Partner, Practice Area Chair – Financial Services
New York, NY
Karen Aspinall brings a wide range of skills and expertise to our financial services law team. With 20 years of in-house and AmLaw experience, she is an authority on regulatory compliance matters including reviewing and implementing new regulations issued by U.S. regulators such as the SEC, DOL, CFTC and NFA. She is also well-versed in a wide array of issues ranging from SEC examinations, routine regulatory matters to internal reviews, cross trades and liquidity risk management. Karen is also a skilled contract negotiator, having negotiated hundreds of agreements, including one transaction worth over $65 billion in AUM.
Karen is a music festival enthusiast, and has two dogs that, in her words, she adores. She recently took up Pickleball, a growing sport invented by a couple who, ironically, also adored their dog. In fact, they ended up naming their dog “Pickles” after the game they helped invent. (A true story! Read more about it here).
“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”
Don’t Stop Believing by Journey
Bohemian Rhapsody
Florence, Italy. Italy has so much to offer in terms of history, the people, and food.
Pizza
If I weren’t a lawyer, I would be running an animal rescue.
Karen Aspinall brings a wide range of skills and expertise to our financial services law team. With 20 years of in-house and AmLaw experience, she is an authority on regulatory compliance matters including reviewing and implementing new regulations issued by U.S. regulators such as the SEC, DOL, CFTC and NFA. She is also well-versed in a wide array of issues ranging from SEC examinations, routine regulatory matters to internal reviews, cross trades and liquidity risk management. Karen is also a skilled contract negotiator, having negotiated hundreds of agreements, including one transaction worth over $65 billion in AUM.
Karen is a music festival enthusiast, and has two dogs that, in her words, she adores. She recently took up Pickleball, a growing sport invented by a couple who, ironically, also adored their dog. In fact, they ended up naming their dog “Pickles” after the game they helped invent. (A true story! Read more about it here).
Karen began her career spending seven years as both an Associate at Dechert LLP in Washington, D.C. and Morgan, Lewis and Bockius, LLP in Washington, D.C. At both firms, Karen served funds and advisers with a wide range of issues, including all aspects of fund filings, board support, contracts, regulatory interpretation, compliance programs and SEC exams. Karen was also a Senior Vice President and Associate General Counsel at Nuveen Investments in Los Angeles, where she supported three distinct institutional investment managers with their institutional businesses.
Most recently, Karen served as Executive Vice President and Deputy General Counsel for Pacific Investment Management Company LLC (PIMCO) where she led a team of U.S. regulatory attorneys and oversaw all SEC, DOL and NFA exams, investigations and enforcement matters.
Karen’s areas of expertise include:
Investment Management, Investment Companies, Investment Advisers, Regulatory Counsel, SEC examination, liquidity, liquidity risk management, CCO, Compliance Programs, investment advisers, Advisers Act, 1940 Act, ERISA, mock exam, investigations, internal review, whistleblower, derivatives rule, advertising rule, fund counsel, adviser counsel, independent trustee counsel, and Internal Investigations
Investment adviser/fund regulatory counsel – primarily responsible for investment adviser regulatory matters for a large firm, which included regulatory implementation of new regulatory requirements (such as the liquidity risk management rule and Form CRS).
Regulator Interactions – managed numerous matters before various regulators, including the SEC, DOL and NFA, including routine exams, investigations, and matters under inquiry with successful outcomes.
Contract negotiation – negotiated hundreds of contracts from investment management agreements to vendor agreements.
At Practus, we handle complex and challenging legal matters. I look forward to talking to you about how we can best meet your goals.
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