Kirkland & Ellis is pleased to announce that Stephen Fraidin has joined the firm as a partner in its New York office. A former senior corporate partner at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, Fraidin will join Kirkland’s transactional practice.
“We are delighted to welcome a lawyer of Steve’s caliber,” says Thomas D. Yannucci, who chairs Kirkland’s management committee. “Kirkland has been expanding in M&A and corporate governance to meet client demands. Steve is not only an esteemed corporate counselor, but also a recognized leader in the field and will be a tremendous asset to our Firm.”
Stephen Fraidin said, “This move will allow me to explore new opportunities and new challenges in a different environment. I am delighted to be joining a team as strong as Kirkland & Ellis. I look forward to helping expand Kirkland’s mergers and acquisitions practice. I have tremendous respect and affection for my colleagues at Fried Frank, where I had the opportunity to work for more than 30 years with some outstanding lawyers.”
A leading practitioner in the merger and acquisitions arena, Fraidin joined Fried Frank in 1964 and became a partner in 1971. His practice includes the representation of major companies and investment groups, acquisitions, proxy contests and the representation of special committees and boards of directors regarding corporate governance and other matters. Mr. Fraidin has represented Forstmann Little & Co. since the creation of its leveraged buyout funds in a series of negotiated acquisitions and dispositions involving more than $30 billion, including its acquisition of Citadel Communications Corp. He has also advised clients on numerous transactions including the following: Procter & Gamble Co. in a number of multibillion-dollar acquisitions; Northrop Grumman Corporation in its contested acquisition of Newport News Shipbuilding Inc.; and Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation in its merger with General Dynamics.
Mr. Fraidin has been a member of the board of directors, and he has also served as chairman of the Lawyers’ Division of UJA-Federation of New York. He is the 2002 recipient of the UJA’s Joseph M. Proskauer Award. Mr. Fraidin is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Yale Law School Center for the Study of Corporate Law, and he has been a Visiting Lecturer at Yale Law School since 1987, teaching a course on “The Law and Economics of Corporate Control.” He is also a member of the National Advisory Board, and Board of Directors of the Children’s Scholarship Fund. Mr. Fraidin received his LLB from Yale Law School and his AB from Tufts University.
Mr. Fraidin is the author or co-author of a number of publications, including the following: “Toward Unlocking Lockups,” co-authored with Jon D. Hanson, Yale Law Journal, May 1994; “Duties to Bondholders in Recapitalization and Restructurings,” co-authored with Faith Stevelman, Practising Law Institute’s 23rd Annual Institute on Securities Regulation, November 1991; and “The Just Say No Defense,” co-authored with Robert Lloyd Snyder, May 1990.
