Elizabeth Shea Fries

Practice Areas

ELIZABETH SHEA FRIES is the managing partner of Sidley’s Boston office, global leader of the firm’s market-leading Investment Funds practice, and a member of the firm's Executive Committee.

As head of the firm’s Investment Funds practice, Liz leads one of the largest and most robust teams in the world focused on structuring and advising investment funds and their advisers. With more than 130 corporate, securities, and derivatives lawyers practicing around the globe, the group serves virtually every type of public and private investment fund and investment manager across investment sectors, as well as investors and other market participants.

In her practice, Liz is acclaimed for her breadth of experience, practical advice, and innovative approach. She is a trusted advisor to the industry’s leading investment managers, funds, broker-dealers, banks, family offices, and other financial firms, whom she strategically guides through fund formation and other product structuring, management company formation, implementation of incentive and equity compensation arrangements, GP stakes deals, mergers and acquisitions, outsourcing arrangements, and offerings of securities. She also brings her depth of knowledge encompassing multiple areas of the law — including securities, benefits (ERISA), banking, and tax issues — to handle complex fiduciary issues and compliance matters.

Liz’s practice is distinctive among investment funds lawyers because of her experience both with private funds across the spectrum — from hedge to real estate to credit to private equity to venture — and with registered funds and business development companies. Combining this experience with practical business advice and her regulatory proficiency, she is masterful at navigating clients’ most complicated and nuanced problems.

Liz is a thought leader and strategic adviser in key areas, such as the creation of hybrid and evergreen funds, and helping clients address growing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues. She also works in many highly specialized fund formation areas, including with endowment funds, private Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), group trusts, common and collective funds, and business or other investment trusts.

Clients rely on Liz to analyze complex issues, manage multi-faceted transactions, and find creative and practical solutions to business, structuring, and regulatory challenges. She is a business advisor who looks around corners to partner with clients and solve their complex legal challenges as they build their businesses and pursue their most important initiatives.