Stephanie Berdik is a partner in the Investment Funds Practice Group in the Boston office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP.
Stephanie’s practice focuses on advising U.S. and non-U.S. private investment fund sponsors on all aspects of their business, including establishment of private investment funds, portfolio investment activities, capital raising, fund regulatory and compliance matters, and firm ownership and operational issues.
She has worked with a variety of private fund sponsors and, in particular, has extensive experience advising managers of credit platforms on a wide-range of issues. Stephanie’s experience includes the formation of closed-end and open-end direct lending, tradable credit, special situations, opportunistic and distressed funds as well as separate account structures for a variety of U.S. and non-U.S institutional investors. Stephanie has also advised diversified asset managers in connection with the launch of a credit platform, including regulatory, compliance and operational issues related thereto.
Stephanie’s experience also includes representing institutional investors in their investments in U.S. and non-U.S. private investment funds, co-investment funds and managed accounts across a range of asset classes.
Stephanie has been recognized for her work by various publications. Most recently, Stephanie was ranked in Chambers USA 2020–2024 for Private Equity: Fund Formation. Stephanie was named to Private Debt Investor’s inaugural “Rising Stars” list in 2019 and Law360 also named Stephanie as one of five Private Equity “Rising Stars for 2018” in the United States. Stephanie was also recognized in the Legal 500 2019. Stephanie is lauded by interviewees as a “dynamic fund formation attorney.” She is best known for her work on the formation of alternative lending vehicles, with sources calling her “very strong in credit funds.”
Stephanie not only applies her strategic approach to clients, but also to the Firm’s recruiting efforts, associates’ professional development and diversity initiatives. Stephanie is significantly involved in recruiting, training and educational programming at Kirkland for attorneys and clients, working with various organizations to define initiatives and enhance programming and agendas for training and career development as the co-Chair of the Recruiting Committee for the Boston office and a member of the Associate Review Committee. She is also one of the founding members of Women in Alternative Debt (WIAD), a group focused on the development and empowerment of senior women investors and managers in the alternative debt space.
In addition to her law-firm experience, Stephanie served as a Vice President and Senior Counsel at State Street Global Advisors where she was responsible for providing legal advice regarding US institutional investment management services and products with a focus on product structuring and disclosure issues concerning commingled investment pools, managed accounts and private investment funds.
