Marilyn Selby Okoshi

Qualifications and Career Profile

Marilyn Selby Okoshi is a member of the Financial Services Practice and Chair of the Structured Products Practice.

She focuses her practice on investment funds and managers, finance, structured finance, derivatives and financial products. She concentrates on, and has significant experience in, the organization and representation of on-shore and off-shore hedge funds, formation of managed account platforms and private equity funds. She has extensive experience guiding fund managers through securities and futures regulatory compliance as well as understanding and handling their counterparty risk. She also advises funds of funds and institutional investors. In particular, she advises funds and fund investors with respect to derivatives, loan transactions, loan trading, financial products and investments in Japan and other Asian countries. She also has experience as lender and borrower counsel in traditional bank loans, private placements of securities and structured transactions, and has advised clients on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, securities offerings, and general corporate matters. Ms. Okoshi is fluent in English, Japanese and Mandarin Chinese.

Ms. Okoshi has been listed as an Asialaw Leading Lawyer by Asia Law & Practice for five consecutive years (2006-2010), and described in Legal 500's 2009 review of U.S. practitioners in the Alternative/Hedge Funds area, as “nothing short of ‘excellent,’ according to clients, providing ‘direct, smart solutions when we need them.’”

Associations and Committees

Ms. Okoshi is a member of the Managed Funds Association, the Futures Industry Association Law & Compliance Division and  the American Bar Association. She also serves as chair of the Governance Committee and co-chair of the Legal Peer Advisory Council of 100 Women in Hedge Funds.

Lectures and Articles

Ms. Okoshi is a frequent speaker on topics relating to hedge funds and OTC derivatives. Her recent  lectures and articles include:

• "Summary and Analysis of Dodd-Frank Rules for Investment Advisers: Registration Requirements, Exemptions, Family Offices, Performance Fee Eligibility," (co-author) Journal of Investment Compliance, New York: Institutional Investor Publications, Vol. 12, No. 4, December 2011 
• "Dodd-Frank Derivatives Update: The Implementation Challenge," Katten Seminar, June 2011
• "The Final Countdown…It’s Time to Prepare for the New Era of Investment Adviser Regulation!" Katten Seminar, March 2011
• "Issues to Consider for Hedge Funds and Proprietary Traders Contemplating Self-Clearing," MFA Reporter, Summer 2010
• "Case Study on Hypothetical Non-Japanese Fund Seeking Investors in Japan," IQPC's 4th Annual Hedge Funds Investments Japan Congress, May 2010
• "Investors: Separately Managed Accounts," 2010 HedgeWorld Spring Fund Services Conference, May 2010
• "Will Congress Kill the Structured Products Market?" mtn-i's 4th Structured Products & Investor Solutions Showcase, April 2010
• "A Crisis Is a Terrible Thing to Waste – Is Now the Time to Fix Our Financial System?" 100 Women in Hedge Funds Seminar, April 2010
• “New SEC Initiatives Affecting Equity and Options Trading,” Katten Seminar, March 2010
• “Current Status Report on the Redesign of the Architecture of Financial Regulation,” Katten Seminar, October 2009
• “Off the Bench and Back in the Game: What Investors Are Looking for in the New Regulatory Environment,” Katten and Rothstein Kass Seminar, October 2009
• “Hedge Fund Structures,” Practising Law Institute's Hedge Funds 2009, October 2009
• “A New Era of Regulations,” 100 Women in Hedge Funds Seminar, September 2009
• “OTC Derivatives – Current Developments,” Katten Seminar, June 2009 
• “The Future of OTC Derivatives,” Katten Investment Management Seminar Series, May 2009
• “India Update: Are P-Notes OK or Not OK?” MFA Reporter, January/February 2009
• Practising Law Institute, Hedge Funds 2008, June 2008
• HedgeWorld Spring Fund Services Expo and Conference 2008, June 2008
• 2008 Principal Protected Investment Products Conference, May 2008
• US Structured Note and Funding Conference, mtn-i, April 2008
• “Hedge Fund Due Diligence,” MFA Network 2008, February 2008
• “Demystifying Legal & Compliance Issues in Structured Products,” Structured Products Magazine, October 2007

Education and Bar Admissions

Ms. Okoshi earned her B.A. and M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1984 and her J.D. from Stanford Law School in 1989. She is admitted to practice in New York (1990).