Melissa Bender

Practice Areas

Melissa is a partner in the asset management group and is a member of the private funds practice. Melissa practices at the cutting edge of private funds and is recommended in her field by The Legal 500 and IFLR1000. She advises private fund sponsors on all aspects of their business, with a primary focus on fund formation and regulatory compliance matters. Melissa also advises clients on day-to-day operational issues and upper-tier management company matters. Clients describe Melissa as “a fierce advocate for the investment manager and the funds” and attest that her “level of sophistication is very strong, as is her commercial vision.” They also appreciate her in-house perspective, honed during her tenure as counsel at a Fortune 500 company.

Much of Melissa’s private fund formation practice is focused on private credit and debt, and she has particular experience in raising closed-end, open-end, hybrid/evergreen, rated note and contingent capital funds for managers in this space. Melissa also advises hedge funds and is ranked in Band 4 by Chambers USA for Hedge Funds. She regularly works on the launch of private funds investing in other asset classes, such as real assets/infrastructure, venture, insurance/reinsurance, ESG/impact strategies and other novel assets, such as carbon credits.

In addition to her private funds work, Melissa co-leads the firm’s crypto and blockchain practice and counsels clients extensively on cryptocurrency, digital assets and fintech matters.Melissa is individually ranked by Chambers FinTech in both the Blockchain & Cryptocurrency and Corporate, Securities & Financing categories. Her work for asset managers in this area includes the formation of closed-end and open-end private funds investing in digital assets and counseling on a wide range of issues related to these investment activities, including custody, trading and regulatory matters. She has a particular interest in tokenization of funds and other instruments. Melissa also advises blockchain protocols and other companies operating in the blockchain ecosystem in connection with fundraising, token/NFT issuances, DAOs, foundations and other regulatory matters affecting their businesses.

Melissa also devotes a substantial portion of her practice to strategic innovation initiatives, including legal technology integration, development of new client service solutions and identification of emerging products and trends within the asset management industry. In this role, Melissa works closely with clients, external technology platforms and Ropes & Gray’s in-house technology, knowledge management and business development teams.

Melissa values the process of building strong client teams and enjoys mentoring and training more junior lawyers. She also remains in close contact with many Ropes & Gray alumni across the country and, in some cases, around the world. To connect women within the asset management industry, she launched the Ropes & Gray Women in Asset Management Network (WAMN), which regularly hosts networking events in the Bay Area. Melissa is a regular pro bono volunteer with the Immigration Institute of the Bay Area, an organization dedicated to affordable immigration legal services.