James Boswell > Kirkland & Ellis International LLP > London, England > Lawyer Profile

Kirkland & Ellis International LLP made a significant impression in the City infrastructure market with the hire of Sara Pickersgill from Allen & Overy LLP and James Boswell and Toby Parkinson from Clifford Chance LLP at the start of 2023, a move which allows the firm to act for an ever-expanding portfolio of national and global clients in the energy and infrastructure sectors. The sponsor-focused team advises a number of private equity funds investing in this space, and its offering is further strengthened by the global firm’s ESG practice. While still a developing practice, the team has been engaged in a number of premium M&A deals, fund formations, joint ventures and corporate restructurings, with strong expertise in utility, digital infrastructure, and energy transition mandates. Pickersgill is a leading M&A partner who regularly advises top-end sponsors on high profile mandates, while Boswell leverages more than 20 years’ debt finance experience to advise sponsors and borrowers on financing a broad array of acquisitions, including multi-sourced platform financings, holdco financings and equity bridge loans. Parkinson is a highly-regarded M&A practitioner, with his industry experience working as a director at OMERS an extra selling point for clients. The firm also added James McGivern and Emma Shelston from Linklaters LLP and Allen & Overy LLP as partners in 2023, with the former largely focusing on debt finance and regulatory work, and the latter on M&A.

Under the leadership of the ‘vastly experienced and talented’ Stephen Lucas, Kirkland & Ellis International LLP has firmly positioned itself at the pinnacle of the leveraged finance market for an entirely sponsor-focused client base. Unencumbered by any banking ties, the team has been able to ‘push very aggressively’ on behalf of its borrower clients, enabling them to access pools of capital in spite of the periodic closures of the syndicated loan market. Christopher Shield is the lead relationship partner with a number of the largest and most active sponsors in the market, including Bain Capital and Advent, advising both on a raft of cross-border LBOs, as well as in relation to liability management issues. English and New York-law qualified partner Evgeny Zborovsky‘s broad practice covers both mid and large-ticket mandates, with his dual qualifications adding an enhanced level of versatility and a deeper understanding of the implementation of US terms in the European market. Other recommended partners include the ‘proactive and extremely professional’ Kirsteen Nicol, whose experience includes significant knowledge of syndicated and credit fund lending; Daniel Borg, whose cross-border expertise includes large take-private mandates, LBOs and bolt-on acquisitions; and James Boswell, for acquisition infrastructure finance matters. Neel Sachdev left to launch the English law practice at Paul Weiss in summer 2023 alongside partners including fellow banking specialist Kanesh Balasubramaniam.