Mary Lavelle is a partner and Global Co-Head of the Private Funds and Secondaries group. Mary advises a broad range of private capital clients and financial institutions on fund formation and asset management matters, secondary transactions and related liquidity solutions and also represents institutional investors on their fund investments and co-investments. Mary has represented a wide range of investment managers on the establishment of traditional buyout funds, infrastructure and impact-related funds, credit funds and venture capital and growth equity funds, across various geographies, and also advises on related carry and co-investment structures and all regulatory aspects of fund formation. Mary is highly experienced at advising clients on secondary transactions, including fund portfolio sales and “GP-led” restructurings/continuation fund transactions.
Mary is recognised for fund formation work and secondary transactions by, among others, The Legal 500 and Chambers UK.
Prior to joining Freshfields, Mary’s experience includes advising:
- a leading secondaries investor on the buy-side of a $829 million GP-led secondary transaction for Permira IV, a closed private equity fund;
- a leading secondaries investor on the buy-side of a $500 million GP-led restructuring of Southern Cross Group’s fourth Latin America Private Equity Fund;
- one of the world's premier secondaries institutions on a range of its buy-side and sell-side secondaries transactions across a range of asset classes, including GP-led restructurings, the acquisition of portfolios of fund interests, direct investments, real estate assets and nonperforming loans and the sale of a tail-end fund portfolio;
- a newly formed green infrastructure manager on the establishment of its inaugural fund and co invest vehicles raising $1.5 billion in total and more recently advising them on the establishment of a dedicated UK fund vehicle;
- a Swedish fund manager on the raising of its last three growth capital funds focusing on investments in Nordic online retail companies and the GP-led restructuring of an earlier predecessor fund;
- a global infrastructure investment manager on the establishment of a “fund of one” fund structure and restructuring of an employee incentive plan into a traditional carried interest scheme;
- a UK manager on the establishment of its second European special situations fund, formed as a Luxembourg fund Vehicle and holding a first closing in early 2021;
- a UK-based venture capital manager on the raising of its second venture capital fund investing in deep tech investments;
- a first-time UK Fund manager on the raising of a private equity fund which achieved a first and final closing within six weeks of instruction;
- one of the most active sovereign wealth investors in private equity, regularly representing them on a range of their private equity and real estate fund investments and co-investments.
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