Haynes Lea, Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson, P.A. Photo

Overview

Haynes Lea practices in the areas of investment management, fund formations, venture capital, nonprofit organizations and general corporate law. His clients include private fund managers, university endowments, public pension funds, family offices and other institutional investors, as well as closely held businesses and nonprofit organizations.

Haynes has created buyout, venture, hybrid and multistrategy funds and funds of funds, handling their private offerings and related securities and tax matters. He has advised fund managers on their investment transactions; internal ownership, governance and succession issues; and Investment Advisers Act registration and compliance. In conjunction with attorneys in the firm's Employment and Labor Practice Group, Haynes has negotiated more than a dozen admissions and exits of partners or other high-ranking professionals on each side of such arrivals and departures from the firms.

On behalf of institutional investors, he has negotiated an array of alternative investments in primary funds and secondary transactions and assisted with special structures, including captive funds, separately managed accounts and customized investment platforms. Haynes is also familiar with nonprofit entities' tax exemption, unrelated business taxable income and governance issues. He works out of both the firm's Charlotte and Research Triangle offices.

Experience

  • Represented a private equity firm in its spinout from a large financial institution and its formation and offering of four successive private equity funds with aggregate commitments of approximately $3.5 billion.

  • Represented a fund of funds manager in the formation and management of three successive sets of U.S.-focused funds of funds, two sets of European-focused funds of funds, and separately managed accounts, with aggregate investor commitments of more than $2.1 billion.

  • Represented institutional investors in hundreds of investments in buyout, venture capital, real estate and hedge funds for more than 15 years, and in both simple and complex secondary transactions involving individual and portfolios of fund interests.

  • Assisted a public pension fund with the structuring, creation and implementation of a unique investment platform.

  • Represented a private equity fund of funds adviser in the sale of its asset management business.

  • Conducted an extensive review of a large community foundation's investment program, including contracts, disclosure documents, investment policies and regulatory compliance.

  • Served as expert witness in dispute between principals of a venture capital firm relating to representations to institutional investors.

  • Assisted a multifamily office with creation and offering of investment vehicles enabling clients to more cost effectively access best-in-class investment managers.

  • Represented management in the spinout of a private university's investment office into an investment management company managing the university's and outside assets.

  • Represented an investment manager in the formation and management of a hybrid fund with aggregate commitments of $270 million, focusing on both publicly traded securities and investments in private companies.

  • Assisted a community foundation with tax and accounting compliance.

  • Assists various investment management firms with internal governance and buy-sell agreements, partner exits, tax and succession planning, best practices and other general counsel.

  • Represented a group of wealth management professionals in the spinout from a large financial institution and the creation of an investment management firm having a multifamily office platform.

  • Assisted multiple fund managers, following enactment of the Dodd-Frank Act, with registration as investment advisers, compliance policies, and compliance financing and monitoring.

  • Represented a public university in the spinout of its investment office into a separate, tax-exempt entity and in the creation, management and tax-exempt application of a multi-strategy fund of funds managing the endowment and foundation assets of the university, affiliated universities, and their supporting organizations and foundations.

  • Assisted a major health care system in obtaining a non-objection letter from the North Carolina attorney general for the sale of substantially all of its assets to a publicly traded health care corporation and handled the formation and obtaining of the tax exemption of a private foundation created with the proceeds of the transaction.

Accolades

Honors & Recognitions

Affiliations

Professional Affiliations

  • National Association of Public Pension Attorneys
  • American Bar Association Business Law Section, Committee on Institutional Investors, Steering Committee, 2009-15
  • UNC Tax Institute, Board of Advisors, 1993-95

Community Affiliations

  • Foundation Fighting Blindness, Board of Directors, 1991-present; Vice-Chairman, 2003-05; Treasurer, 2008-20; Secretary, 2020-present
  • UNC School of Law Foundation Inc., Board of Directors, 2004-13
  • Christ Episcopal Church Foundation, Board of Directors, 2005-10; Chairman, 2006-09

News & Events

Insights

Publications

Education

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, J.D., with honors, 1982, Order of the Coif; Member, North Carolina Law Review, 1981-82; Articles Editor, North Carolina Journal of International Law and Commercial Regulation, 1981-82

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, M.B.A., 1982

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, B.A., 1977

Bar Admissions

  • North Carolina
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