Jay Spinola ’96
Partner | Asset Management
Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP
Patrick (Jay) Spinola, Jr. is a partner in the Asset Management Department with over 25 years of experience counseling registered investment companies, their boards and their sponsors. Jay focuses on the organization and offering of registered investment companies, and counseling funds and their sponsors in all aspects of their ongoing operations. He has significant experience advising clients that offer specialized investment funds, such as exchange-traded funds (ETFs), registered funds of private funds, interval funds and novel investment products. He provides advice to clients on the full range of issues that funds, their boards and advisers encounter day-to-day, including regulatory and compliance matters, contract approvals, disclosure issues, and restructuring and financing transactions. He frequently advises closed-end funds regarding secondary offerings, leveraging arrangements and other capital markets transactions, along with strategies to address market discounts and dealings with activist investors.
Jay serves as fund counsel to several major fund complexes and also represents independent directors. He has broad transactional experience involving funds and their advisers, including merger and acquisition transactions, fund reorganizations and fund adoptions. He also advises fund sponsors on the development of financial products involving fund structures and regularly assists clients in the initial public offering of registered funds. Jay also has broad experience with secondary fund offerings, including shelf take-downs, rights offerings and preferred stock.
Jay is ranked nationally as a leading practitioner for Investment Funds: Registered Funds in Chambers USA (2026) and Chambers Global (2026).
Jay is also recommended by Legal 500 and is recognized by Best Lawyers for Mutual Funds Law. Legal 500 quotes clients as saying, “Reliability, honesty, focus and trust – 4 words that make a relationship truly work. We work closely with Willkie partner Jay Spinola and those words are exactly what he brings to the table. He stands out among all the attorneys we have seen over the last 20 years.”
