Sidley Austin is expanding its investment funds bench in New York with the addition of partners Cliff Cone, Michael Sabin, and Dan Drabkin, who join from Clifford Chance, where Cone and Sabin co-led the firm’s U.S. Funds and Investment Management practice.
The three lawyers arrive as a coordinated team and are positioned to deepen Sidley’s coverage across registered products, private fund formation, and secondaries and liquidity solutions—areas where fund sponsors and institutional investors have been especially active as managers broaden product lines, lean into private credit, and navigate GP-led transactions.
Cone’s practice centers on the regulated investment management side of the market. He advises alternative investment managers and boards on issues under the Investment Company Act and the Investment Advisers Act, and works with a range of vehicles, including interval funds, ETFs, and business development companies. His experience also spans registered closed-end funds and a variety of private fund structures, including crypto-focused products, hedge funds, private equity funds, and commodity funds.
Sabin focuses on structuring and operating closed-end and hybrid private funds and related accounts across strategies, including private equity, credit, asset-backed lending, growth, real assets, energy, and infrastructure. His work ranges from first-time sponsors to multibillion-dollar fundraisers and includes strategic manager transactions and internal governance arrangements. He also advises on GP-led liquidity solutions and fund restructurings, and represents sponsors and investors in minority investments in management companies, joint ventures, spinouts, platform launches, and seeding deals.
Drabkin advises private capital sponsors across real assets, credit, private equity, and funds-of-funds, with a significant emphasis on secondaries transactions and continuation vehicles. He represents sponsors structuring liquidity options for limited partners and also counsels lead and syndicate investors participating in continuation funds. Sidley highlighted his experience in private credit secondaries, including advising on launches of dedicated private credit secondaries funds and transactions in that segment.
Firm leadership framed the hires as complementary additions that strengthen multiple parts of the asset management platform simultaneously, noting that each partner primarily focuses on a different slice of the investment funds sector while collaborating closely as a team.
The hires also follow a string of recent additions to Sidley’s funds-related capabilities across geographies and strategies, including partners focused on venture and private equity funds, as well as a range of private market fund manager work in the U.S. and London.
Sidley said its investment funds group includes roughly 130 lawyers worldwide, dedicated to investment funds, investment management, and derivatives work, who work alongside tax, benefits, regulatory, enforcement, and other related teams as the firm continues to invest in its global asset management practice.
KEY QUOTES:
“Cliff, Michael, and Dan bring a wealth of experience to our growing funds practice and have key relationships with many of the top investment funds and asset managers. While they work together closely, Cliff, Michael, and Dan each focus primarily on a separate part of the investment funds sector of asset management, bringing broad and complementary experience to clients.”
Brian Fahrney, Chair, Executive Committee, Sidley Austin
“Adding Cliff, Michael, and Dan strengthens multiple aspects of our New York Investment Funds group with one team. Cliff’s work with innovative and complex registered funds, ETFs and BDCs is strategically important to our practice, while Michael’s and Dan’s private fund experience across sectors and fund sizes will further the growth in our private equity fund formation practice. Dan’s experience in liquidity solutions and continuation vehicles will be particularly valuable to lead investors and sponsor clients, especially in the credit sector. We look forward to collaborating with them.”
Elizabeth Fries, Leader, Global Investment Funds Practice; Member, Executive Committee, Sidley Austin
