Richard Rodgers advises private fund sponsors, registered investment advisers (RIAs) and digital-asset businesses on fund formation, RIA structuring and registration, and the corporate and regulatory questions that arise in launching and scaling investment platforms. With more than 25 years’ experience across private practice, government service and senior in-house roles, he brings clients the perspective of someone who has held the general counsel’s seat, not only counseled it.
Richard served as Chief Legal Officer and Chief Compliance Officer of a digital-asset multi-family office and its affiliated RIA, then part of one of the largest digital-currency groups in the market. He built the firm’s private fund platform, took the RIA from formation through SEC registration, and worked through questions the rules were not written for – custody of digital assets, money transmission licensing, and how a start-up operating inside a digital-asset ecosystem meets obligations designed for traditional managers. Earlier, he was senior legal counsel to a multibillion-dollar technology-focused private equity firm, working across fund and credit documentation, M&A and portfolio company matters.
That work is grounded in four years as Senior Special Counsel in the SEC’s Division of Investment Management – the division responsible for the rules governing RIAs as well as registered funds. He worked directly with the Division’s Director and Deputy Director on the Investment Advisers Act and the Investment Company Act, and helped lead rulemaking on the use of derivatives by registered funds. He has also served as counsel to a $30 billion registered fund complex, as associate general counsel to a government-sponsored enterprise, and in the corporate and securities group of an international law firm.
Richard is co-founder and general counsel of a defense advisory firm, where he structures and negotiates cross-border commercial and government-facing transactions. He holds a J.D. from Columbia Law School and a B.A. from Yale University, and is admitted to practice in New York and the District of Columbia.