Ranah Esmaili

RANAH ESMAILI is a partner in Sidley’s Washington, D.C. office where her practice focuses on representing private fund managers, registered fund advisers and trustees, investment advisers to individuals and separately managed accounts, and broker-dealers in regulatory and government investigations and examinations. She also provides advice and counseling to clients on a wide range of securities regulatory matters, including conflicts of interest and disclosure, fees and expense practices and disclosure, liquidation and dissolution practices, principle and cross-trades, material non-public information, and recordkeeping requirements, including related to off-channel communications and AI tools.

Ranah has been recognized by Chambers USA for Nationwide Securities: Regulation: Enforcement (2024-2026). She was named “North America Investment Funds Lawyer of the Year” at the Women in Business Law Americas Awards 2026. Ranah has also been named to the Securities Docket’s list of “Enforcement Elite” (2024-2025), which honors securities enforcement defense counsel whom clients trust to handle bet-the-company matters.

Ranah joined Sidley in 2021 from the Enforcement Division of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), where she served as assistant director of the Asset Management Unit. In that role, she oversaw investigations relating to the activities of hedge funds, private equity funds, venture capital funds, registered investment companies, and separately managed accounts and their investment advisers.