Biography: Private funds

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Barrie Covit is a partner at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP in the firm's corporate department, where he focuses on private funds and other aspects of alternative asset management. He has represented some of the largest and best-known sponsors of private equity funds, including The Carlyle Group, First Reserve Corporation, JC Flowers & Co and Lexington Partners. He has also represented sponsors of funds focusing on investments in specific asset classes (including energy, financial services and the secondary market) in regions across the globe, including Western Europe, South Africa and Brazil.

Mr Covit represented the United States Treasury Department in connection with the US$30 billion public-private investment programme to purchase legacy assets from financial institutions.

Mr Covit has significant experience structuring the portfolio investments of private equity sponsors, particularly in the financial services and energy sectors. In addition, he reviews private fund investments on behalf of private equity investors.

Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business 2011 recently selected Mr Covit as a leading lawyer in private equity fund formation. He was also recently named in Investment Dealers' Digest's 2010 'Forty Under Forty' list, which recognised the top up-and-coming financial services professionals under the age of forty. In addition, he was named as a recommended lawyer in The Legal 500 United States 2011. Mr Covit has also been acknowledged as a leading private funds lawyer by Who's Who Legal for 2010, 2011 and 2012.

Mr Covit graduated from McGill University in 1995, where he was a James McGill Scholar. He received his JD from Columbia Law School in 1998, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and a member of Columbia Business Law Review. Mr Covit joined Simpson Thacher in 1998.