Nicole Runyan

Practice Areas

Nicole M. Runyan is an investment funds partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, and heads the Firm’s registered funds practice. Nicole has over two decades of experience advising clients on the formation, registration, operation and oversight of nearly every type of registered fund as well as business development companies (BDCs) and real estate investment trusts (REITs).

Nicole has a broad background representing mutual funds, ETFs, listed closed-end funds and other traditional registered funds investing across a variety of asset classes and strategies, including: public and private U.S., developed and emerging market equities; private credit, structured credit, high-yield, preferred securities, directly originated and broadly syndicated loans and other income-producing strategies; real estate and infrastructure assets; and commodities and natural resource assets.

She also commits significant time to counseling clients on the design and offering of alternative investment products, such as BDCs, REITs, funds of funds, interval funds and tender offer funds, that offer access for retail and high net worth investors to a variety of traditional “private market” asset classes, including on a primary, secondary, direct or co-investment basis.

Additionally, Nicole advises clients on the full range of issues facing registered funds, including regulatory and compliance matters, SEC exemptive relief applications and compliance, trading and conflict issues, registration and disclosure matters, seed capital and other funding transactions, financing arrangements, and extraordinary events such as restructurings, acquisitions and activist matters.

Nicole’s representative clients include Alger, Apollo, Ares, Bain Capital, BDT & MSD Partners, Blue Owl, Cliffwater, Crescent Capital, First Pacific Advisors, Fortress, Macquarie, Neuberger Berman, Polen Capital, Vista Equity Partners, Willow Tree Credit Partners and 5C Investment Partners.