

Rich represents investment adviser clients at all stages of their life cycle, from concept and formation through registration, daily operation through wind-down and exiting the business, including representing investment adviser clients on both the buy-side and sell-side in M&A transactions. He also represents clients in all aspects of investment company practice, including organizing and forming new funds and ETFs, registering mutual funds and ETFs with the SEC, and the acquisition and merger of public funds.

In the course of representing investment advisers and public and private funds, Rich advises Greenberg Traurig’s clients on all aspects of securities regulatory compliance, particularly including new and existing SEC rules; SEC examination, regulatory, and investigative initiatives and sweeps; the SEC’s proposal, adoption, and implementation of new regulations, such as the recently rewritten investment adviser marketing rule; and finding compliance solutions related to the regulatory scheme applicable to investment advisers and investment funds, including implementing both novel and long-standing SEC regulatory guidance and interpretations. He also advises clients on the day-to-day aspects of corporate governance, board and adviser fiduciary responsibility, and SEC compliance, as well as assisting clients in all aspects of SEC and other regulatory examinations.

Rich has given presentations on and assists a variety of investment management clients with their compliance with anti-money laundering laws, and has performed annual independent third party audits of several clients’ anti-money laundering policies, programs and controls.

Rich also has experience representing clients in many industries in the sale or acquisition of businesses, formation of corporate entities, sophisticated contract negotiations, and in obtaining, renewing and renegotiating the terms of financing business operations. He routinely works with clients’ chief executive officers, chief financial officers, directors, and in-house general and assistant general counsels, including occasionally working from clients’ corporate headquarters upon request. Rich works with corporate and finance clients of all sizes, from startup family-run businesses and entrepreneurial endeavors to Fortune 500 clients. He also has experience representing clients across many industries, including health care, data management, retail product display and advertising design and manufacturing, industrial manufacturing, and real estate management and brokerage industries.

On Aug. 9, 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission initiated administrative and cease-and-desist proceedings against a U.S. registered investment adviser (the Adviser). This action resulted from the Adviser’s failure to…

Continue Reading SEC Cracks Down on Marketing Rule Violations: Takeaways for Investment Advisers

On June 5, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit unanimously vacated a rule the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enacted in August 2023 that was intended to protect investors who invest in certain private funds and prevent fraud by the investment advisers to Private Funds.…

Continue Reading U.S. Appeals Court Vacates SEC Private Fund Adviser Rule

After years of rulemaking efforts, FinCEN issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (Proposed Rule) Feb. 15, 2024, that would subject certain investment advisers to AML/CFT compliance requirements under the BSA.

Continue Reading FinCEN Proposes Rule to Subject Certain Investment Advisers to Anti-Money Laundering Program, Recordkeeping, and Reporting Requirements under the Bank Secrecy Act

On July 14, 2022, the U.S. House of Representatives passed bipartisan legislation that, if passed by the Senate and signed into law, would expand the types of institutions required to…

Continue Reading ENABLERS Act Proposes to Expand Definition of ‘Financial Institution’; Impose BSA/AML Requirements on Professional Service Providers