Kevin T. Hardy

In the registered investment company area, Mr. Hardy advises clients in the development, structuring, operation and regulation of listed and continuously offered closed-end funds and business development companies (BDCs), mutual funds and exchange-traded funds. He has represented issuers and underwriters in IPOs and secondary market financings by closed-end funds and BDCs, including common share offerings, at-the-market offerings, rights offerings and public and private debt, preferred stock and convertible securities offerings. Fund and BDC sponsors advised by Mr. Hardy have included Advent Capital Management, BlackRock, Cushing Asset Management, Guggenheim, Invesco, Northern Trust and XA Investments. He also has represented investment banks, including UBS, Wells Fargo, Citi, BofA Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley, as underwriters or distributors of common share, preferred securities and notes offerings by closed-end funds sponsored by firms such as Nuveen, PIMCO, Aberdeen, KKR, Franklin Templeton, John Hancock, Nicholas Applegate and First Trust.

Mr. Hardy regularly counsels registered investment funds and their boards of directors in connection with directors’ duties, corporate governance and regulatory matters, including seeking and obtaining exemptive or no-action relief from the Securities and Exchange Commission and FINRA. Mr. Hardy has extensive experience representing closed-end funds in activist defense matters, including corporate preparedness and the design and implementation of corporate protective measures, contested proxy solicitations, responses to shareholder activists and related matters.

In addition, Mr. Hardy represents investment advisers, banks, broker-dealers and other financial services firms in transactions, financings and a wide range of operational and regulatory matters involving investment adviser and investment company regulation. He advised Nuveen Investments in connection with the investment management and regulatory aspects of its acquisition by an investor group led by Madison Dearborn Partners and its subsequent acquisition by TIAA-CREF from the Madison Dearborn Partners investor group. Additionally, he has advised buyers and sellers on a number of other significant transactions in the asset management industry, including Janus Capital, Wells Fargo and MassMutual.

Mr. Hardy also counsels operating companies in connection with investment company status issues.

Mr. Hardy has been repeatedly selected for inclusion in Chambers Global and Chambers USA, in addition to being named one of Crain’s Chicago Business’ 2022 Notable Gen X Leaders in Law.