Wayne Chan

Wayne Chan serves as Counsel in Dechert’s global financial services group, where he advises large and emerging SEC-registered investment advisers, hedge funds, private equity and private credit funds, SEC-registered closed-end funds, fund of hedge funds, co-investments, continuation funds, primary and secondary investments, sidecars, parallel funds and other Alternative Investment vehicles and structures, evergreen funds, permanent capital funds, interval and tender offer funds, strategic mergers & acquisition transactions relating to investment advisers and fund complexes, bank-affiliated institutional investment management and LP side investment issues. 

Mr. Chan has previously served as General Counsel of Memphre Investments, a long-only equity hedge fund based in Greenwich, Connecticut and General Counsel, Equilibrium Ventures, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser and a quantitative multi-strategy hedge fund based in New York. 

Mr. Chan previously served as a Partner and Co-Chair of the Investment Management practice of a corporate law boutique where he advised large asset management firms, private equity and hedge funds and was awarded the J.P. Morgan Joan Guggenheimer Outstanding Outside Counsel Award in 2024.  He began his 27-year asset management legal career as an associate in the asset management group at another international law firm, where he supported Merrill Lynch Investment Managers' registered investment adviser and registered fund complex. He served as Executive Director and Assistant General Counsel at J.P. Morgan for over 14 years where he led the reorganization of the entire J.P. Morgan-Chase fund complex after the J.P. Morgan-Chase Manhattan merger and was awarded the firm’s Service Star Award.  He served as the Corporate Secretary for the entire J.P. Morgan Funds registered investment company complex involving over 300 funds, served as the Chief Legal Officer supporting J.P. Morgan Alternative Asset Management, supported the Global Investment Management institutional line of business and advised on the acquisition of SEC-registered investment advisers Highbridge Capital Management, Bear Stearns Asset Management and Bank One Investment Advisers.  Mr. Chan also advised on the spin-off of J.P. Morgan Partners which became CVC Partners, a large private.

Previously, Mr. Chan served as Senior Vice President and Senior Counsel supporting private funds and private equity funds at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. and BBH Capital Partners and was a Member of Management and Structuring Lead supporting Partners Group, a global private equity firm with approximately $135 billion AUM. 

Mr. Chan served for 21 years up to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army (Reserve) in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps., including on active duty for almost four years in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.  Mr. Chan was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal (MSM) three times, one of the nation’s highest non-combat awards for distinguished service.  Mr. Chan served on active duty on the Army Staff, Headquarters, Department of the Army, Office of The Judge Advocate General, Pentagon from 2009-2010 advising some of the nation’s most senior military leaders.  He also served as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice, District of New Jersey, from 2005 to 2007.  Mr. Chan is a graduate of Yale University with a B.A. in Political Science and History, St. John's Law School with a J.D. in Law (Staff Member, St. John’s Law Review) and the U.S. Army War College, the U.S. Army’s most senior service educational institution for Army officers, with a master’s degree in strategic studies.  Prior to his legal career, Mr. Chan served as an Analyst in the Trading Services division of Lehman Brothers, Inc.