Paul Stevens

Paul Stevens is a partner in Dechert’s financial services practice. Mr. Stevens is known for his work on regulated funds that provide retail investors access to private markets. Although he routinely handles all aspects of financial services law practice, clients consistently turn to him for advice on the development, launch, and operation of registered closed-end funds and business development companies (BDCs)—including interval funds, tender offer funds, and listed funds—that are designed to give retail and high net worth investors access to private markets, including private credit, private equity, venture capital, real estate, secondaries, and other private and alternative asset classes.

Mr. Stevens’s experience includes advising fund sponsors on seed capital and anchor investor arrangements, joint ventures, co-investments, investment warehousing, public and private offerings of equity and debt securities, fund reorganizations, and other strategic transactions. Mr. Stevens has significant experience in advising private credit and private equity firms launch their first regulated funds and in advising established mutual fund sponsors on the launch of new private markets platforms.

Mr. Stevens regularly represents clients before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with novel exemptive applications and no-action requests, and in complex compliance examinations. He counsels boards of directors in connection with their oversight of regulated funds and assists registered investment advisers with regulatory and compliance matters. He also regularly represents fund sponsors in merger and acquisition transactions in the financial services industry with a focus on regulatory compliance and strategic alignment. Mr. Stevens is listed in Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in America 2026 for financial services regulation.