Skip to content
DWT logo
People Services Insights
About Offices Careers
Search
People
Services
Insights
About
Offices
Careers
Search
Desktop Image: Michael Butowsky
Mobile Image: Michael Butowsky

Michael Butowsky

Of Counsel

T 212.880.3595 New York
  •  

Download vCard Download bio Print this page
Share

As part of the firm's financial services group, Michael Butowsky focuses on the representation of investment management industry participants, including investment advisers (IAs) and their products, such as private investment funds and managed accounts. Drawing on decades of in-depth knowledge of legal, product, and transactional precedent and practical industry experience, Michael guides clients through all aspects of the federal securities laws that affect their businesses.

For IAs, Michael provides advice regarding all aspects of "status," exemptions, registration, compliance programs, and SEC examinations, and, for non-U.S. IAs, he also assists with the implementation of Unibanco/participating affiliate arrangements. He also provides comprehensive advice regarding both traditional investment advisory issues (e.g., conflicts, custody, trade allocation and sequencing, disclosure, fiduciary duty, soft dollars/best execution, and marketing) and the more recent areas of regulatory focus (e.g., ESG, crypto, off-channel communications, and AI). His product experience includes all aspects of the formation, marketing, structuring, placement, and operation of dozens of private investment funds (e.g., PE, VC, hedge, real estate, and direct lending), as well as the negotiation and documentation of managed accounts, including wrap fee programs, unified managed accounts (UMAs), separately managed account programs, and one-off nondiscretionary and discretionary agreements.

Michael also advises IAs regarding the regulatory and commercial aspects of acquisitions and dispositions of IAs ranging from stand-alone, single-product IAs to IAs embedded in large investment banking organizations with a broad variety of clients. He also advises bank and non-bank lenders about the regulatory aspects of both lending to IAs and entering into subscription lines with private funds.

He provides advice to institutional investors in connection with alternative investments, including the negotiation of fund documentation and side letters, and advises RICs and BDCs on select regulatory topics under the Investment Company Act of 1940.

Michael began his legal career at a U.S. government agency and has since worked at several leading private law firms. He is a regular writer and presenter on investment management topics and the organizer and moderator of a longstanding monthly legal and regulatory asset management-focused discussion roundtable comprising compliance officers and lawyers from major financial institutions and stand-alone investment advisers.

Practice Highlights

Investment advisers

Michael has deep experience with all facets of exemptions, registrations, regulation, compliance programs, and SEC DOE examinations (e.g., presence, full scope, NBE and sweep (e.g., custody), including deficiency letter responses) for investment advisers. He works with investment advisers ranging from those with solely U.S. domestic offices to those with multinational operations and offices in dozens of countries in addition to U.S. offices. As a result of his deep offshore experience, he has become quite adept at dealing with the sorts of issues that arise when the U.S. securities laws thread through the international space, including, among other things, the integration of affiliates (including the concurrent application of U.S. and non-U.S. local laws on non-U.S. affiliates), Unibanco/participating affiliate arrangements, and the drafting and implementation of global compliance programs.

Private funds

Michael provides advice on all securities and corporate aspects of private fund (e.g., private equity, real estate, and hedge) formation, marketing, structuring, placement, secondary trading, and operation, including advice on terms, offering memoranda, organizational documents, subscription agreements, investment management agreements, side letters, and related disclosures. Some of the structures he has worked with have included stand-alone, parallel onshore/offshore, master-feeder, mini master-feeder, multi-class and multi-series, and funds using side pocket accounts, as well as spun-out side pocket-type vehicles. Fund strategies have included, among others, listed stocks and private equity, funds of managers (including emerging managers), fund of funds, long/short, risk arbitrage, real estate (including vertically integrated and both open-end and closed-end), global, secondaries, opportunity, distressed debt, fixed income, and direct and online marketplace lending, and sector (e.g., crypto, AI, EV, and technology) and geographically focused (e.g., frontier and emerging markets, Brazil, Chile, China, and India).

Regulatory "status" matters

Michael regularly provides "status" and structuring advice: (i) under the Investment Company Act of 1940 regarding global and U.S.-based multi-tiered operating companies, investment funds, U.S. and non-U.S. banks, SPACs, employee benefit plans, and others, typically in connection with securities offerings, loans, and M&A; and (ii) regarding the investment company, investment adviser, and/or broker-dealer status of products, services, and structures (including new products such as investment platforms and crypto assets).

Investment adviser registration and ongoing regulatory advice to a group of 5 U.K.-based, U.S. registered investment advisers

For an affiliated group of five vertically integrated U.K.-based, real estate fund investment advisers: (i) advised on the U.S. investment adviser registration (i.e., because their principal office and place of business was in the U.K., umbrella registration/Schedule R was not available); (ii) annual and other-than-annual Form ADV amendments; (iii) day-to-day securities regulatory advice and drafting of the compliance program; and (iv) years later, deregistrations and conversions to ERA status for several of the advisers made possible by changes in the client's investor/client base (and the implementation of Unibanco arrangements). Approx. $3 billion of assets under management.

Regulatory advice to large vertically integrated real estate investment adviser

Securities regulatory/compliance counsel for a vertically integrated, U.S.-registered real estate fund investment adviser with approx. $75 billion of assets under management, with offices and/or projects in over 15 countries. Work included ADV amendments, responding to a variety of compliance questions regarding the adviser and its client funds, outsourcing projects, ESG disclosures and policies, SEC exams, and coordinating among counsel in other countries, among other things.

Sponsor Capital Vehicles

Securities regulatory counsel to a real estate investment adviser in connection with the formation, structuring, and placement of Sponsor Capital Vehicles that pool funds of related persons, affiliates, and/or third parties to invest (directly or indirectly) as equity owners in entities affiliated with the investment adviser.

Wrap fee program

Advised a large retail investment adviser and broker-dealer in connection with the structuring, documentation, and regulatory aspects of several wrap fee programs.

Direct lending credit funds

Securities regulatory counsel to a real estate investment adviser in connection with the formation, structuring, and placement of three credit funds which make loans on a limited recourse or non-recourse basis as follows: (i) construction and non-construction mezzanine loans and b-notes, (ii) construction and non-construction senior mortgage loans, and (iii) certain construction and non-construction preferred equity investments, as well as certain tactical credit opportunities.

Searching...

Admitted to Practice

  • New York, 1987

Education

  • J.D., Boston University School of Law, 1984
  • B.A., Political Science, Boston University, 1981

Professional Recognition

    • Thomson Reuters Stand-out Lawyer in Financial Services, 2022-2024

Background

    • Advisor to Task Force Member, Homeland Security Advisory System Task Force, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2009
    • Former Chief, Member of the Board of Directors, and Communications Officer, Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), New Castle, N.Y.
Searching...
Publications
04.01.25
News
Davis Wright Tremaine Adds Highly Experienced Financial Services Regulatory and Transactional Attorney Michael R. Butowsky in New York Read More
Your search returned no results. Please try another search or remove search criteria.
DWT logo
©1996-2025 Davis Wright Tremaine LLP. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Attorney Advertising. Not intended as legal advice. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Media Kit Affiliations Legal notices
Privacy policy Employees DWT Collaborate EEO
SUBSCRIBE
©1996-2025 Davis Wright Tremaine LLP. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Attorney Advertising. Not intended as legal advice. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.