Partner

Elizabeth Shea Fries

Investment Funds
M&A
Private Equity

efries@sidley.com

Boston +1 617 223 0388

- Letter
- A4

ELIZABETH SHEA FRIES is the global leader of the firm’s market-leading Investment Funds practice, managing partner of Sidley’s Boston office, and a member of the firm’s Executive Committee. Liz provides clients strategic advice on a broad range of transactions, business and investment structures, and regulatory matters. She has particular experience in creating, structuring, and investing in asset management and other financial businesses, and in helping clients develop and offer innovative investment funds and services.

Liz maintains a diverse practice covering all aspects of the asset management business, working with investment managers, funds, broker-dealers, pension consultants, banks, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, and other firms. Liz has guided both financial and strategic buyers, as well as sellers through mergers, acquisitions, GP stakes deals, seed transactions, debt and equity financing, and other complex deals. Her investment funds work spans multiple sectors including hedge funds, credit funds, real estate, endowment strategies, and funds of funds. Liz provides strategic compliance advice in these sectors, as well as in private equity, venture capital, energy, and infrastructure.

Liz is experienced in the public and private offering of interests in open-end, hybrid, and closed-end investment companies and other collective investment vehicles or pools, such as offshore investment funds, investment limited partnerships, private/non-traded Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), group trusts, common and collective funds, and business or other investment trusts. Liz also counsels investment advisers, investment companies, banks, insurance companies, brokers, and other providers of financial services regarding complex compliance issues resulting from the operation and integration of a variety of investment businesses. Working with multiple areas of law, including securities laws, Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), banking laws, commodities laws, tax laws, and others, she is experienced in analyzing complex issues and managing multi-faceted challenges toward practical resolutions.

Liz has been recognized by both Chambers USA and Chambers Global as a leading lawyer for Hedge Funds (USA, 2009–2016, 2019–2025) and Investment Funds: Regulatory & Compliance (USA, 2023–2025) and by Chambers USA for Hedge & Mutual Funds (Massachusetts, 2008–2025). Chambers USA 2025 noted that clients say “Her knowledge and service is simply outstanding” and she “is one of the best lawyers I've encountered for getting to the root of a problem and providing commercially reasonable solutions to legal conundrums.” Liz was named “Investment Funds Lawyer of the Year” at both the 2023 and 2024 Women in Business Law Americas Awards. She was recommended by Legal 500 U.S., for Alternative/Hedge Funds (2025) with clients stating “She is commercially savvy, offers practical pro-con analysis, and is direct and thoughtful in her advice to our firm.” Liz was named to The Hedge Fund Journal’s 2022 “50 Leading Women in Hedge Funds” list, and as a 2019 “Lawyer of the Year Private Funds/Hedge Funds Law (Boston)” by The Best Lawyers in America. Liz has been selected for inclusion in U.S. News – Best Lawyers, The International Who’s Who of Private Fund Lawyers, and the Women in Business Law Expert Guide, among others.

Experience

2023–2024 representative matters include representing:

Pretium Partners, a specialized investment firm with more than US$50 billion in assets under management, in (1) its strategic partnership with and minority GP stakes investment from Hunter Point Capital, (2) a preferred stock financing, and (3) the acquisition of BH Management Services, a property management platform in multi-family, student, and single-family housing.
A sovereign wealth fund in a US$1.5 billion investment in an insurance and asset management business.
Eldridge in the launch of Eldridge Acre Partners, a real estate asset management platform.
Anthelion Capital Holdings (formerly known as Cowen Sustainable Investments), in its spin-off from Cowen, and subsequent matters including the acquisition by its funds of the Energy business unit of Proterra Inc.
HighVista Strategies, an alternative asset manager investing in private and public markets, in the acquisition of the US$4 billion U.S. private markets business of Abrdn Inc.
American Century in its expansion into private investments with the addition of 3x5 Partners’ venture capital team.
Funds managed by Stone Point Capital in their investment in IEQ Capital, an independent wealth management firm and alternative investment solutions provider.
WhiteHawk Capital Partners in the restructuring of its management company, formation of a closed-end credit fund, and an evergreen credit fund.
U.S. and UK investment managers launching half a dozen hedge funds with varying strategies.
Institutional banking clients in the launch and expansion of platforms offering private investment funds to high net worth investors through wealth managers and similar intermediaries.
Multiple registered investment advisers in responding to SEC examination requests and successfully addressing issues raised in deficiency letters.

Liz serves, or has served, as a member of the Board of Directors of:

Artists for Humanity (a Boston-based non-profit that bridges economic, racial, and social divisions by providing teens with the keys to self-sufficiency through paid employment in art and design) (2024–present);
MFA (the trade association for the global alternative asset management industry) (2023–present);
Greater Boston Legal Services (which provides free non-criminal legal assistance to low-income individuals and families in Greater Boston) (2014–present);
Health Advocacy Innovations (which aims to address neglected and under-resourced global health issues, from a social justice and health equity standpoint) (2015–2017);
Boston Bar Association (Council), the oldest bar association in the United States and the hub of Greater Boston’s legal community (2008–2011); and
Common Impact (which creates talent and skills-building programs to develop and engage corporate employees, while partnering with successful nonprofits to use this talent to advance their missions) (2001–2011).

Credentials

Admissions & Certifications

Massachusetts
New York

Education

Columbia Law School, J.D., 1989 (Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, Senior Editor, Columbia Law Review)
Dartmouth College, B.A., 1986 (magna cum laude)