LAURIE KLEIMAN is a global co-leader of Sidley’s Investment Funds group. She advises a wide range of domestic and international investment funds and managers on regulatory, compliance, and enforcement issues. Laurie is a frequent speaker on investment manager and fund regulation and compliance as well as on issues relating to the advancement of women in law. She also serves on the firm’s COVID-19 Task Force.
Laurie’s practice encompasses:
- Advice to both U.S. and non-U.S. managers to investment products of all types — including hedge funds, mutual funds, private equity funds, real estate funds, collateral managers, and managed accounts — with respect to both U.S. federal and state investment manager registration, regulation, and compliance.
- Advice to U.S. registered investment companies, including mutual funds, money market funds, and closed-end funds.
- Advice to financial institutions with respect to investment fund and manager compliance and governance issues and fund and manager mergers, acquisitions, and reorganizations.
- Assistance to investment managers in connection with SEC examinations.
Strong advocacy on behalf of her clients has earned Laurie acknowledgment in numerous industry publications, including Chambers, The Legal 500, and U.S. News & World Report. She was ranked Band 1 in Investment Funds: Regulatory and Compliance by Chambers Global (2021) and Chambers USA (2021) and was recognized in the area of Mutual Funds Law by The Best Lawyers in America® (2020). Sources regard her as a “superb lawyer” and praise her as “extremely thoughtful about getting into the mind of the regulatory agency.” They go on to commend her as “a true expert in her area, and remarkably commercial and practical.” Laurie was named to Crain’s New York Business’ inaugural “Leading Women Lawyers in New York City” list, where she was lauded as being among the 100 “trailblazing women” who have “found multiple paths to excellence” and have displayed “fierce determination, passion for the law, keen intelligence, and inspiring achievement.” Laurie also was named one of the “50 Leading Women in Hedge Funds” by the Hedge Fund Journal.
Sidley’s investment management team has won numerous awards as a provider of legal services to the investment funds industry: two-time winner of Chambers and Partners’ “Investment Funds Team of the Year for the U.S.”; Institutional Investor’s Alpha magazine’s 2014 Alpha Awards top “onshore” (U.S.) law firm serving the hedge fund industry; four-time recipient of first-tier national rankings in the U.S. News – Best Lawyers “Best Law Firms” rankings for Private Funds/Hedge Funds Law, Mutual Funds Law and Derivatives and Futures Law; and ranked in the top band for Hedge Funds and as leading firm for Registered Funds by Chambers USA every year since 2008.
Laurie is an active proponent of advancement of women in the legal profession. She is a member and former firmwide co-chair of Sidley’s Committee on Retention and Promotion of Women, which oversees the SidleyWomen initiative. Sidley has been recognized repeatedly for its groundbreaking women’s initiatives, including by Working Mother Magazine’s “50 Best Law Firms for Women,” by the Women in Law Empowerment Forum (WILEF), and by Chambers’ with its “Most Inclusive Firm for Minority Women Lawyers” and “Outstanding Firm in Advancing Gender Diversity and Inclusion” honors. Laurie is a frequent speaker on diversity issues, is a member of the WILEF advisory board, and was named “2016 Gender Diversity Lawyer of the Year” by Chambers. Laurie is also a member of the Managed Funds Association’s Outside Counsel Forum, the Vanderbilt University Law School Board of Advisors and the board of trustees of the Adaptive Sports Foundation.