Ziba Kinder is a Director at Cleveland & Co, where she leads on key matters within the firm’s asset management practice. With over 15 years of experience across global law firms and top-tier asset managers, Ziba provides strategic legal counsel to clients on financial services regulation, fund structuring, trading arrangements, and cross-border distribution.
Ziba is qualified as a solicitor in England & Wales and is recognised for her ability to balance legal precision with commercial pragmatism. She advises a wide range of clients, from institutional fund managers and ACDs to pension funds and platform providers, on complex regulatory obligations, governance frameworks, and legal documentation. Her areas of expertise include UCITS, non-UCITS, AIFs, MiFID II compliance, derivatives, custodial arrangements, and investment management agreements.
Before joining Cleveland & Co , Ziba held senior legal roles at Franklin Templeton and Ninety One, where she supported front-office initiatives, developed internal legal frameworks, and advised on the implementation of major regulatory regimes including Consumer Duty. Earlier in her career, she trained and practised in private practice at leading law firms, gaining a solid grounding in corporate, commercial, and financial services law.
Ziba’s approach reflects Cleveland & Co’s core values of integrity, clarity, and excellence. Known for her problem-solving mindset, strong communication skills, and calm under pressure, Ziba consistently delivers advice that is tailored, clear, and anchored in the real-world needs of her clients. She is valued not just for her technical expertise, but for her ability to foster trusted partnerships, grounded in empathy, transparency, and a deep understanding of the asset management industry.
Her work spans the drafting and negotiation of complex agreements (including IMAs, platform and distribution agreements, and service contracts), advice on fund prospectuses and KIIDs, and end-to-end support on trading, custody, and settlement arrangements. Ziba also provides practical guidance on governance oversight, inducements, and product governance, helping clients manage risk and meet evolving regulatory expectations with confidence.
Outside of her legal practice, Ziba is driven by connection, with her family, friends, and team, and brings warmth, humour, and authenticity to every relationship she builds.
Ziba has experience in the following areas:
- ACD Agreements
- Auditor
- Best Execution, timely and Fair Allocation
- Client Categorisation
- Distribution Agreements
- IMAs / IAAs
- Inducements
- Letters of Intent
- Management Approval Agreements
- Platform Agreements
- Product Governance
- Production Information – General, KIIDS-UCITS
- Prospectuses
- Service Agreements
- Sub-Distribution Arrangements
- Termsheets and Heads of Terms
- Transition Management
- UCITS
Global Institutional IMA Expertise
Drafted and negotiated complex institutional investment management agreements for asset managers and institutional investors across Europe, Australia, and North America. Created playbooks, delivered targeted training, and established escalation and risk acceptance frameworks that ensured global alignment while accommodating local market nuances.
Strategic Contract Negotiation
Designed and implemented a comprehensive legal review framework for commercial contracts, including the development of templates, negotiation guides, and defined risk parameters to drive consistency, efficiency, and strategic risk management.
Fund Formation & Structuring
Led the full lifecycle management of UCITS and authorised fund platforms in the UK, from structuring and launch through ongoing governance and regulatory oversight, ensuring compliance and optimal operational efficiency.
Regulatory Compliance Leadership
Provided strategic product governance advice and implemented Assessment of Value, Consumer Duty, and EMIR compliance frameworks, embedding these into operational processes to meet evolving regulatory requirements.
Senior Stakeholder Engagement
Acted as a trusted adviser to senior management and leadership teams, delivering clear, commercially focused legal solutions that balanced regulatory obligations with business strategy and growth objectives.
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Law Society of England & Wales
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Admitted in England & Wales 2007
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LLB King’s College London, Legal Practice Course (College of Law, Chester)
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Qualified as a Solicitor in England & Wales
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English
Emma Cleveland founded Cleveland & Co in 2012 with a vision to change the shape of legal services provision, and provide clients with high-quality effective advice. With over 20 years’ experience in the investment management sector, working with blue chips such as AIG, Threadneedle, Russell Investments and Aviva Investors, she is well-placed to do so.
A tri-qualified lawyer, whose noteworthy career began in litigation at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, her broad-based expertise covers all areas of investment management: front office, middle and back office, business development, risk, compliance and legal. Emma has also played a key role in building new legal departments, creating and implementing global policies and managing international teams.
As CEO, Emma provides leadership and vision for how Cleveland & Co serves its 180+ international clients which have a combined AUM of over £4 trillion. Emma’s forethought, work ethic and energy has set the pace for a brand new way of doing business in law. Along with her innovation in the sector, Emma is paving the way for women across the industry building a successful business which has reached an entrepreneurial milestone that only 0.5% of all women in the UK are likely to achieve. Emma’s dedication, drive and superstar success is what makes Cleveland & Co the incredible company is it today.
When she is not blazing a new trail, winning new clients, opening new offices around the world or championing Diversity & Inclusion, Emma loves spending time with her husband, two daughters and golden doodle Snowball.
Emma has a strong track record across the investment management industry globally, working with a cross section of industry professionals from Portfolio Managers through to CEOs, in EMEA, Asia Pacific and North America. She has significant technical skills in:
- ACD Arrangements
- Administration
- AIFs
- Appointed Representative Arrangements
- Broker agreements
- CISs
- Commercial Contracts
- Corporate Finance
- Corporate Restructuring
- Corporate Sponsorship
- Custody
- Distribution
- Hedge Funds
- HR and Employment
- ICAV
- Institutional
- Intra-group Agreements
- Introducer Arrangements
- Joint Venture
- Listed Investment Companies
- M&A
- Outsourcing
- Pooled pension funds
- Private equity
- Real estate
- Regulation, including: MiFID II, Listing Rules, Competition Law
- Research Payments
- Securities Lending
- Service Agreements
- SICAV
- Sponsorship Arrangements
- Transition management
- UCITS and non-UCITS
Qualified in England & Wales, Ireland and NSW Australia
- Investment Association: act as General Counsel and advise on industry documentation, guidance and regulatory issues.
- Invesco Asset Management: advised on all aspects of building the investment legal team including drafting templates, negotiation guides and procedures, and training across EMEA.
- Canada Life Investments: advised on all aspects of fund distribution via all European platform providers, including drafting and negotiating agreements across 20 service providers.
- LaSalle Investment Management: undertook the complete review of all of real estate private equity funds, producing an extensive summary of all key terms of the underlying fund documentation.
- Columbia Threadneedle: advised on listed investment company launch, including drafting, review and negotiation of all fund documentation such as the offering memorandum and all agreements.
- Aviva Investors: advised on all aspects of investment management agreements for major clients, including structuring the overall portfolios of up to £250bn. Some were highly complex: with 140+ portfolios and various overlay strategies with separate/interdependent guidelines.
- Round Hill Capital: advised on all aspects of the asset and property management joint venture transaction between Round Hill and Starwood worth £120 million.
- Rede Partners: act as General Counsel and advised on the placement of various private equity funds including Apax France XI, HgCapital 8, PAI Europe VI and Summa Equity I for Rede Partners.
- Investment Association 2010 IMA Technical Committee
- Law Society of England and Wales
- Law Society of Ireland
- Law Society of New South Wales Australia
- Association of Women Solicitors
- 30% Club
- Bachelors degree in Commerce majoring in Finance (University of Wollongong)
- Honours Degree in Law (University of Wollongong)
- Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice (College of Law, Sydney)
- Graduate Certificate in Applied Finance and Investment (Financial Services Institute of Australia)
- Qualified Lawyers Transfer Test (College of Law England and Wales)
- Influencing, Persuading & Negotiating (Cambridge Legal Summer School)
- Non-Executive Director Training (Institute of Directors)
