Christine Ayako Schleppegrell counsels asset managers on legal, regulatory, and compliance matters, focusing on advisers to private funds (private equity, hedge, venture capital, infrastructure, real estate, credit) and separately managed accounts. She spent several years in private practice and more recently at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including in leadership roles in the Division of Investment Management. While at the SEC, Christine led the Private Funds Branch during a time of landmark rulemaking impacting private fund advisers—she draws on this experience to advise on current and pending regulations and to guide clients through enforcement and examination proceedings.
Christine’s practice focuses on the interpretation and application of federal securities laws, primarily the Advisers Act, Investment Company Act, Exchange Act, and Securities Act. She serves as a resource for SEC-registered advisers, exempt reporting advisers, and unregistered advisers, ranging from global asset managers with diverse product offerings to startup advisers launching their first funds. Christine provides strategic advice on fund and adviser structuring and deal-related regulatory issues that arise in connection with corporate purchases and mergers and acquisitions. She also specializes in counseling on marketing rule compliance and performance advertising as well as extraterritorial matters, including participating affiliate arrangements.
At the SEC, Christine served as the acting branch chief and senior counsel in the Private Funds Branch of the Division of Investment Management, where she led a team of attorneys who acted as points of contact for private fund projects and priorities agencywide. She led engagement with the asset management industry following the private fund adviser proposal, and participated in significant rulemaking initiatives, including the marketing rule, private fund adviser rule, Form PF amendments, custody rule amendments, and the outsourcing rule.
Christine also served as a branch chief in the Chief Counsel’s Office of the Division of Investment Management, where she advised staff regarding ongoing investigations and examinations. In this role, she worked closely with the Asset Management Unit of the Division of Enforcement and the Private Funds Unit of the Division of Examinations.
Prior to her time at the SEC, Christine worked in investment management practices of other US-based law firms, focusing primarily on regulatory and compliance issues. She represented asset managers of diverse types of investment vehicles, including private funds, foreign funds, business development companies, registered investment companies, collateralized loan obligations, and separately managed accounts.
Christine is a frequent speaker on regulatory issues related to the asset management industry. She is an adjunct professor at Fordham University School of Law where she teaches courses on investment management, investment adviser regulation, and corporations. Christine also lectures in Fordham’s Advanced Corporate Compliance Institute on topics including governance structures for business entities and the role of fiduciaries. She has served as a guest lecturer at USC Gould School of Law and Georgetown University Law Center.
Listed, The Best Lawyers in America, Ones to Watch, Financial Services Regulation Law, Washington, DC (2024, 2025)
SEC Douglas Adams Award, New Marketing and Performance Advertising Rule Team (2022)
SEC Division of Investment Management Director’s Award (2021)
SEC 21st Century Regulatory Framework Team: Law and Policy Award (2021)
Former Regulators Committee, National Society of Compliance Professionals
Chair, 100 Women in Finance, DC Chapter
Member, Women’s Investment Management Forum of New York
Member, Women in Investment Management of DC
Member, DC Bar Association