Harry Middleton

Solicitor, Macfarlanes

Harry is involved in all aspects of work relating to investment funds, both regulated and unregulated.

Harry advises a number of large asset managers and 'host' authorised corporate directors on various matters relating to the structure and operation of regulated funds including: the establishment of umbrella and standalone OEICs and authorised unit trusts (UCITS, NURS and LTAFs); mergers/schemes of arrangement; fund terminations; fund range rationalisations and repositioning; new sub-funds; and various ad hoc changes and updates to their fund ranges. Harry has experience in large-scale project management, corporate transactions in the financial services sector, regulatory and advisory work, legal drafting and negotiation.

Harry also assists clients with investment management agreements, depositary agreements and platform and distribution arrangements, and advises clients in relation to on-going regulatory and compliance matters, including the application of the UCITS directive, AIFMD, MiFID II, the Benchmark Regulation and ESG developments (including UK SDR, SFDR and the Taxonomy Regulation).

Harry is an active participant in Investment Association initiatives and spent several months on secondment at Legal & General Investment Management in 2021.

Contributed to

1

Fund tokenisation and digitalisation—concepts, regulation, implementation and outlook

Practice Notes

This Practice Note explains the concept of fund tokenisation and digitalisation and how they differ from traditional funds; explores UK and international regulatory initiatives, with particular reference to ongoing UK workstreams; outlines practical steps to establish a tokenised fund; assesses the benefits of distributed ledger technology (DLT) in the funds context; identifies key challenges and risks; and sets out suggested next steps for practitioners.

Financial Services