James Phelan

James Phelan is a Partner in our Asset Management & Investment Funds Department, specialising in advising asset managers in relation to the structuring, establishment, regulation, distribution and ongoing management of a wide variety of investment funds in both the UCITS and alternative arenas.  He is expert in the UCITS regulatory regime and includes a number of significant UCITS platforms (including UCITS ETFs) among his clients. James also has significant experience in steering clients safely through a variety of regulatory reviews and regulator-driven themed inspections and has advised fund directors extensively in relation to corporate governance standards and in relation to the Central Bank of Ireland's fitness and probity regime. James is a member of various key industry working groups, including the Irish Funds UCITS Regulation and Innovation Working Group.

• Advising Europe's leading independent UCITS ETF provider on all aspects of Irish law pertaining to the sale of their ETF business to the largest asset manager in the UK; 
• Advising one of the world’s leading ETF issuers in relation to the ongoing expansion of their Irish UCITS ETF platform, with the addition of a range of new sub-funds tracking mainstream indices; 
• Established of an award winning ETF designed to provide exposure, via the RQFII investment programme, to the "A-share" equity markets in China.

• Financial Services Regulatory
• Investment funds
• Hedge funds
• Private equity funds
• Real estate funds

• Financial Services
• Investment management

• Law Society of Ireland

• Irish Funds UCITS Regulation & Innovation Committee