Fieldfisher has acquired Mayfair boutique Cummings Law to launch a specialist finance firm that will focus on hedge funds, derivatives and alternative investment management.

With a prime broker and bank-heavy client base, Fieldfisher's finance team has often been conflicted out of providing advice to buy-side clients, including hedge funds and asset managers. However, by acquiring Cummings Law to set up Cummings Fisher, the City firm has found a way to sidestep these obstacles.

The firm, which will continue to be based in Mayfair, will specialise in funds, derivatives, financial services regulation and fund formation.

While Cummings Fisher is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fieldfisher, it will operate independently of the City firm, with the two firms maintaining their own client bases and separated by an information barrier.

Cummings Fisher will be led by three partners, including Cummings Law managing partner Clare Cummings – who founded the boutique in 2003 – funds partner James Tinworth, who joins the outfit from Stephenson Harwood on Monday (21 January), and former Credit Suisse in-house lawyer and derivatives specialist Ron Feldman. The three will be assisted by Fieldfisher regulatory partner Duncan Black and tax counsel Andrew Loan, as well as a small team of associates. 

Fieldfisher derivatives and structured finance partner Guy Usher – an architect of the venture – said: "The Cummings Fisher proposition fills a big gap in the market between traditional law firms and the sole practitioners serving clients in the alternative investments sector.

"Cummings Fisher will be the first London-based firm providing legal services solely to hedge funds, investment funds and their managers, combined with complex advisory and cost-efficient document handling using our near-shore service centre in Belfast, which already has 30 trading document negotiators. It can also provide data extraction solutions using our Condor alternative legal solutions platform."

Usher expects the new venture to add an additional 50% (£2m-£3m) to Fieldfisher's finance arm's top line.

The deal will allow Cummings Fisher to benefit from Fieldfisher's tax, employment, data privacy, corporate, IP and technology expertise, as well as its European reach. Cummings Fisher will also draw on support from the firm's service centre in Belfast, which opened last August, and provides cost-efficient document handling.

This is Fieldfisher's latest outing on the back of healthy financials, with the firm expected to launch a Dublin office in the coming months as it looks to hedge against Brexit and continue to build up its European credentials.

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