K&L Gates Bolsters Asset Management and Investment Funds Practice With Chief Counsel to Former CFTC Commissioner in New York

New York – Global law firm K&L Gates LLP welcomes Tamika Bent as a partner in its Asset Management and Investment Funds (AMIF) practice. Bent joins the firm’s New York office from Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP. 

Bent brings extensive private practice, in-house, government, and academic experience in derivatives and financial regulation. Her clients include funds, commercial end-users, banks, broker-dealers, swap dealers, security-based swap dealers, futures commission merchants, and trade associations. Bent regularly counsels buy-side and sell-side clients on ISDA documentation and negotiation, and on the Commodity and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulatory frameworks under the Dodd-Frank Act. Throughout her career, Bent has advised on trading agreements, loan-linked and deal-contingent hedges, total return swaps, and structured repurchase facilities. 

Bent’s service as Chief Counsel to former CFTC Commissioner Kristin N. Johnson gives her firsthand insight into regulatory policy and supervisory expectations. In that role, she oversaw the work of the agency's Market Risk Advisory Committee and informed the agency’s approach to market developments, including prediction markets, digital assets, artificial intelligence, disintermediation, and vertical integration. 

Bent brings deep knowledge of the commercial and operational realities of global derivatives markets. As senior counsel and executive director at Natixis, she led legal support for the bank’s Global Markets derivatives business, including overseeing the firm’s derivatives documentation function. Bent also served as an adjunct professor at New York Law School, teaching derivatives documentation and US financial regulation.  

“Tamika’s arrival adds important depth to our global AMIF practice, particularly at the intersection of derivatives and financial regulation,” said Mark Amorosi, a leader of the firm’s global AMIF practice. “Her experience advising a broad range of market participants on highly complex transactional and regulatory matters, which includes swap dealer issues, clearing, and CFTC and SEC regulatory requirements, will be a tremendous asset to clients navigating an increasingly sophisticated and closely scrutinized marketplace.” 

“Tamika’s international experience and deep understanding of global financial markets make her an outstanding addition to our firm,” said John Bicks, managing partner of K&L Gates’ New York office. “New York is both a key office for K&L Gates and one of the most important financial centers in the world, and Tamika’s ability to advise clients across jurisdictions and market structures will further enhance the support we provide through our global platform.” 

Bent's arrival follows several additions to the firm’s AMIF practice in the past year, including San Francisco partner Edward Baer, Washington, DC partner Thoreau Bartmann, Hong Kong partner Huberta Chow, London partner Marianna Tothova, and New York partner Robert Leonard. 

K&L Gates’ AMIF practice has more than 50 years of experience in the financial services industry and comprises more than 150 lawyers throughout Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, and North America. These lawyers provide advice to investment companies and advisers, broker-dealers, emerging managers, and institutional investors across a range of areas, including on investment, hedge, private equity, and real estate funds, regulated funds and exchange-traded products, capital markets and derivatives, ERISA, ESG, and global regulation and distribution, among others.