Sidley Austin LLP Tops Institutional Investor's List of Best Hedge Fund Service Providers

Sidley Austin LLP Tops Institutional Investor's List of Best Hedge Fund Service Providers

September 22, 2006

    NEW YORK, Sept. 22 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- Sidley Austin
LLP ( http://www.sidley.com ) was rated by Institutional
Investor's Alpha Magazine as the hedge fund industry's top
provider of legal services.  Sidley was named the
"best overall law firm" serving the hedge fund
industry and was also recognized as the number one law firm
in the subcategory of "regulatory and compliance
expertise."

    Institutional Investor's 2006 Alpha Awards(TM) are
based on an extensive survey in which hedge fund managers
were asked to rate the quality of service received from
their accounting firms, fund administrators, law firms and
prime brokers during the previous 12 months. 
Representatives from more than 1,000 hedge fund management
firms, representing $1 trillion in single-manager assets,
participated in the survey.

    "We are delighted by the recognition of
Institutional Investor's Alpha Magazine, particularly as
the Alpha survey reflects the perspectives of those who
matter most, our clients," said Bill Kerr, co-head of
the hedge fund practice and a partner in Sidley's Chicago
office.  "As counselors, first and foremost, we are
very gratified to be recognized for both the quality of our
service and for our sophisticated knowledge."

    "Our practice is broad in terms of subject matter
and deep in terms of resources," added Mike
Schmidtberger, also a co-head of the practice and a partner
in the New York office.

    Sidley's Investment Management, Hedge Funds and
Derivatives Group worldwide has more than 70 lawyers,
dedicated full-time to a broad variety of investment
advisory, fund and derivatives matters, with approximately
50 lawyers specifically devoted to hedge fund, commodity
pool, private equity and fund of funds work. Lawyers in the
firm's Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and
Hong Kong offices provide a full range of legal services to
our hedge fund clients, including advice on legal structure
and other formation issues (including master-feeder,
side-by-side and umbrella fund structures), securities and
derivatives regulatory matters, business term alternatives,
marketing arrangements, trading documentation, exchange
listing, internet usage and tax and ERISA matters.

    Sidley Austin LLP is one of the world's largest
full-service law firms, with more than 1,600 lawyers
practicing in 15 U.S. and international cities including
Beijing, Brussels, Frankfurt, Geneva, Hong Kong, London,
Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo. Sidley was named the Number
One-Ranked U.S. Law Firm for Overall Client Service in 2002
and 2004 in surveys of Fortune 1000 executives by BTI, a
Boston-based consulting and research firm.  In 2005, BTI
named Sidley to their Client Service Hall of Fame as one of
only two law firms to rank in the Client Service Top 10 for
five years in a row.  Sidley received the 2005 Catalyst
Award in recognition of the firm's initiative to recruit,
retain and advance diverse talent.

    For more information, please contact:

     Janet Zagorin
     Sidley Austin LLP
     Tel:   [phone]
     Email: [e-mail]

     Adam Isserlis
     Rubenstein Associates
     Tel:   [phone]
     Email: [e-mail]

SOURCE  Sidley Austin LLP