Robert L. Friedman is a Senior Advisor of Blackstone.  Mr. Friedman joined the firm in 1999 as a Senior Managing Director to work primarily in Blackstone’s Private Equity group.  He was Chief Legal Officer of the firm from January 2003 through August 2010 and was also the firm’s Chief Administrative Officer during most of that period.  He retired as a Senior Managing Director in June 2012 and assumed the position of Senior Advisor of the firm. 

Before joining Blackstone, Mr. Friedman had been a partner with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett for 25 years, where he was a senior member of that law firm’s mergers and acquisitions practice.  At Simpson Thacher, Mr. Friedman advised The Blackstone Group ever since the firm was founded in 1985.  

Mr. Friedman graduated from Columbia College and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He currently serves as a Director of Axis Capital Holdings Limited, Orbitz Worldwide, Inc., TRW Automotive Holdings Corp. and YRC Worldwide Inc.  Mr. Friedman is Chairman of the Board of New Alternatives for Children and Co-Chairman of the Board of Chess in the Schools, two charitable organizations with programs for disadvantaged youth in New York City. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of United Way of New York City, a Trustee of the Nantucket Land Council, a member of the Board of Advisors of the Institute for Law and Economics of the University of Pennsylvania and a member of the Board of Visitors of Columbia College.