Wendell Faria

Wendell Faria is a Partner and a member of the Corporate and Capital Markets practices in Dentons' Washington, DC office. His practice focuses on Capital Markets Law.

Wendell focuses his practice on the regulation of investment companies and investment advisers, general securities regulation, and the structuring and operation of private investment funds, including hedge funds, private equity funds and real estate funds.

He frequently advises clients on status questions and opinions issued under the Investment Company Act of 1940 in connection with equity and debt offerings by US and non-US issuers, as well as financing transactions involving US and non-US companies. He also advises on status questions arising under the "covered fund" provisions of the Volcker Rule.

Wendell spent approximately seven years at the US Securities & Exchange Commission in Washington, DC, in the Division of Investment Management. He served as the Deputy Chief and the Acting Chief of the Division's Office of Insurance Products, responsible for the regulation of certain equity-oriented insurance contracts (such as variable annuities, variable life insurance policies and modified guaranteed annuities). He worked on the Division's special study of investment companies and investment advisers that culminated in the 1992 report entitled "Protecting Investors: A Half Century of Investment Company Regulation."

Before joining Dentons, Wendell spent several years at an international law firm, where his practice focused on the regulation of investment companies and investment advisers, private investment funds and general securities regulation. He also served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center, where he taught securities law, and as a Lecturer-at-Law at University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he taught a course on investment management regulation.

His recent experience includes advising Origin Merchant Partners, Canada's largest independent boutique investment bank, in its acquisition of Consensus, a US-based consumer-focused investment banking firm. He holds a BBA in Accountancy from Baruch College, The City University of New York, and a JD from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. He is a member of the American Bar Association, including its Committee on Federal Regulation of Securities and its Subcommittees on Investment Companies and Investment Advisers, Hedge Funds, and Securities Law Opinions.