Impact Approaches in Private Equity and Venture Capital: Critical Developments in the US and Beyond

Perry Teicher leads Orrick’s global Impact Finance & Investment practice, advising impact-oriented clients globally and serves as a leader of Orrick’s ESG initiatives.

Perry represents and advises entrepreneurs, companies, fund sponsors, family offices, tax-exempt organizations, and other asset owners across a wide range of transactions, including corporate legal matters, cross-border mergers and acquisitions, private fund formation matters and portfolio transactions, and private placements. Perry advises clients on impact-oriented and ESG matters, integrating social, environmental, and financial outcomes into a comprehensive strategy. Orrick’s Impact Finance & Investment practices serves a global client base across a range of sectors, leveraging Orrick’s unique capabilities to provide innovative, effective, and thoughtful legal services to those clients aiming to create positive social and environmental change alongside targeted financial returns.

Perry serves as co-chair of the NYU Law Grunin Center/Impact Investing Legal Working Group’s annual conference on Legal Issues in Social Entrepreneurship and Impact Investing and is involved in other sector building initiatives.

Perry served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kazakhstan, where he supported the development of businesses aiming to create mobility and opportunity for people with disabilities in the region. Perry is an Ariane de Rothschild Fellow and member of the ROI Community and Nexus. A native of the Detroit area and University of Michigan graduate, Perry remains committed to the Detroit area, supporting Detroit expat initiatives.

Chris has over 15 years of experience advising on the legal aspects of investment fund and debt/structured finance transactions and has been at the forefront of impact investing (especially in frontier and emerging markets) throughout his career.

Chris developed his legal skills in private practice at leading law firms Slaughter and May, Skadden Arps, White & Case and DLA Piper, and has numerous years’ experience as in-house counsel at development finance institutions FMO, DEG (secondment), CDC Group and EBRD. He is an active participant in the development of the impact investing sector, having worked closely with the Global Impact Investing Network and ESELA’s Impact Investing Legal Working Group. Chris holds a doctorate from Oxford University.

Josh’s practice focuses on corporate and finance transactions, with an emphasis on venture capital, private equity, mergers and acquisitions and structuring and formation of private investment funds.

Josh is a Partner in RPCK’s New York office.  As both a seasoned transactional attorney and a former business owner, Josh brings a unique understanding of the issues surrounding business and commercial transactions to his legal practice and role as a trusted advisor to the firm’s entrepreneur, growth company, fund sponsor, family office and other clients.  Our clients have come to rely upon his pragmatic and creative approach to resolving the broad range of issues that arise as we structure, negotiate and execute on complex corporate transactions on their behalf.

A significant focus of Josh’s practice is on structuring, advising on and negotiating the formation and launch of private investment funds, as well as on assisting those funds in deploying capital and executing on their investment strategies.  He has worked closely with RPCK’s leading investment fund clients in this capacity.

Josh’s practice also focuses on domestic and cross-border mergers & acquisitions, venture capital investments, corporate finance transactions, joint ventures and impact investing transactions, as well as representing the firm’s clients in a general advisory and outside general counsel capacity.

Prior to joining RPCK, Josh practiced in the New York office of Kaye Scholer, LLP where, as a corporate, securities and finance attorney, he focused primarily on mergers and acquisitions, private equity, venture capital, public and private offerings of debt and equity securities, and representing large international companies in an outside general counsel capacity.

Josh also has significant experience as an entrepreneur.  He founded BrewWorx LLC, a hospitality industry company that marketed and sold an on-premise, turnkey beer brewing system to bars, restaurants and other hospitality outlets.  He also owned and operated NYC’s first ever Rita’s Italian Ices franchise location on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

Josh received his B.A. in English from The University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated Cum Laude, and his J.D. from The George Washington University National Law Center, where he graduated with honors and was a member of The George Washington Law Review.   He is a member of the New York State bar.

Vivien is a partner and head of Asset Management & ESG at Dentons Hong Kong. She has more than 20 years’ experience with a deep and broad focus in the areas of asset management, diverse forms of investment funds across asset classes and structures, retail funds and privately placed funds, investments in public markets, private equity, real estate and alternative investments.

Vivien also has extensive corporate and commercial experience in the financial institutions and financial services sectors, having advised on numerous strategic joint ventures, inbound and outbound mergers & acquisitions, and related legal and regulatory matters for cross-border financial markets access, investments and platform building. In recent years, Vivien is market-leading in having developed a unique focus in her practice on corporate and regulatory issues around environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG), sustainable finance, responsible investment, impact investing and social finance.

Vivien’s broader practice experience includes advising on trusts and tax matters, international tax issues, wealth management and private client matters, pre-IPO trust structures and employee share schemes, and also advising on establishing or structuring of charities, foundations, philanthropic giving or social enterprise. Throughout her career, Vivien has been involved in many pioneering transactions and projects. She has been highly rated for technical ability and innovation, while carrying in-depth international experience along with deep China knowledge. Since 2004, Vivien has extensive and on-the-ground experience advising international investment management groups on China market entry strategies, onshore/offshore fund management entities and fund structures, and acting on many projects which were “firsts” in inbound / outbound market access schemes in the development and evolution of China fund management industry and financial markets.

Most recently, Vivien was named Thought Leader of the Year, North Asia at the ALB Women in Law Awards 2021. She has also received commendations by Asialaw profiles for three consecutive years (2018 to 2020) as a leading lawyer for the practice areas of investment funds and corporate M&A, and is listed by China Business Law Journal in the 2020 and 2021 A-List Elite 100 foreign lawyers for China practice.

Prior to joining Dentons, Vivien was founder and managing partner of Vivien Teu & Co LLP, a Hong Kong firm with established reputation and accolades in the areas of investment funds, banking & finance, financial services, regulatory, private equity, private equity funds, private client and wealth management. Vivien previously held lead roles in China and Hong Kong funds practice at tier-one regional and global law firms Deacons and Clifford Chance, and as senior in-house legal counsel, Head of Legal Greater China at Invesco, a global investment management firm.

Rita is a partner in our regulatory practice and Co-Head of the Sustainable Finance and Investment practice. She advises on UK and EU law and regulation with a particular focus on ESG regulation. She advises banks, asset managers, private equity firms, corporates and insurers in connection with their regulatory obligations under the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), Taxonomy Regulation, Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), MiFID, MiFID II, MAR, and AIFMD.

Rita has wide-ranging experience in advising clients in the wholesale and retail investment markets, helping them understand and manage legal risks associated with operating in the sector. She also advises on the implications of ESG laws and regulations on financial and non-financial institutions and has extensive experience advising on and implementing the requirements of the SFDR and the Taxonomy Regulation.

Rita leads global ESG regulatory implementation projects and is involved in assisting clients with making strategic decisions regarding their ESG positioning. She also leads ESG regulatory developments and horizon-scanning projects to assist clients to remain up to date regarding their cross-border regulatory obligations and regularly participates in speaking engagements and training sessions relating to key pieces of ESG regulation.

Greg Hershman is Head of US Policy at the Principles for Responsible Investment, based in Washington, DC. Prior to joining PRI, he spent six years in the US Senate in various roles including working for Senator Tom Carper (Del.), on the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee and the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee. He received his MBA from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University.