The Principles are intended to serve as a framework for continued discussion among and between members of the hedge fund industry for the long-term benefit of all its participants.

The release of the Principles marked a milestone for the industry and received considerable coverage in the media, including articles in Pensions & Investments, Bloomberg News, and Barron’s. An in-depth article about the new guidelines is expected to appear in an upcoming issue of Pensions & Investments‘ print publication.

The Principles were developed though the collective contributions of healthy cross-section of hedge fund investors, including some of the bigger players in the industry, with guidance and oversight from AOI’s Steering Committee.

Partner Scott Cheskiewicz of Jackson Walker has been working with the Alignment of Interests Association for some time and assisted the non-profit group in developing and drafting these landmark principles.

“The Principles reflect battleground issues we see over and over again on behalf of our institutional investor clients, ranging from technical topics like vague and inconsistent fund documentation and accounting issues that many investors and managers are not aware of, to far more intriguing topics like re-aligning the risks between managers and investors and re-thinking traditional fee models,” Mr. Cheskiewicz said.

Mr. Cheskiewicz represents institutional investors (e.g., government pension plans, university endowments and funds of funds) with respect to investments in alternative assets, including hedge funds, long-only funds, commodity trading accounts, private equity funds, venture capital funds, strategic and multi-asset class funds, funds of funds, captive “funds of one” and separately managed investment advisory accounts.  He also assists investors with respect to the development, modeling, drafting, and negotiation of complex, custom management fee and performance fee arrangements.

Mr. Cheskiewicz is a member of Jackson Walker’s investor-focused investment funds team, which represents institutional investors with a combined assets under management of over $2 trillion in a wide range of investments, both public and private, ranging from direct investments to exotic, strategic structures, co-investments and secondaries.