Lance A. Zinman

Lance Zinman, global chair of Katten's Financial Markets and Funds practice, provides comprehensive legal services to asset managers, proprietary trading firms and other participants in the financial markets in need of a single advisor to assist with all aspects of their business. His unique skill set combines a deep understanding of corporate, regulatory, intellectual property and tax law with broad knowledge of the securities and derivatives markets. Using his extensive experience with these interconnected areas, he finds creative solutions to legal challenges while also providing practical, common sense counsel.

Lance represents hedge funds and commodity pools in all asset classes, private equity funds, investment advisers, commodity trading advisors and other asset managers. He also advises a broad cross section of proprietary trading firms — large and small — including many of the major firms in the industry. Originally a corporate attorney, Lance later joined the firm's financial markets and funds group, creating an integrated transactional, funds and regulatory practice. He counsels clients on a wide range of issues, including corporate structuring, securities, futures, derivatives and other regulatory matters, trading issues, brokerage and derivatives documentation, tax planning, intellectual property matters, labor issues, equity and debt financings, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and seed deals.

Having counseled the proprietary trading industry since its inception, Lance has significant experience representing quantitative asset managers and proprietary trading firms that deploy volatility, algorithmic, low-latency and other quantitative trading strategies. In addition, he counsels clients in other sectors of the financial markets, including domestic and foreign exchanges, brokerage firms, swap counterparties and other participants in over-the-counter transactions. Lance also advises clients that are looking to establish a presence internationally or trade directly on foreign exchanges, including advising on the often-complex corporate structuring, tax, intellectual property and regulatory issues associated with such projects.