Greenberg Traurig announced on Wednesday the addition of two attorneys to its corporate team in Dallas.
Scott Ellis and Tanya Goins have lateraled over from Winstead and Holland & Knight, respectively.
Ellis, who joined GT as a shareholder, said he was “sold on the firm” when he was able to meet with its private equity team.
“GT is the only law firm in town that has the combination of a national platform and private equity expertise, while also having an entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to the Dallas market,” he said.
Ellis represents companies, private equity funds, family offices and other financial sponsors in strategic initiatives and transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, equity structuring, securities offerings, restructurings, and the financing of portfolio companies. He received his J.D. and M.B.A. from SMU.
The proliferation of private equity sponsors in Dallas and across the country makes it a great time to be a corporate lawyer, Ellis says.
“Many younger professionals are breaking away from institutional funds with the goal of starting something of their own,” he added. “It is an exciting thing to help these sponsors in their infancy as they grow into enterprises doing big things. Those are my favorite clients.”
Goins concentrates her practice on advising investment companies including mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), interval funds, closed-end funds, and other financial services industry clients on the Investment Company Act of 1940, the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, the Securities Act of 1933, the Securities Act of 1934 and FINRA regulations. She has joined GT as of counsel.
“I am excited about the opportunity to help expand the capabilities of GT’s investment management practice further in the registered fund space, particularly with respect to ETFs,” Goins said. “I also felt that my clients would benefit from the enhanced infrastructure of a larger group.”
Goins said one topic getting significant attention is a new approval process proposed by the SEC on June 28 for certain ETFs.
“This rule, if adopted, could standardize the relief given to ETFs and level the playing field for those wishing to start ETFs as the current process of obtaining an exemptive order from the SEC currently takes several months and can be costly,” she said.
Over the past year, Goins has worked on several reorganizations of hedge funds into mutual funds. She has also registered several socially-conscious ETFs in the last year, which invest based on market indexes they created that screen a segment of the market.
“Registering these types of ETFs is interesting because it always requires a very detailed explanation to the SEC regarding how these screens operate as they are required to not be based on the subjective judgment of the index provider or investment adviser of the ETF in order to comply with the requirements of the exemptive relief granted by the SEC,” she said.