Mr Matthew Solum > Kirkland & Ellis LLP > New York, United States > Lawyer Profile

Kirkland & Ellis LLP
601 LEXINGTON AVENUE
NEW YORK, NY 10022
NEW YORK
United States
Matthew Solum photo

Position

Matthew Solum is a senior litigation partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Having tried more than twenty cases to decision, he handles all manner of high stakes disputes, including securities, M&A and complex commercial matters. Matt has tried and litigated cases in state and federal courts across the United States and before arbitration tribunals throughout the world. His clients have included ABM Industries, The Blackstone Group, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Chipotle, Frontier Communications, Sycamore Partners, Teva Pharmaceuticals, TPG Capital, Vista Equity Partners and Wynn Resorts.

Career

Matt has been recognized by numerous professional publications. In Chambers, clients praise him as “very knowledgeable and a pleasure to work with,” noting that “when you deal with him, you feel that he is very focused on your case.” Matt has also been recognized as a “Leading Lawyer” for his M&A litigation work by The Legal 500. According to Law360, Matt has “built a sterling reputation as a go-to closer for companies in fending off large shareholder class actions and other litigation.”

Lawyer Rankings

United States > Dispute resolution > Securities litigation: defense

At Kirkland & Ellis LLP, ‘the depth and breadth of knowledge and experience is exceptional’. Clients remark that the firm is ‘highly strategic and tactical, achieving excellent and practical outcomes’. The team is led by Sandra Goldstein in New York and Mark Filip in Chicago. Goldstein is among the most successful securities litigators in the country, and she is currently handling more than twelve 10b-5 stock drop and derivative suits, as well as a substantial volume of M&A-related cases. The firm’s New York office is home to outstanding talent, including Stefan Atkinson who has been particularly prominent in the wave of SPAC-related cases. Atkinson and Goldstein achieved a major victory for Textron Inc., which was accused of deceiving the market about the growth and earnings prospects of Arctic Cat, a recreational vehicle business that it had acquired. The case settled favourably in 2022. Rachel Fritzler handles a broad range of matters for Fortune 500 companies, including antitrust and securities cases. She worked with Goldstein on numerous cases, among the defense of Honeywell International in a multibillion-dollar securities class action concerning the company’s asbestos-related liabilities. Matthew Solum is ‘highly responsive and even-keeled’Joshua Rabinovitz in Washington DC acted for Boeing Company in a derivative suit arising out of Boeing’s 737 MAX jet aircraft’s October 2018 Lion Air Flight crash into the Java Sea and the March 2019 Ethiopian Flight crash minutes after takeoff.

United States > Dispute resolution > M&A litigation: defense

(Leading lawyers)

Matthew SolumKirkland & Ellis LLP

Kirkland & Ellis LLP‘s ‘exceptional’ M&A litigators ‘do outstanding work, coordinate well on technical matters, and show great commitment to understanding the facts and the relevant context’. The firm has strong ties to leading private equity houses, as well as acting for a number of blue-chip corporates, and it handles every stage from pre-litigation on deal structures and strategies all the way to trial. Its caseload involves disputes concerning tender offers, LBO and SPAC transactions, as well as poison pill matters, breach of contract claims, books and records demands, appraisal rights and a host of other disputes. Standout partner Sandra Goldstein and up-and-coming partner Stefan Atkinson (‘a trusted advisor to C-suite and board members’) successfully represented Grubhub in numerous individual shareholder lawsuits arising out of its acquisition by Just Eat Takeaway.com for $7.3bn, while Matthew Solum and Yosef Riemer are also active. In addition to the aforementioned, who are all based in New York, emerging partner talent Joshua Rabinovitz in Washington DC also plays a central role in the practice.