Global law firm Reed Smith announced that Edward Klees and Brian Farmer have joined the firm’s Global Corporate Group as partners in Washington D.C. and Richmond.
Arriving together from Hirschler Fleischer, this duo brings to the firm decades of combined experience acting on behalf of both institutional investors and investment managers and advisors. Joining along with Klees and Farmer are of counsel Guy Morley and associates Sheherezade (“Zee”) Malik and Aleks Johnson.
“Adding strong corporate and securities talent continues to be a top strategic priority for the Global Corporate group and the firm. These highly regarded lawyers are a great strategic fit as they bring with them a sophisticated private funds practice, representing state pension plans and other institutional investors in private funds, forming private funds, as well as providing regulatory advice,” said James Tandler, co-chair of the Reed Smith Global Corporate Group. “This group will immediately contribute to our growing funds practice, and we are excited to have them join our firm.”
A recognized authority on legal, compliance and policy issues, Klees advises endowments, foundations, pension plans, family offices, outsourced chief investment offices (OCIOs) and other institutional investors, regulatory oversight, risk management, operations, and compliance and ethics issues. Klees formerly served with Farmer as co-chairs of Hirschler’s investment management practice group, and past roles include serving as general counsel of the University of Virginia Investment Management Company (UVIMCO) and associate general counsel for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Klees frequently writes and speaks on institutional investment matters. He is the former chair of the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Institutional Investors Committee and is an advisor to the Institutional Limited Partner Association. He is also co-author, with Nobel Prize winner H. Robert Horvitz, Ph.D., of Connecting with Companies: A Guide to Biomedical Consulting Agreements, and is a former lecturer at the University of Virginia School of Law where he co-taught a course on private equity and hedge funds.
“We are excited to join Reed Smith’s impressive global team,” said Klees. “We look forward to supplementing and complementing existing services with our investment funds experience.”
Farmer’s investment industry practice includes serving both institutional investors and investment managers. He has experience working with universities, hospital systems, OCIOs, ERISA plans and family offices. Farmer has also advised a number of universities and university foundations on reorganization of their internal investment offices and endowment assets into separate non-profit organizations.
Farmer has written extensively, including for Hedge Fund Law Reporter and Private Equity Law Reporter, and has been quoted in Reuters and the Wall Street Journal. He founded Hirschler’s investment management practice group, and served as a member of the firm’s Board of Directors.
Farmer is also a former member of the Board of Trustees and Investment Advisory Committee of the Richmond Retirement System, a $600 million municipal pension plan, investing across virtually all asset classes.
“We are thrilled to become members of Reed Smith’s Investment Management and Private Funds team,” said Farmer. “Reed Smith’s deep corporate, tax and securities law expertise and global reach will be invaluable to our clients, who regularly invest in complex transactions throughout the world.”
The addition of the Hirschler team follows the recent arrival of private funds partner Joseph Suh, who joined in July from Greenberg Traurig.