Fractional In-House Investment Counsel for Institutional Investors
Whether you're growing an endowment to fund scholarships, managing a healthcare system's reserves to support patient care, or stewarding institutional capital to serve your clients' missions—your investments exist to support something bigger.
Endowment Legal Services exists to support that work.
Flat-fee fractional counsel embedded in your investment office, handling the legal complexity so your team can focus on performance and purpose.
I’m Stephanie Pries
I created Endowment Legal Services to revolutionize how institutional investors access investment legal expertise—bringing senior-level counsel into investment offices through an outsourced GC model on a quarterly flat fee.
What only the largest endowments have in-house, I make available to everyone else.
Today, my clients collectively manage over $28B in AUM. I've closed over 1,000 deals throughout my career, supporting universities, healthcare systems, and investment advisers with their investment legal work—from fund onboarding to ongoing compliance.
Before founding ELS, I spent 18 years as Director of Investment Legal & Compliance at the University of Notre Dame Investment Office and 5 years as senior legal counsel at Managed Funds Association in DC. At Notre Dame, I helped grow the endowment from $5B to over $22B in AUM.
What I Handle
(So you can focus on investment performance)
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Review and summarize LPAs and offering memoranda. Identify material risks and negotiation points. Deliver clear, actionable recommendations for your investment committee.
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Handle the entire onboarding sequence: operational due diligence, DDQs that actually get answered, NDAs that protect your interests, side letters that secure your rights, IMAs that work with your custody setup, and subscription docs that pass compliance review the first time.
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Respond to MFN elections, amendments and consents, custodian administrator or 3rd party compliance requests, verify service provider relationships, manage KYC/AML updates, and similar requests related to investee funds or internal governance matters (e.g., ESG compliance).
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Keep your team ahead of regulatory and legislative changes through my weekly memos (e.g., endowment tax hike, “countries of concern” regulation/legislation), and other policy shifts impacting institutional investors. Will monitor marketplace matters that also impact your investments and help craft solutions for your team (e.g., Silicon Valley Bank episode).
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Build out and organize document storage systems in your RMS, create legal data tracking for key fund terms, develop policy manuals, and streamline legal workflows.
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As a member of your team, I stand available for any urgent fund requests, co-investment opportunities and/or unexpected manager situations—and ensure they are resolved fast.
Flat-Fee. No surprises.
How It Works
Consultation:
We review your legal needs, deal flow, and compliance requirements.
Integration:
I integrate directly into your workflow—email, document portals, whatever your office already uses.
Ongoing Counsel
Fund reviews, diligence, and compliance handled at a senior-counsel level for one flat annual fee
You get expert legal counsel—on call and in sync with your team—for one transparent flat fee based on your AUM.
No clock-watching. No unexpected invoices.
Why Clients Trust Me
Most lawyers treat investment work like any other legal project. I built Endowment Legal Services because capital markets don't wait for legal to catch up.
Lived Your Reality. You get counsel who's been inside an investment office—not someone learning from client memos.
See Around Corners. I flag risks that could impact performance three years out, not just obvious issues today.
Always Current. I track regulatory shifts, tax policy, and compliance changes before they hit your portfolio.
Direct Access & Speed. I understand your deal timelines, your fiduciary pressure, and your performance accountability. When you need answers, you get me—immediately.
You get a legal partner who knows exactly how Investment Banks and Big Law negotiate—because I've sat across from them a thousand times.
In the Media
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Dialogue Diligence podcast — “Sustaining Missions, Mitigating Risks”
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Elite university endowments confront a ‘parade of horribles’
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New Law Firm Aims to Sign Endowments
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Legal hurdles could block Trump’s climate nonprofit tax threat
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Fund Jurisdictions: Should Investors Worry?
Start the Conversation
Contact me to schedule your complimentary consultation.
No obligation. No sales pitch.