Stephen Fraidin ’64, Partner, Corporate, Kirkland & Ellis LLP
(From left) Robert Todd Lang ’47, Roberta Romano ’80, Alan Schwartz ’64, Stephen Fraidin ’64, and Dean Robert Post ’77
In presenting the award, Alan Schwartz ’64, Sterling Professor of Law and former Center Director, said:
“Stephen’s career has three facets. First, he is among the best – perhaps the best –M&A lawyer in the country. His career as an M&A lawyer is characterized by probity, courage and great success. He tells the truth to clients, and then he manages to keep them. The most distinguishing feature of Stephen’s career, however, is his creativity. He is among the inventors of modern M&A practice, and he is responsible for many leading innovations. The second facet of Stephen’s career is his teaching. Stephen has for more than two decades co-taught, mostly with me but also with Professor Romano, a course entitled 'The Law and Economics of Corporate Control.' Stephen is a great, and an inspirational, teacher. He combines theoretical insights with great practical knowledge to create lucid and illuminating presentations. Stephen also is a role model for students. He is the paradigm of a great lawyer: brilliant, knowledgeable, open to new ideas, excited about the practice of law, vivid in portraying its challenges and available to young people for advice and counsel. The third facet of Stephen’s career is his business interest. Stephen understands not only the legal but also the economic aspects of the transactions in which he is involved and those he teaches. His clients rely on him, not only for his legal insights, but also for his sense of whether their goals make sense and whether a client is pursuing those goals in the best way.”