Ian Scorah Joins Cleveland & Co as General Counsel, Investment Management

Cleveland & Co is delighted to announce that Ian Scorah has joined the firm as General Counsel, Investment Management.

Ian joins from PIMCO Europe Ltd, where he served as Senior Vice President and Senior Counsel, spending his career at one of the world's largest and most respected fixed income and asset management businesses. His appointment brings exceptional depth of technical expertise and market experience to Cleveland & Co's Investment Management practice.

Ian read Law at Merton College, Oxford, before training and qualifying at Travers Smith, one of the UK's leading asset management law firms, where he was admitted as a solicitor in 1997. He subsequently built his career in-house across a series of significant institutions: Hermes Pensions Management (now Federated Hermes), Morley Fund Management (now Aviva Investors), and then PIMCO, where he first joined in 2007. In 2014, he took on the role of Partner and Head of Legal at a start-up hedge fund manager, where he was the firm's fourth hire and was involved in every aspect of establishing the business, from fund structure and constitutional documents through to regulatory approvals and operational setup. He later worked as a consultant adviser to a number of major institutions including BlackRock, Baring Asset Management, Farallon Capital Europe, and Citigroup, before returning to PIMCO in 2018.

Ian's record at PIMCO is distinguished. He led the establishment of PIMCO's European ETF platform, structured as a joint venture with Source Markets (now part of Invesco), which launched the first actively managed fixed-income ETF in Europe, a genuinely pioneering achievement in the development of the European fund market. More recently, he directed the establishment of PIMCO's DIFC office in Dubai, selecting the legal structure, obtaining the DFSA licence, and coordinating regulatory filings across multiple jurisdictions. He led major regulatory implementation programmes including SFDR, Consumer Duty, and SMCR, and has extensive experience of cross-border licensing, passporting, and regulatory engagement across EMEA and the Middle East. As lead of PIMCO's client contracting team, his clients included central banks, sovereign wealth funds, financial institutions, and pension funds throughout the region.

Ian has participated in industry lobbying on matters including EU Money Market Fund Regulation and the recent UCITS eligible assets consultation, giving him a broad view of how the regulatory landscape affecting investment managers is being shaped. While at PIMCO, Ian was also an active member of the Investment Association's Legal Committee.

At Cleveland & Co, Ian will lead the firm's Investment Management practice, advising fund managers and asset managers across the full lifecycle of investment management activity. This includes fund establishment and structuring across UCITS, AIFs, ETFs, LTAFs, and alternative vehicles; investment management agreements and delegation arrangements; distribution and marketing documentation; and operational service provider contracting. He will play a central role in building and growing the practice, developing client relationships, and expanding Cleveland & Co's presence in the investment management market.

Emma Cleveland, CEO of Cleveland & Co, commented:

"Ian is a fantastic addition to Cleveland & Co. He combines the rigour of top-tier City training with over two decades spent building his career inside some of the world's most sophisticated asset management businesses. He understands investment management law in extraordinary depth — the funds, the regulation, the governance, the trading — and he understands it from the inside. That combination of technical excellence and institutional experience is exactly what our investment management clients need. Ian led the first actively managed fixed-income ETF in Europe, established PIMCO's DIFC presence, and has advised central banks, sovereign wealth funds, and pension funds across EMEA. He is a lawyer of real calibre and I am very proud to be welcoming him to Cleveland & Co. I know he will make an enormous difference to our clients and to the firm."

Ian Scorah commented:

"What drew me to Cleveland & Co is the quality of the work and the clarity of the model. After spending my career inside major asset managers, I have seen at first hand how important it is for investment managers to have access to senior legal expertise that genuinely understands their business — not just the law, but the commercial pressures, the operational realities, and the strategic decisions they are navigating. Cleveland & Co's External In-House Counsel model is built around exactly that insight. The opportunity to lead the Investment Management practice, work with a range of clients across the market, and help build something ambitious is one I am very excited about. I am looking forward to getting started."