The Role
About Lord Abbett
Founded in 1929, Lord Abbett is an independent firm with a singular focus on the management of money. Over the course of our history, we’ve earned a sterling reputation for our leadership, influence, and innovation in the asset management industry. Today, our independent perspective, our commitment to active management, and our intelligent product design continue to make us relevant to individual and institutional investors.
From the very beginning, we’ve recognized that our people are our greatest asset. As an investment-led, investor-focused firm, we value intellectual curiosity, teamwork, and collaboration across the organization.
We’re looking for people with a keen interest in working for a trusted leader in the asset management industry, a desire to expand their knowledge, and a passion for delivering a client experience that exceeds expectations.
Now that you know our history, are you ready to be part of our future?
We are seeking an attorney with experience covering a wide spectrum of asset management vehicles, with expertise in 1940 Act-registered open end investment companies (mutual funds). You will collaborate cross-functionally to grow and diversify our business, mitigate legal and regulatory risk, and serve our global client base. This is an exciting opportunity to drive impact at a firm that has sustained a strong rate of growth and has ambition to continue to expand into new products, businesses, and geographies.
We’ll Trust You To
- Manage day-to-day legal aspects of our asset management business, with a particular focus on mutual funds
- Counsel firm-wide stakeholders in navigating portfolio management, distribution, investor relations, and operational challenges
- Draft, review, and/or negotiate organizational documents, investment management and distribution agreements, offering documents, mutual fund board materials, marketing materials, proxy materials, due diligence questionnaires, and policies and procedures
- Oversee planning, review, and filing of registration and disclosure documents with applicable regulators
- Analyze, plan, and implement legal aspects of product initiatives, including fund launches, restructurings, and reorganizations
- Advise on investor relations and service efforts, including mutual fund shareholder servicing, transfer agent oversight, client onboarding, and transition management
- Offer legal counsel to promote compliance with applicable laws and regulations and respond to regulatory inquiries and examinations
- Identify legal risks and provide recommendations to mitigate those risks
- Interpret, analyze, and provide guidance on major regulatory reforms
- Actively participate in industry forums and manage relationships with external legal counsel, service providers, and regulatory authorities to sustain an awareness of existing and proposed regulatory initiatives, industry trends, emerging risks and opportunities, and best practices
You'll Need To Have
- Excellent academic background, including Juris Doctor degree from a top law school
- A minimum of 4 years of relevant experience as an attorney while working at a leading law firm, in-house, or both (law firm experience is required)
- Strong knowledge of the regulatory framework governing investment advisers and the formation, registration, governance, distribution, and day-to-day affairs of mutual funds(exposure to retail SMAs (wrap programs), institutional managed accounts, BDCs, ETFs, interval funds, or other types of public or private funds is a plus but is not required)
- Ability to think strategically and critically to solve challenges with innovative solutions, with the focus and agility to drive execution on key priorities
- A proactive, energetic, and pragmatic approach to legal and business issues
- Superior interpersonal and communication skills, including the ability to distill and explain technical and/or complex matters to non-lawyers
- A prolific, entrepreneurial, resilient work ethic, including the ability to manage multiple responsibilities simultaneously, meet deadlines in a fast-paced environment, and remain nimble when priorities change
- Exceptional leadership skills, influence, and presence to inspire others and gain credibility with key internal and external stakeholders, including his/her leader, colleagues, and senior business leaders
- Intellectual curiosity and a willingness to learn new legal and business concepts
- Active listening skills, including the ability to attend to the concerns of his/her leader and senior business leaders
- Outstanding collaboration skills with the ability to work independently
- Strong sense of ownership and accountability
- Ethical nature, with the highest standards of integrity, tact, and discretion
Why Lord Abbett?
Lord Abbett is a leading global independent, privately held investment management company. We are active managers and invest where we believe we have a repeatable edge and can deliver alpha for our clients. Our vision is to be the most respected asset manager in the world, admired for our people, our performance, our relationships, and our organizational agility. This inspires the three pillars of our culture.
- Principles-Led - We empower our leaders to create an environment of trust.
- Performance-Oriented - We inspire our people to embody our values, excellence, responsibility, transparency & collaboration.
- Purpose-Driven - We instill a passion for always putting our clients' interests first.
We are honored to have earned recognition as one of the Best Places to Work in Money Management by Pensions & Investments and scored 100% on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, a measure of LGBTQ+ workplace equality.
Compensation Information: Annual base salary for this role is $ 250,000-$280,000 . Salary is estimated for this role. Actual pay may be different.
Discretionary Bonus: Role may be eligible to receive an annual discretionary bonus. Discretionary bonuses are determined by several factors including, but not limited to, firm, team, and individual performance.
Benefits: Lord Abbett is committed to offering a competitive total rewards package to all eligible employees. Offerings include competitive total compensation, retirement plans, competitive health and well-being plans. To learn more about what we offer, please visit Careers | Lord Abbett
Lord Abbett is an equal employment opportunity employer. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all qualified individuals without regard to the following legally protected characteristics: race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, national origin, age, physical or mental disability, marital status, sexual orientation, sexual identity, caregiver status, military/veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by local, state or federal law. All employment decisions at Lord Abbett are based solely on the applicant’s relevant experience, skills and qualifications.
Important notice to Search Firms - Please Read Carefully
Without prior written agreement, Lord Abbett does not accept unsolicited submissions from employment agencies, search firms, placement services, or any similar provider (“Search Firms”) for employment opportunities. All candidates submitted by Search Firms to any employee or partner at our company without a written Search Firm agreement in place will be deemed the sole property of our company. In such circumstances, no fee, commission, or other compensation will be paid to such Search Firm in the event a candidate is hired by our company. To the extent a Search Firm has a written agreement in place, all introductions are position specific and should be directed to HR or the hiring manager, so we kindly request no unsolicited phone calls or emails.
