Mr. Frolik has been a partner in the Firm’s Corporate Department since 2007. Since he joined the firm in 2000 out of law school, he has specialized in representing investment advisers (including advisers to hedge funds, real estate/VC/private equity funds, other private investment funds and separately-managed accounts).  The Firm’s investment adviser and private fund practice group has a national reputation and includes five other partners (Jahan Raissi, Neil Koren, Christina Hamilton, David Suozzi and Anthony Caldwell) and a number of other attorneys.  The entire group is located in our San Francisco office and most of us have worked together for decades.  This cohesiveness helps us deliver services to clients efficiently and with minimal turnover.

He is regularly listed in the International Who’s Who of Private Funds Lawyers, which features only the foremost practitioners.

Mr. Frolik counsels clients on a wide variety of issues including:

  • Structuring domestic and offshore investment funds (including hedge funds, real estate/VC/private equity funds, marketplace lending funds, crossover public/private funds and special opportunity funds)
  • Organizing investment management firms, including preparing and negotiating operating agreements among the owners of those companies
  • Counseling investment advisers on federal and state regulatory issues (including SEC, CFTC, and state registration and ERISA) and advising them on all aspects of their ongoing operations
  • Preparing and negotiating employment and severance agreements for a firm’s executive officers, portfolio managers, analysts, traders and other employees
  • Preparing and negotiating investment management agreements for separately-managed accounts
  • Preparing compliance manuals
  • Negotiating fund administration agreements
  • Negotiating ISDA agreements

Co-author of U.S. Regulation of Hedge Funds (first published by the American Bar Association in 2005 with a second edition published in 2013)

Conference speaking engagements include:

  • KPMG Alternative Investment Symposium – San Francisco, CA – September 2019
  • ACA Compliance Conference (Hedge Fund Session) – San Diego, CA – October 2017
  • Abacus/Imagineer Operational Efficiency & Compliance Seminar – San Francisco, CA  – December 2016
  • American Bar Association/International Bar Association Private Fund Conference – London 2016
  • UBS Premier Client Conference – Scottsdale 2015
  • First Republic Bank COO Forum – San Francisco 2015
  • Financial Research Associates Private Investment Fund Accounting, Operations and Compliance Forum – San Francisco 2015

Jim is on the Board of Directors of the Excellence in Investing for Children’s Causes Foundation (EICCF), the West Coast affiliate of the Sohn Conference Foundation.  Through its annual SohnSF investment conference, EICCF raises funds to support nonprofit organizations that improve education opportunities and life outcomes for underserved youth in the SF Bay Area and increases awareness in the financial community of the many nonprofits doing this important work in the Bay Area.

Member of the organizing committee of the Bay Area Hedge Fund Roundtable, a group that facilitates communication, education and networking among the Bay Area alternative investment community.

Active member of the Public Policy Committee of the California Hedge Fund Association, a statewide organization that brings together members of the investment  fund community to influence public policy that affects investment managers.

Speaker at various conferences and contributor to other books and articles regarding current issues facing investment advisers and private investment funds.