David W. Blass

Practice Areas

Co-Managing Partner of Simpson Thacher’s Boston office, David Blass is a registered funds lawyer, regularly advising fund boards as independent counsel, and serving as fund counsel. David has a particular focus on complex matters and transactions. He also is a leading regulatory lawyer in the funds industry and has advised on an extraordinarily wide range matters involving innovative registered funds products, Investment Advisers Act compliance, SEC examination and enforcement matters, and broker-dealer regulatory compliance. He is uniquely qualified to provide strategic and regulatory advice on matters involving asset management firms and broker-dealers.

David has extensive knowledge of the regulatory requirements of the asset management industry, having served as General Counsel of the Investment Company Institute, the trade association for registered investment funds. He also held senior roles for over a decade at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including serving as Associate General Counsel of the SEC, Assistant Director of the Investment Management Division, and Chief Counsel and Associate Director of the Division of Trading and Markets.

Career

General Counsel of the Investment Company Institute (ICI); Chief Counsel and Associate Director of the SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets; Associate General Counsel of the SEC; Assistant Director of the SEC’s Investment Management Division. Joined Firm in 2017, as Partner.

Personal

B.A., University of Alabama; J.D., Columbia University School of Law.

Professional Memberships

David currently serves as Chairman of the American Bar Association’s Trading and Markets Subcommittee. Additionally, he has served as an Adjunct Professor at the Columbus School of Law in Washington, D.C., where he teaches Advanced Securities Regulation.

Publications

“The 5th Circuit Vacates the SEC’s Private Fund Adviser Rules,” Thomson Reuters Westlaw (June 13, 2024)