Delivering full-service, institutional-quality legal and regulatory support to alternative asset managers — combining big-firm expertise with boutique responsiveness.
COMMITMENT
RESPONSIBILITY
EXPERTISE
SERVICE
TRUST
ABOUT US
Florio Leahy LLP ("Florio Leahy") is a full service investment management law firm with over 100 clients in the U.S. and abroad. The top investment management law firm and extensive in-house industry experience of our professionals enables Florio Leahy to provide investment managers with timely, practical advice and hands-on assistance with a unique understanding of the real world issues facing today’s investment managers. Florio Leahy is also the firm of choice for regulatory counsel, fund formation, regulatory registration, audit assistance, internal investigations, fund document review and operational due diligence services related to investment management, private fund and other alternative investments.
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Our business model is to provide extremely responsive, practical, and cost-effective expert legal services.
Leadership
Gregory Florio
Co Managing Partner
Gregory L. Florio is a founding partner of Florio Leahy LLP and a founding member of Orical LLC with over 25 years of legal and regulatory experience. Mr. Florio is an expert in investment adviser and broker/dealer compliance programs, regulatory examinations and investigations, and has extensive registration and fund formation experience with state, federal, and various international jurisdictions. Mr. Florio assists the firm’s clients on establishing compliance manuals and code of ethics, supervisory procedures and operational controls and provides independent operations reviews, compliance audits and testing. Mr. Florio also leads the firm’s technical solutions efforts designed to augment a client’s compliance and conflicts monitoring capabilities.
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Prior to establishing Florio Leahy LLP in 2010, Mr. Florio was a senior counsel and the chief compliance officer of a multi-billion global fund manager, Marathon Asset Management, LP. Mr. Florio was responsible for all aspects of the firm’s global compliance program including transforming its program to a state-of-the-art, electronic based system, successfully handled all regulatory audits, inquiries, and filings, and assisted in various legal and operational matters affecting the firm’s day-to-day operations.
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Prior to Marathon, Mr. Florio served as a regulatory specialist in the Investment Management division of Seward & Kissel LLP and was an attorney in the Investment Funds Group of Sidley Austin LLP, where he represented various leading financial institutions, assisted in hundreds of investment adviser and broker-dealer registrations, and advised private funds on all aspects of compliance, legal, regulatory, formation and operational matters. Mr. Florio began his career as an Assistant District Attorney for the County of the Bronx, NY.
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Mr. Florio graduated with honors from Fordham University School of Law in 1995 and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Consumer Economics from Cornell University. Mr. Florio is a member of the New York State Bar Association.
James Leahy
Co Managing Partner
James Leahy is a partner of Florio Leahy LLP and a member of Orical LLC with over 30 years of finance, operations, and legal experience. Prior to joining these firms in 2013, Mr. Leahy served as chief financial officer of Marathon Asset Management, LP where he managed a team of approximately thirty professionals responsible for the firm’s tax, accounting and operations functions across multiple business lines. Mr. Leahy was responsible for, among other things, monitoring the firm’s cash and PnL as well as the firm’s financing lines and relations with external service providers such as: prime brokers, accountants and fund administrators. Mr. Leahy met regularly with investors as part of their due diligence process. He also met with the Board of Directors and served on several committees, including Conflicts, Trade Allocation, Expense Allocation and Best Execution.
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Prior to Marathon, Mr. Leahy was a vice president, senior credit officer and team leader at Moody’s Investors Service and was also a member of the CDO team. Mr. Leahy helped found the Hedge Fund Operations Quality business where his group was responsible for assigning Operational Quality Ratings to hedge funds.
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Prior to Moody’s, Mr. Leahy was a lawyer at Skadden Arps and Milbank Tweed in New York City. His legal practice involved corporate, securities and financing transactions. He also has extensive experience with structured finance transactions including CLOs.
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Prior to practicing law, Mr. Leahy was a surface warfare officer in the United States Navy. He served aboard three warships and taught at the Navy’s Gas Turbine Engineering School in Newport, Rhode Island.
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Mr. Leahy holds an honors law degree from Boston College Law School and an undergraduate degree in English from Dartmouth College. Mr. Leahy is a member of the Bar in New York and Massachusetts.
Vanessa Sasson
Director of Legal/Partner
Vanessa Sasson is a partner of Florio Leahy LLP. Her practice focuses on advising alternative asset managers on a broad range of legal and regulatory matters relating to their investment management businesses, including: adviser structuring, registration, and governance; private fund formation and fundraising; SEC and CFTC examinations and investigations; various transactional matters; and Investment Advisers Act compliance programs and their practical effect on day-to-day operations. She has experience representing both emerging and established managers, each implementing a variety of investment strategies and structures, including hedge funds, private equity funds, private credit funds, venture capital funds, funds of funds, and real estate funds. Vanessa also works with institutional investors and family offices to conduct due diligence on and negotiate private fund investment opportunities.
Vanessa has been instrumental in the success of our firm's diverse client base, with her unwavering dedication since she joined us in 2014. She fosters long-lasting and meaningful relationships with clients, distinguishing herself through exceptional legal skills, outstanding client service and efficient problem-solving.
Vanessa received her J.D. from the Fordham University School of Law in 2014 and her B.A., magna cum laude, from the University of Miami in 2011. She is admitted to practice law in New York.
Mekyas Moges joined Florio Leahy in 2017 and is the Director of Compliance, where he leads firm-wide efforts to maintain a strong culture of compliance and ensure adherence to the Investment Advisers Act. He oversees the design and execution of compliance policies, risk assessments, and training programs, as well as quarterly and annual reviews. Mekyas also drives the development of proprietary compliance technology and regulatory filing tools to enhance operational efficiency and regulatory readiness.
A graduate of New York University Stern School of Business, Mekyas began his career at Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP.
Mekyas Moges
Director of Compliance
Nicole Amitranoi
Director of Operations
Nicole Amitrano joined Florio leahy in 2015 as the Office Manager, Nicole has been a cornerstone of the firm's daily operations, providing critical support to its associates and partners. With over fifteen years of experience in administrative roles within the legal industry, Nicole now serves as the Director of Operations, overseeing a wide range of functions essential to the firm’s success. In addition to her leadership in administrative and operational management, she plays a key role in the firm’s financial health - handling accounting, managing billing processes, and ensuring that day-to-day business operations run efficiently and accurately. Her attention to detail and dedication make her an indispensable part of the Orical team.
Nicole graduated from Mount Saint Mary College with a B.A. in Psychology.
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Michael Makovoz
Chief Technology Officer
Michael Makovoz is a Member of Florio Leahy with over 26 years of technology experience. His expertise includes design of the high performance and high throughput data processing engines, trading systems, cloud and blockchain development, and AI innovation. Michael is leading the firm’s technology and modernization strategy.
Prior to joining Florio Leahy, Michael was a Chief Technology Officer and Lead Data Scientist at NYC Cyber Command. As one of the founding members of the newly created NYC government agency, Michael was responsible for the development of the city-wide cybersecurity collection and processing data pipeline as well as adaptation of AI and cloud-first practices. Prior to NYC Cyber Command, Michael was leading Equity Program Trading Technology at JPMorgan, Chase and Barclays Capital where he had chance to re-design and modernize the legacy trading systems and applications.
Michael holds PhD in Computer Information Systems from Nova Southeastern University and Master’s degree in Quantitative Risk Management from NYU.
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Mike Norris
Director of Information Security
Mike Norris joined the Florio Leahy team in 2017 and plays an integral role in the Information Security and Software Operations for the firm. Mike is a valued partner across all areas of the business, providing cross functional leadership by working with clients and business unit leaders. Prior to Orical, Mike was an Assistant Vice President responsible for Life Cycle Management and Governance of electronic and physical records at MBIA, Inc. where he worked for 21 years. His professional strengths include IT Security Governance, Project Management, Risk Management, Strategic Planning, Budget and Cost Control, SOX Compliance, Change Management, Vendor Negotiations, Vulnerability Management, Disaster Recovery, Business Continuity, System Integration, Technology Deployment and Customer Relationship Management.
Mike is a graduate of Manhattanville College where he earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Organizational Management.
CONTACT
FLORIO LEAHY
OUR ADDRESS
641 Lexington Avenue
17th Floor
New York, NY 10022
Tel: 212.257.5790
Fax: 212.257.5788
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Email: info@florioleahy.com
For any general inquiries, please email info@florioleahy.com.
