Joel Seow

Joel is a private investment funds lawyer with close to 20 years of experience in top-tier investment funds practices in London and Singapore. He has extensive experience advising sponsors in Asia on the establishment of private investment funds across various asset classes and jurisdictions, with a particular focus on private equity, private credit, venture capital, real estate, infrastructure, hedge and special situations funds. Joel has worked on various non-traditional private investment fund setups such as platform structures, hybrid funds, club deals and open-ended illiquid funds. He has also advised institutional and non-institutional LPs from Asia, Europe and the US, including sovereign wealth funds, financial institutions, pension funds, corporations, family offices and fund of funds, on their investments into private funds.

Aside from transactional work, Joel also advises clients on the licensing and ongoing regulatory requirements of operating a fund management business in Singapore, as well as assisting with the submission of fund management licence applications to the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

Joel also has an active practice working with family offices, where he advises clients on a myriad of regulatory and structuring issues, including the establishment of single- and multi-family offices, and their investments into third-party managed funds.

Joel is recognised by clients for his experience and expertise and has been listed in various legal ranking publications for several consecutive years, including Chambers Asia-Pacific, The Legal 500 Asia Pacific and Who’s Who Legal. He was also recognised in Private Funds Management’s 30 under 40 top private equity lawyers in 2017.

Work highlights

Joel has led on a wide range of complex investment fund transactions.

These include advising:

• Singapore variable capital companies: advising on numerous funds structured as Singapore variable capital companies, include several “institutional-grade” VCCs with AUM each in excess of US$200m.
• Several of Singapore’s largest private fund managers: advising on the launch and operations of various private funds.
• Various Singapore-managed impact investing funds: advising on the establishment of various Singapore-managed impact investing funds covering a variety of impact strategies, including aquaculture, gender lens investing and plastic waste management.
• Various Asian institutional investors: advising on their investments into private funds.
• Several family offices: advising on their regulatory obligations and establishment of operations in Singapore.

Joel is a regular speaker in the funds industry, having presented or conducted training across a variety of topics relating to asset management with AIMA, SVCA, ANREV and the Singapore Academy of Law. He is also a member of the SVCA Advocacy Committee and the Singapore Academy of Law VCC working group.

He regularly interacts with the Monetary Authority of Singapore on issues relating to fund management and is an active contributor and participant on major initiatives within the funds industry.

National University of Singapore, 2005, Graduate Diploma in Singapore Law

King's College London, 2004, LL.B.

• September 2020 - Singapore: Variable Capital Company Launch Update, Thomson Reuters Accelus Regulatory Intelligence.
• December 2019 - Mainland China and Singapore Markets Opening Up for Hedge Fund Managers, Wells Fargo Prime Services Business Consulting Quarterly Report.
• May 2019 - Variable Capital Company Consultation Update, Thomson Reuters Regulatory Intelligence.