Recent Events

Speaker: Kathryn Marshall Ali

Solitary confinement is widely used in the United States. Most prisoners on death row are automatically – and permanently – housed in isolation for 23-24 hours per day, for years on end. As Justice Kennedy noted in a recent concurring opinion: “Too often, discussion in the legal academy and among practitioners and policymakers concentrates simply on the adjudication of guilt or innocence. Too easily ignored is the question of what comes next. Prisoners are shut away—out of sight, out of…

Speaker: Deborah Enix-Ross, Debevoise & Plimpton

The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), endorsed by the UN Human Rights Council in June 2011, are a set of guidelines for States and companies to prevent, address and remedy human rights abuses committed in business operations.  The UNGPs  rest on three pillars: States have a duty to protect people from human rights abuses by third parties, including business. Business has a responsibility to respect human rights, which means to avoid infringing on the rights of…

Speaker: Bertrand C. Fry and Shusmita Chowdhury, Pryor Cashman LLP

Non-U.S. asset managers that provide, or are considering providing, services to U.S. clients (or to investment vehicles with U.S. investors) need to be aware of the comprehensive registration regime applicable under the U.S. Investment Advisers Act. This presentation will outline the availability and limitations of the “foreign investment adviser” exemption, as well as other ways that non-U.S. investment advisers may want to consider addressing U.S. regulatory requirements, including “umbrella” registration and Unibanco letters.

Bertrand C. Fry is a partner at Pryor Cashman, where he co-heads the Investment Management and FinTech Groups. Prior to joining the firm, he served for 14 years in the legal department of the D. E. Shaw Group, serving as its acting General Counsel during the first half of 2007. He started his career at Paul, Weiss, and was a senior U.S. counsel in Dechert’s London office from 2001 to 2003, where his clients included both U.S. and non-U.S. investment advisers. Over the course of his career, Bert has launched and advised on a broad array of U.S. and non-U.S. alternative investment vehicles and their managers.

Shusmita Chowdhury is a member of Pryor Cashman’s Investment Management Group, where she advises institutional investors on their investments in domestic and international private equity funds, real estate funds, hedge funds, venture capital funds, fund of funds and other accounts. She also has extensive experience counseling clients on secondary fund investments and assisting fund sponsors on fund formation and ongoing investment matters, having previously worked in-house for a Swiss private equity firm.

Speaker: Jeh Johnson, Partner, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP

Honored guest and speaker: Jeh Johnson, Partner, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP and former United States Secretary of Homeland Security. Secretary Johnson shared his observations on today's homeland security and put the current situation at the southern border in a legal and historical context.