David Friedman

Dave Friedman serves as Executive Vice President, Legal & Government Affairs and Chief Compliance Officer for the Boston Red Sox. He handles a variety of legal matters, including regulatory compliance issues and oversight of litigation, for the team, its parent company Fenway Sports Group, its TV affiliate New England Sports Network, and the company’s real estate and other affiliates. Friedman assists with the team’s interactions with Major League Baseball and other teams on a variety of legal-related issues. He is also responsible for government and neighborhood relations, he is part of the Fenway Sports Group leadership team on initiatives to use sports as a platform to combat all forms of hate, and he serves as Red Sox Foundation counsel, handling a wide range of Foundation legal and business matters for the official team charity.

Friedman previously served as First Assistant Attorney General for Massachusetts, where he advised A.G. Martha Coakley and managed an office of 490 attorneys, investigators and other staff. In that role, he oversaw and participated in the office’s full range of civil and criminal matters, as well as supervising policy advice and office administration for the Attorney General.

Before joining the Attorney General’s office, Friedman served as Counsel and Chief Policy Advisor to Massachusetts Senate President Robert Travaglini, where he worked on the state’s landmark health care law, economic development, constitutional issues including same-sex marriage, and a broad range of other issues. Friedman worked for several years at the law firm of Hill & Barlow in the litigation department on a range of corporate and other matters, including successful pro bono representation in a class action on behalf of over 3,000 persons with mental disabilities and their families on a waiting list to receive state-provided services.

Immediately following law school, Friedman served as a law clerk to federal appeals court Judge Michael Boudin and Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.

Friedman is a graduate of Harvard College (’93), where he won the World Universities Debating Championship and served as President of the Harvard Speech and Parliamentary Debate Society, and Harvard Law School (’96), where he was President of the Harvard Law Review. He has taught courses at Harvard Law on government, management and leadership issues.

Friedman is Chair of the Board of Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, which produces annual free summer Shakespeare productions on Boston Common as well as other high caliber theater programming. He has worked on numerous political campaigns, including voter protection work on behalf of several presidential campaigns over the past two decades. In 2024, he was appointed by Governor Maura Healey to serve on the Massachusetts Special Commission on Combating Antisemitism.