Kirkland & Ellis LLP

Kirkland & Ellis LLP

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Rajab Abbassi

Rajab Abbassi

Rajab Abbassi is a partner in the Corporate Practice Group in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP and a member of the Financial Institutions and Insurance Transactions & Regulatory Practice Groups. Rajab’s practice focuses on corporate transactions in the insurance industry, and he has advised on many of the most significant transactions in the industry over the last 20 years. He regularly advises on mergers and acquisitions, reinsurance transactions, joint venture transactions and strategic investments, as well as securities offerings and other corporate transactions. Rajab also frequently counsels boards of directors and senior management on strategic and governance matters.
Amy Abeloff

Amy Abeloff

Amy Abeloff is a partner in Kirkland’s Los Angeles office. Amy counsels on intellectual property matters and has extensive experience in full-service global trademark portfolio management. Amy has extensive experience advising clients on the availability to use and register trademarks worldwide, preparing trademark filing strategies ranging from single trademarks to large, multijurisdictional projects, advocating for her clients offensively and defensively in pre-enforcement activity, and developing complex enforcement strategies incorporating online marketplace and social media takedowns as well as anti-counterfeiting activities. She also provides counsel to clients regarding availability to use and register copyright protectable material. Amy is active in multiple committees of the International Trademark Association. She also represents a number of small businesses and nonprofit organizations in various pro bono matters, including trademark and copyright advising and counseling, prosecution and enforcement strategy. Amy has assisted multiple large-scale, international companies across the alcoholic beverage, healthcare, insurance, financial services and consumer goods industries with global trademark portfolio management matters, including prosecution, filing strategies, clearance, pre-enforcement, enforcement, domestic and international oppositions and cancellations, coexistence and settlement negotiations, license review and revisions, among other intellectual property matters.
Olivia Adendorff

Olivia Adendorff

Olivia Adendorff is a litigation partner in the Dallas and Washington, D.C., offices of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. She has broad experience in consumer protection, data privacy, false advertising and antitrust matters, with particular experience in FTC investigations and consumer class actions. She defends corporations in a wide variety of industries, including Fortune 500 pharmaceutical and technology companies. Olivia has acted as trial and appellate counsel in both individual and class action suits involving claims in various practice areas, including data privacy, consumer protection statutes, antitrust, ESG, and complex commercial disputes. In addition, Olivia also advises companies on consumer protection, data privacy, and antitrust compliance concerns.
Bob Allen

Bob Allen

Bob Allen is a partner in Kirkland & Ellis LLP’s Litigation and Government, Regulatory & Internal Investigations practice groups. His practice focuses on representing corporations and executives in regulatory and criminal investigations, internal investigations, corporate governance matters and complex litigation. He has represented some of the largest companies and many senior executives in their most significant matters, achieving successful resolutions and victories. Clients have called him “absolutely fantastic,” “thoughtful” and “incredibly intelligent” per Chambers & Partners (2025). Before joining Kirkland, Bob served in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. As a member of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Taskforce, Bob investigated and prosecuted securities fraud, accounting fraud, insider trading and other white-collar cases along with partners at the SEC, CFTC and elsewhere. During his tenure as a prosecutor, Bob tried seven cases to a verdict, winning convictions in every instance, and successfully argued many appeals before the Second Circuit. Bob has been recognized by Chambers USA, The Legal 500 U.S., Benchmark Litigation and earlier in his career by Law360 as a “Rising Star.” Bob graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was President of the Harvard Law Review and a recipient of the Sears Prize for having the highest first-year grades. Bob clerked for the Honorable Antonin Scalia of the United States Supreme Court and the Honorable Michael Boudin of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Bob has served as a guest lecturer on white collar matters at several law schools writes and regularly speaks and writes on similar matters.
Devora Allon

Devora Allon

Devora Allon is a litigation partner in Kirkland’s New York office. She has a broad practice with a particular focus on antitrust, product liability and other commercial disputes. Devora also has significant trial experience, securing seven trial wins since 2015, including two recent victories in 2023 and 2024. Recently, Devora secured a victory for Gilead Sciences in a high-stakes jury trial involving billions of dollars in antitrust claims stemming from an alleged “pay-for-delay” scheme involving two HIV drugs. For this impressive victory, Devora and her co-counsel were selected as AmLaw’s “Litigators of the Week.” Her clients have also included Apple, GlaxoSmithKline, Starwood Capital Group, Sun Pharma, Teva, Torrent Pharmaceuticals and Upsher-Smith Laboratories.
Adam Alper

Adam Alper

Adam Alper is a leading member of the intellectual property litigation group in Kirkland’s Bay Area office. Focusing primarily on patent and trade secret disputes, and predominantly representing clients in the semiconductor, telecommunications, computer hardware and pharmaceutical industries, Adam regularly litigates high-stakes competitor cases involving concurrent claims of patent, trade secret and copyright violations. These disputes often involve co-pending actions in US District Courts, and before the USPTO PTAB and USITC, that are frequently litigated through the trial and post-trial phases.
Matthew Antinossi

Matthew Antinossi

Matthew Antinossi's practice includes all ERISA-related areas, and he has extensive experience with the employee benefits aspects of mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, including ESOP transactions. In addition to his transactional practice, Matthew is frequently involved in representing debtors in the employee benefits aspects of bankruptcy, insolvency and restructuring. Such representations frequently involve resolution of complex ERISA Title IV issues. A significant portion of Matthew's practice also includes providing technical assistance in litigation involving fiduciary breach and ERISA violation claims. As part of his compliance counseling practice, Matthew represents clients before the Internal Revenue Service on plan correction and private letter ruling requests and provides advice related to Department of Labor and Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation actions.
Robert Appleby

Robert Appleby

Robert Appleby is a partner in the intellectual property litigation group. Robert's practice focuses on intellectual property litigation, including litigation involving patents, copyrights, trade secrets and related contract, unfair competition, and antitrust claims in state and federal courts. Robert primarily represents clients in matters involving the electrical arts, such as internet data networking, wireless telephony, audio and video compression, optical amplifiers, electroluminescent phosphors, internet browsers and software, and has considerable experience in jury trials concerning these technologies. In addition, Robert has experience in design patent matters, including representing a client in a jury trial in defense of a design patent infringement claim. Robert also focuses a significant portion of his practice on appellate litigation involving intellectual property issues.
Gregory Arovas

Gregory Arovas

Greg Arovas has established a reputation as one of the top intellectual property litigation lawyers in the country. Greg has represented both plaintiffs and defendants in numerous high-profile patent and trade secret litigations, including cases for high-technology clients such as Intel, Samsung Electronics, Sony, IBM, Red Hat, Lenovo, Charter, Alcatel-Lucent, Altera, Xilinx, Siemens, Infineon, Samsung Bioepis, Samsung Biologics and Boston Scientific. Greg has tried numerous district court and ITC cases to verdict involving a wide range of computer, software, communications and medical products related technologies.
Stefan Atkinson

Stefan Atkinson

Stefan Atkinson litigates a wide range of critical, complex litigation matters for clients in the United States and abroad, including securities, M&A and general commercial suits. He also regularly counsels companies and their directors on issues of corporate governance and litigation, often in connection with major strategic transactions. Stefan’s clients have included Acadia Healthcare, Barnes & Noble, Casper Sleep, Constellation Brands, Eli Lilly, Grubhub, H.J. Heinz, LG Electronics, Mylan, Naver, Pitney Bowes, Qualcomm, Starwood Hotels, Stone Point Capital, Vitamin Shoppe, The Williams Companies and Xerox.
Christian Atwood

Christian Atwood

Christian is an experienced and versatile counselor, well-known and sought out for his commercial acumen, creativity and bedside manner. He represents private equity funds, private companies and public companies in a wide variety of complex and strategically important business transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts and restructurings. Christian also advises private equity funds in growth capital investments, late-stage venture capital financings and the management of their portfolio companies, including debt and equity financings, acquisitions and liquidity events; is a key member of the Kirkland team advising private equity funds and investors on minority stake and control sale transactions, structured and preferred equity financings, and GP-led secondaries; and, in select circumstances, represents entrepreneurs and family offices who find themselves across the table from, or co-investing with, private equity funds, to provide counsel as to “market” terms and best practices in private equity-related structures and shareholder arrangements. Christian has experience across many industries, including technology, software, healthcare, industrials, manufacturing, financial services, consumer and retail. Clients include Apollo, Clearhaven Partners, General Catalyst, Great Hill Partners, L Catterton, Nordic Capital, Silversmith Capital and Windjammer Capital.
Jared Axelrod

Jared Axelrod

Jared Axelrod, a partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP and a co-head of the Structured Capital & Insurance Solutions team, leads the Firm’s collateralized loan obligation (CLO) platform. Jared advises clients on negotiating and structuring CLOs and other complex securitizations and has nearly a decade of experience advising clients within the sector. He has advised domestic and international asset managers and issuers across a wide variety of CLO transactions, as well as other complex structured credit financing arrangements, including private credit securitizations, rated note feeders and insurance solution products. Jared has extensive experience in the various regulatory regimes applicable to securitizations, including U.S. and EU Risk Retention Rules, the Volcker Rule and the Investment Advisers Act. He has also leveraged his significant experience in rating agency methodology to assist clients in developing novel rated securitization structures. Jared also works closely with the Firm’s Investment Funds Practice Group where he advises sponsors on the formation of CLO equity funds and other credit funds, as well as continuation credit fund transactions in the private funds secondary market.
Gabor Balassa

Gabor Balassa

Gabor Balassa is a senior litigation partner and trial lawyer. Gabor has successfully tried significant commercial disputes in federal and state courts and in arbitrations across the country, including in New York, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Pittsburgh, Tampa, and Wilmington. He represents a diverse client base, ranging from big-four accounting firms, to oil & gas, telecommunications, and pharmaceutical companies, to private-equity firms. Gabor’s broad experience encompasses class actions, accounting malpractice, breach of contract, fiduciary-breach, common-law and securities fraud, fraudulent transfer, and non-compete matters. He was recently commended in The Legal 500 for his trial work in the energy space.
Jon Ballis

Jon Ballis

Jon Ballis is Chairman of Kirkland’s Executive Committee, where he is responsible for establishing and executing upon Kirkland’s strategic priorities, including advancing business initiatives and promoting a culture of elite performance, collaboration, collegiality and continual improvement. He has long been recognized as one of the leading private equity attorneys in the United States, with Chambers USA recognizing him in every edition since 2004 and The Best Lawyers in America listing him in every edition since 2006. Private Equity Manager named him one of the top 10 private equity lawyers in the country and The Legal 500 U.S. selected Jon as one of only 10 private equity lawyers for its elite “Leading Lawyers” list. Clients describe Jon as a “go-to guy in the marketplace,” a lawyer with “stellar legal judgement,” and someone with the ability “to take a big picture, strategic perspective on transactions.” During his career, Jon has handled matters on behalf of many of the leading private equity firms in the country, including Bain, Blackstone, Centerbridge, Cerberus, Hellman & Friedman, KKR, Madison Dearborn, Pritzker Group, Silver Lake, TPG, and Thomas H. Lee.
Vanessa Barsanti

Vanessa Barsanti

Vanessa Barsanti is a partner in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. She has extensive experience in complex commercial litigation and is a leader of the Firm’s eDiscovery team. As the member of multiple winning trial teams, Vanessa’s experience extends to all stages of litigation, from drafting a complaint to post-trial briefing. Her focus is on managing the discovery process for matters of all sizes, including designing strategic and efficient collections, reviews and productions, organizing multi-track offensive and defensive written discovery, drafting and arguing successful discovery motions, and taking and defending depositions. Vanessa has won a number of major discovery victories for her clients, including preventing depositions of in-house counsel, modifying and quashing burdensome third-party subpoenas, protecting privileged documents, and more. Vanessa works with clients to develop practical, efficient, and defensible discovery strategies, including developing and implementing custom technical workflows to support eDiscovery needs. She is well-versed in sophisticated document and data analysis, making her uniquely situated to assist her clients in addressing large-scale discovery issues. Vanessa maintains an active pro bono practice, representing a wide array of individuals in need.
Mike Beinus

Mike Beinus

Michael Beinus represents clients in a wide range of tax matters, including complex partnership transactions, real estate investment trusts (REITs), debt and equity offerings, restructurings, investment fund formations, and mergers and acquisitions. Michael has represented various prominent public and private REITs, real estate and private equity funds, and sovereign wealth funds. His representations have been profiled in numerous publications, and he has been listed among the “Bankruptcy Tax Specialists in the Nation's Major Law Firms” by Turnarounds & Workouts and in The Legal 500 United States. Michael was also named as a leading lawyer for REITs: Tax by Chambers USA in 2021–2025, and the 2016–2026 editions of The Best Lawyers in America® in the field of Tax Law. Prior to joining Kirkland, Michael was a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP.
Jonathan Benloulou

Jonathan Benloulou

Jonathan Benloulou is a corporate partner in Kirkland’s Los Angeles office. Jon regularly advises private equity firms and private and public companies on merger & acquisition transactions, including leveraged buyouts, joint ventures, minority investments, restructurings and other strategic transactions. In addition, Jon has extensive experience in asset manager M&A transactions. He also counsels clients with respect to corporate governance and other general corporate matters.
Stephanie Berdik

Stephanie Berdik

Stephanie’s practice focuses on advising U.S. and non-U.S. private investment fund sponsors on all aspects of their business, including establishment of private investment funds, portfolio investment activities, capital raising, fund regulatory and compliance matters, and firm ownership and operational issues. She has worked with a variety of private fund sponsors and, in particular, has extensive experience advising managers of credit platforms on a wide-range of issues. Stephanie’s experience includes the formation of closed-end and open-end direct lending, tradable credit, special situations, opportunistic and distressed funds as well as separate account structures for a variety of U.S. and non-U.S institutional investors. Stephanie has also advised diversified asset managers in connection with the launch of a credit platform, including regulatory, compliance and operational issues related thereto. Stephanie’s experience also includes representing institutional investors in their investments in U.S. and non-U.S. private investment funds, co-investment funds and managed accounts across a range of asset classes.
Erica Berthou

Erica Berthou

Erica Berthou is a partner in the Investment Funds Group at Kirkland & Ellis LLP and serves on the Firm’s global Executive Committee. She has counseled U.S. and international investment fund sponsors on hundreds of billions of dollars of private fund formations across a wide variety of strategies. In addition to U.S.- and European-focused funds, Erica has significant experience with emerging markets fund formation, covering all major emerging markets, and the establishment of offices and other firm infrastructure in such markets. Erica has advised both sponsors and institutional buyers in connection with strategic investments in private investment firms and on structuring aspects in preparation of liquidity events for a firm’s owners. Erica regularly gives strategic advice to senior management of private equity firms.
Robyn Bladow

Robyn Bladow

Robyn Bladow is a nationally-recognized class action litigator who has acted as lead counsel for clients in federal and state trial and appellate courts around the country. Robyn has increasingly focused her practice on defending against consumer class actions and false advertising claims. She has a proven track record of obtaining dismissals of class actions or striking class allegations at the pleading stage, and defeating class certification or winning summary judgment at later stages. She has also negotiated multiple favorable class settlements when doing so aligns with her clients’ business priorities. While Robyn’s practice focuses on consumer and other class actions, she has successfully represented clients from many industries in various complex commercial disputes.
Ridge Blanchard

Ridge Blanchard

Ridge Blanchard is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, where his practice focuses on government investigations and congressional oversight. He regularly provides strategic counsel to major tech companies, financial institutions and other industry-leading clients facing corporate crises and high-stakes reputational matters. He has deep experience in advising clients in connection with public affairs challenges and regularly prepares CEOs and other senior executives to appear before Congress. Additionally, Ridge counsels clients facing regulatory and litigation-related inquiries brought by state attorneys general, and he provides prospective high-level public officials with advice related to government ethics and financial disclosure requirements.
Robert Blaustein

Robert Blaustein

Robert Blaustein is a partner in the Investment Funds Practice Group of Kirkland & Ellis LLP and recognized as a global leader in the field of private equity fund matters. Robert focuses his practice on advising private equity sponsors on all aspects of their business including the formation, marketing and management of investment products, the launching of new business lines, firm and fund level strategic transaction, as well as operational, legal and regulatory issues. He has counseled sponsors on funds raising over $50 billion in capital and worked with both sponsors and limited partners on spinout transactions, seed investments, the purchase and sale of minority interests in management companies, and co-investment transactions. Robert also routinely works with sponsors on key firm level issues including succession planning, carry plan structuring and corporate governance matters. Client engagements have included fund formations ranging from $100 million to well in excess of $10 billion, and have included PE, hedge real estate and credit funds. Representative clients: ACON, Balbec Capital, Caltius Capital, Greenbriar Equity, Mountaingate Capital, Owl Rock, Sentinel Capital, Shorehill Capital, Siris Capital, TZP Capital, Veritas Capital, Warburg Pincus, Welsh Carson and ZMC.
Andrew Bloomer

Andrew Bloomer

Andrew Bloomer is a litigation partner with extensive experience in a variety of complex litigation matters in federal and state trial and appellate courts. His areas of practice include class actions, multidistrict litigation, and general commercial and product liability litigation, trial work, appeals, and alternative dispute resolution proceedings. Andrew has represented clients in complex consumer class actions, products liability, commercial contracts, environmental, franchise, distributorship, breach of contract, fraud, RICO, ERISA, financial technology, and construction matters.
Philippa Bond

Philippa Bond

Pippa Bond is a capital markets partner in the Los Angeles office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. She has extensive experience in corporate finance and securities, including leveraged buyouts, acquisitions and restructurings. Pippa acts as counsel to issuers, sponsors and underwriters in registered public offerings, block trades and private placements of debt and equity securities, as well as tender offers and consent solicitations. Pippa also counsels institutional and corporate clients with respect to general compliance and governance. Her work spans a broad range of industries, with a focus on retail and consumer companies, industrials, transportation, real estate and financial services. In 2020, the Daily Journal recognized Pippa in its annual list of the “Top Women Lawyers” in California and the Los Angeles Business Journal awarded her “Corporate Attorney of the Year” as part of their annual “Leaders in Law” series.
William Bos

William Bos

Will’s practice focuses on leveraged financings and investments in the energy industry with a particular focus on the upstream, midstream and oilfield service sectors. He represents leading private equity sponsors, corporate borrowers and alternative lenders in a wide variety of financing transactions including acquisition finance, syndicated loan facilities and mezzanine investments. Will also represents debtors, creditors and investors in restructuring distressed companies, including in connection with Chapter 11 cases.
Nader Boulos

Nader Boulos

Nader Boulos concentrates his practice on the preparation and trial of complex commercial cases involving a wide range of substantive issues, including insurance coverage, commercial litigation, environmental torts and product liability. He has served as lead counsel in significant actions in state and federal courts across the country, representing clients in diverse industries including aerospace, manufacturing, telecommunications, energy, consumer products and pharmaceuticals. In the insurance coverage area, Nader has tried cases and counseled clients and their Boards on a broad array of coverage issues including comprehensive general liability insurance, D&O insurance, comprehensive general liability insurance, and major property damage and business interruption losses arising from catastrophic failures.
Zachary Brez

Zachary Brez

Zach works with companies and their senior officers and directors to investigate, mitigate, defend and advise on complex enforcement and regulatory matters in two primary areas: (1) securities, futures, and derivative financial products before the DOJ, SEC, and CFTC, as well as FINRA, the CME, ICE, CFE, and others; and (2) international risk, such as antibribery and corruption, sanctions, anti-money laundering, and antiboycott issues. Zach is the co-author of leading practitioner guides in these two areas, which are published by Bloomberg BNA: Commodities & Futures Enforcement: Practice and Procedure in CFTC and SRO Investigations and Sanctions Enforcement and Compliance: A Practitioner’s Guide to OFAC. Prior to joining Kirkland, Zach was a staff attorney in the Division of Enforcement for the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
Paul Brinkman

Paul Brinkman

Paul Brinkman is an intellectual property partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Paul focuses his practice on Section 337 litigation before the U.S. International Trade Commission. Over the past 25 years he has litigated over 85 ITC investigations, including taking over 20 to trial as lead counsel. Chambers described him as “great on his feet in court” with a “calm, practical and reasonable demeanor which works well with ITC judges.” His work for plaintiffs has led to orders excluding competitors’ products from the United States and high-value settlements and license agreements. On the defensive side, he has a strong track record of wins following trial, has caused several complainants to abandon their cases prior to the hearing and has even persuaded the ITC to decline to institute an investigation and to place several into its “100 day” pilot program for early resolution.
Mike Brock

Mike Brock

Robert “Mike” Brock is a nationally recognized trial lawyer with 25 years of experience handling high-stakes, bet-the-business litigation. His practice focuses on representing pharmaceuticals and life sciences companies, particularly in product liability and mass tort cases. He has tried cases in a wide range of areas and has represented clients in antitrust, malpractice, toxic tort and securities class action litigation, as well as in other types of cases. Mike is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. Mike has represented companies in some of the most high-stakes litigation in recent history. He currently serves as lead trial lawyer for BP in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill litigation. His trial performance has been highly praised and widely reported in the press. According to the Financial Times, one legal professional said that “in a courtroom full of top-tier legal talent,” Mike was particularly impressive, delivering “one of the most methodical and skillful cross-examinations I have seen” in 25 years.
Allison Brown

Allison Brown

Alli Brown is a litigation partner in the Philadelphia office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Alli is a nationally recognized trial lawyer who represents clients in high-stakes jury trials and has a proven track record of success in some of the most challenging jurisdictions around the country. She is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, an invitation only fellowship of lawyers “who have demonstrated the very highest standards of trial advocacy, ethical conduct, integrity, professionalism, and collegiality.” In 2022, Alli was honored with The American Lawyer’s coveted Litigator of the Year award for her “herculean efforts on behalf of clients facing existential challenges.” Noting her “against all odds” jury trial wins, AmLaw described her work in “the most high-stakes, high profile cases” as “off the charts.”
Brandon Brown

Brandon Brown

Brandon Brown is a trial lawyer, with particular experience in high-tech patent, trade secret, and copyright intellectual property litigation in U.S. Federal Courts and at the International Trade Commission. Brandon has successfully led and managed trial teams to jury and bench trial victories and is routinely recognized for his work in high-profile intellectual property matters. American Lawyer has twice named Brandon and his team “Litigators of the Week” for securing multi-hundred-million trial verdicts, highlighting Brandon’s ability to “adeptly present complex technical information” to a jury. The Legal 500 praised Brandon as a “rising star in IP litigation,” highlighting his “very smooth demeanor” and “excellent ability to question witnesses in the courtroom.” Clients have praised his “extremely sophisticated approach and strategy” to pre-trial and trial strategy, while others described him as an “excellent strategist, writer, and oral advocate.” The Recorder honored Brandon as one of its “Lawyers on the Fast Track,” awarded to lawyers under forty. Super Lawyers also lists Brandon as a “Rising Star” and Benchmark Litigation lists Brandon as a “Future Star.”
Rachel Brown

Rachel Brown

Rachel Brown is a partner in the Real Estate Group in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Her practice focuses on finance, venture formation, acquisitions and dispositions, and development. She advises borrowers and lenders in all types of real estate based financing transactions including first mortgage loans, construction loans, mezzanine financings, credit facilities, subscription facilities and other structured financings. Rachel also represents clients on workouts, loan sales, mortgage and mezzanine foreclosures, and participations. She advises real estate developers in acquisitions and dispositions of real estate assets as well as equity and operating partners in real estate joint venture transactions.
Reginald Brown

Reginald Brown

Reginald “Reg” Brown is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Reg has a vibrant and diverse crisis and governmental investigations practice, and he has previously served in the White House Counsel’s office, where he was the White House’s principal legal liaison to the Departments of Treasury as well as many independent financial services agencies. He is Chambers Band 1 ranked for both Congressional and Crisis matters. Reg has assisted leading institutions and high-profile individual clients with more than a hundred-fifty congressional inquiries and hearings, as well as many federal, state and global crisis avoidance and mitigation matters. Reg also leads teams of lawyers responding to some of the most challenging investigations and inquiries led by departments and agencies within the Administration and numerous State Attorneys General. Many of his clients are among the world’s most prominent banks, hedge funds, asset managers, private equity and venture firms, energy companies, technology and social media firms, healthcare institutions and government contractors, as well as individual CEOs and high-ranking public officials. Reg has also assisted prospective and incumbent high-level public officials in connection with complex ethics agreements and governmental controversies.
Allison Buchner

Allison Buchner

Allison Buchner is a litigation and intellectual property partner whose practice includes unfair competition, false advertising, trademark and copyright matters before federal and state courts nationwide. Allison has represented clients in litigation brought by consumers, competitors and federal regulators, including the Federal Trade Commission. She has provided advice regarding intellectual property and advertising best practices to companies in a variety of industries, including technology companies, media and television, food manufacturers and distributors, personal care and consumer goods, medical devices, apparel manufacturers and ecommerce. She has also advised internet-based businesses on myriad issues, including consumer protection laws, intellectual property issues, and data privacy/security.
Kim Bueno

Kim Bueno

Kim Bueno is a litigation partner in the Austin office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Kim defends clients in jury trials and multidistrict litigation. She is nationally recognized for her work in high-stakes personal injury actions and complex commercial litigation. Kim is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and has been recognized by Chambers USA for Litigation – Trial Lawyers in 2024–2025, Nationwide Product Liability & Mass Torts in 2021–2025 and Texas: Austin & Surrounds – Litigation: General Commercial in 2023–2025. The Legal 500 United States named her a Leading Lawyer in Product Liability, Mass Tort and Class Action – Defense: Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices in 2024 and 2025, highlighting her high-profile victories in federal and state courts throughout the country.
William Burgess

William Burgess

Bill Burgess’ practice focuses on appellate litigation across a broad range of subject matter, including patent litigation, commercial litigation, and regulatory matters. He has argued appeals in most of the United States courts of appeals, including several in the Federal Circuit. He has been to trial several times, joining trial teams to brief dispositive motions or prepare for appeals, and has also practiced before agencies such as the Patent & Trademark Office, International Trade Commission, and EPA. Before joining Kirkland, Bill was a law clerk to Judge Walter K. Stapleton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and Judge William C. Bryson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Susan Burkhardt

Susan Burkhardt

Susan Burkhardt is a partner in the Investment Funds Group in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Susan advises on the formation and operation of various types of private investment funds, accounts and structures across strategies, with a primary focus on credit funds. Susan has advised on the legal and commercial aspects of new fund product launches, including “funds of one,” separately managed accounts, flagship and overflow accounts, and customized and strategic multi-strategy arrangements, including developing of terms, addressing marketability considerations, conducting cost-benefit analyses and managing structuring issues, product documentation and negotiations with leading institutional investors across the globe.
Claire Campbell

Claire Campbell

Claire Campbell is a corporate partner in the Houston office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Claire’s practice focuses on representing private equity funds in all stages of fund activity, with a primary focus on equity investments and related portfolio management, including fund formation matters and co-investments. She has extensive experience in negotiating mergers and acquisitions and structured equity investments for private equity clients in multiple jurisdictions, as well as managing the material legal issues that arise with respect to a target post-acquisition through exit. Claire regularly manages investments from inception to acquisition to exit, including LOIs, deal negotiations, definitive documentation, structuring, funds considerations, co-investment negotiation, employment issues and portfolio level litigation. She also advises with respect to funds issues including cross-fund matters, allocations, concentration management and investment structuring for targets involving multiple funds.
Richard Campbell

Richard Campbell

Rick Campbell is a corporate partner who regularly represents clients in mergers and acquisitions, recapitalizations, debt and equity financings, restructuring transactions, SPAC transactions, corporate governance and other matters. The private equity firms, asset managers and family offices that Rick has represented include Arcline Investments, Cerberus Capital Management, Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, FJ Management, Golden Gate Capital, HCI Equity, Hellman & Friedman, Hilco Global, Lamb Partners, Lubert-Adler, Madison Dearborn Partners, Owl Rock, Redwood Capital, Silver Oak Services Partners, Thomas H. Lee Partners and Willis Stein & Partners, as well as many public and private companies, SPAC sponsors and family businesses.
Brigham Cannon

Brigham Cannon

Brigham represents corporate and individual clients in white collar and regulatory defense matters, including involving the FCPA, securities laws and the False Claims Act. Brigham frequently represents his clients before the Department of Justice, the SEC, state Attorneys General and other regulatory agencies. He also regularly leads internal investigations, advises companies on the effectiveness of their compliance programs, and assists companies who are facing investigations by enforcement agencies outside the United States.
Jeremy Carroll

Jeremy Carroll

Jeremy Carroll is a partner in the Corporate Practice Group in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP and a member of the Financial Institutions and Insurance Transactions & Regulatory Practice Groups. Jeremy’s practice focuses on corporate, securities and regulatory matters in the insurance, reinsurance and financial services industries. Jeremy regularly represents public companies, private companies, private equity sponsors and alternative assets managers in insurance industry transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, reinsurance transactions, joint ventures and strategic investments.
Patricia Carson, Ph.D.

Patricia Carson, Ph.D.

Pat Carson is a partner in Kirkland's New York Office. She has established a reputation as a top litigator in the life sciences field. While she focuses her practice on patent and trade secret litigation including jury and bench trials, Pat also has extensive experience counseling clients on patenting strategy, patenting evaluation and IP due diligence relating to transactions, including licensing, joint ventures and acquisitions. She has represented clients in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, chemical, medical device, consumer health care, consumer electronics and semiconductor fields. Pat has a scientific background and experience as a patent examiner. She devoted several years to postdoctoral studies at the Medical College of Virginia and the National Institutes of Health. She also spent several years in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a patent examiner in the biotechnology group.
Lauren Casazza

Lauren Casazza

Lauren Casazza is a partner in Kirkland’s Litigation and Government, Regulatory & Internal Investigations practice groups and has been at Kirkland for more than 20 years. Lauren is an established litigator, representing clients in a wide range of complex commercial litigation matters at both the trial and appellate court levels, and in arbitration. She also represents corporations in highly sensitive and complex investigations, including those related to government enforcement matters, workplace compliance and unlawful harassment issues.
Stuart Casillas

Stuart Casillas

Stuart Casillas is a partner in the corporate group for Kirkland & Ellis LLP's San Francisco office. Stuart is a merger and acquisition partner focusing his practice on the representation of private equity funds and their portfolio companies. Stuart acts as lead counsel in various private equity transactions, including going-private transactions, leveraged and management buyouts, growth equity investments, divestitures, restructurings and workouts, executive compensation matters, and various senior and subordinated debt financings. Stuart has negotiated and completed transactions in a wide variety of industries, including software, manufacturing, consumer products, computer hardware, post-secondary education, food service, retail, airline, financial services, oil and gas services, and logistics. Stuart’s representative private equity clients include Vista Equity Partners, Swander Pace Capital, GI Partners, Branch Brook Holdings, Bridges Ventures, Orchard Holdings, Gryphon Investors and Industrial Growth Partners.
David Castro

David Castro

David Castro Jr. is a corporate partner in the Houston office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. David’s practice focuses on mergers & acquisitions and the formation of joint ventures involving energy assets across the value chain, including traditional and renewable energy sources. David has represented clients in connection with the purchase and sale of a broad range of assets, including upstream and midstream oil and gas assets and companies, processing and fractionation facilities and specialty chemical businesses. David also regularly advises clients on joint development and farmout agreements, exchange agreements, gathering and processing agreements and other commercial arrangements concerning the development of oil and gas properties.
Dale Cendali

Dale Cendali

Dale Cendali is the internationally renowned head of Kirkland’s Copyright, Trademark and Internet Practice. Law360 named her an “Icon of IP” and an “MVP,” and the NLJ selected her as one of the “100 Most Influential Lawyers in America.” Dale has been named “Litigator of the Week” by AmLaw, and a “Power Lawyer” by The Hollywood Reporter. Dale routinely wins cases at the district court level on motions to dismiss, summary judgment and at trial. She is also an appellate lawyer, frequently arguing before US Courts of Appeal as well as the United States Supreme Court. Chambers routinely names Dale a top-tier lawyer and refers to her as a “phenomenal” and “power-house” lawyer with “on-point commercial and practical advice”. Among many bar appointments, she has served as Counsel to the Board of the International Trademark Association and on the Council of the ABA’s IPL Section. Dale is an Adviser for the ALI’s Restatement of the Law, Copyright project and helped draft the federal Trademark Dilution Revision Act. A prolific writer, Dale is co-editor of the ABA’s treatise, Copyright Litigation Strategies. She is a graduate of Yale College and Harvard Law School, and is an adjunct at HLS, teaching copyright litigation.
Norm Champ

Norm Champ

Norm Champ is a partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis, where he heads up the regulatory solutions practice in the Investment Funds Group. Previously, Norm was the director of the Division of Investment Management at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Prior to that he was the Deputy Director of the SEC’s Office of Compliance, Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) and the Associate Regional Director for Examinations in the SEC’s New York Regional Office. In these capacities he supervised SEC examinations of investment advisers and other market participants. Norm counsels the most sophisticated private fund sponsors in the world on complying with the constantly changing regulatory environment in the United States and other countries. Private fund sponsors seek out Norm’s advice because he can bring to bear his perspective as a former regulator, a former partner of a private fund manager and now a law firm partner. Norm’s large and wide-ranging practice, including defending numerous SEC examinations, gives him unparalleled insight into the most pressing regulatory issues in the market.
Yungmoon Chang

Yungmoon Chang

Yungmoon Chang is a partner in the Intellectual Property Practice Group. Her practice covers a wide breadth of patent, trade secret, trademark and copyright issues that span a variety of industries and technology, including electronics, construction, cosmetics, gaming, automobiles, pharmaceuticals and medical devices. Yungmoon has played an integral role on case teams in both federal and state courts, as well as before the USPTO and ITC. She has achieved numerous favorable outcomes for clients at all stages of litigation, including multiple trial victories, successful dispositive motions (including at the pleading stage) and early resolution of cases. She has experience in witness examination, oral argument and all aspects of discovery. In addition to her integral role on a number of high-profile cases, Yungmoon also maintains a robust pro bono practice and serves as co-chair of Kirkland’s Los Angeles Asian Affinity group.
Rohit Chaudhry

Rohit Chaudhry

Rohit Chaudhry is a debt finance partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Rohit’s practice focuses on energy and project finance transactions, sales and acquisitions, as well as project restructurings across the energy spectrum, including independent power, oil & gas, midstream and LNG sectors. Rohit represents private equity funds, developers, lenders and institutional investors on domestic and international transactions. He has led transactions in the United States, Latin America and Asia.
Pamela Chen

Pamela Chen

Pamela Chen is an investment funds partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Pamela represents registered open-end and closed-end funds, interval funds, tender offer funds and business development companies (BDCs), and their investment advisers, sponsors and independent board members. She advises on the structuring, formation and operations of a range of registered alternative products, including registered funds of private funds, manager of manager funds and liquid alternatives. Pamela also provides counsel to funds and investment advisers on matters arising under the federal securities laws, regulatory compliance, and a broad range of transactions involving funds and advisory organizations.
Benjamin Clinger

Benjamin Clinger

Benjamin represents private equity firms in connection with acquisitions and divestitures across a wide range of sectors. Now based out of the Firm’s Bay Area office, Benjamin was a founding partner of the Firm’s Houston office which opened in 2014. Benjamin has handled matters on behalf of Olympus Partners, Pritzker Group Private Capital, Peak Rock Capital, Gryphon Investors, Parthenon Capital Partners, Solamere Capital, Blackstone, Bain Capital, Madison Dearborn Partners, GTCR and Intermediate Capital Group (ICG).
Meghan Cocci

Meghan Cocci

Meghan Cocci is a real estate partner in the Los Angeles office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. She represents owners, investors and operators on their most complex and highest-value hospitality and real estate projects and transactions around the world. Meghan’s practice includes a wide range of real estate and hospitality matters, including single-asset and portfolio property acquisitions and dispositions and the formation and structuring of joint ventures. She regularly negotiates management, franchise and license agreements for hotels, resorts, golf courses, spas, restaurants and other hospitality and leisure projects. Meghan also represents clients in acquisitions and dispositions of hotel management companies and provides strategic counsel on mixed-use developments. Meghan is a nationally recognized real estate lawyer who advises clients on a broad range of transactions and strategic matters, with a particular focus on the hospitality industry. She has over two decades of experience advising on many of the most significant hospitality transactions in the U.S. and internationally, including Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Drawing on her sophisticated industry knowledge and strong working relationships with key market players, Meghan offers strategic insights into how business and legal issues can play out in the long term. She delivers creative and business-focused counsel to a variety of market participants, including hotel and non-hotel real estate investment trusts (REITs), private equity funds, family offices, and real estate developers to address her clients’ business objectives.
Matthew Cohen

Matthew Cohen

Matt Cohen is a partner in the Investment Funds Practice Group. His practice focuses on private investment funds and investment advisers. Matt represents clients on a wide variety of transactional and regulatory matters, including the formation, offering and operation of private equity funds, real estate funds, credit funds and hedge funds, as well as fund restructurings and secondary offerings. In addition, Matt has advised clients on the formation of alternative investment vehicle structures, including investment holding companies and permanent capital vehicles. Matt also counsels investment advisers with respect to the federal securities laws and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulations. In this regard, he frequently represents clients in SEC examinations conducted by various regional offices of the SEC, including San Francisco and Los Angeles.
David Cole

David Cole

David Cole is a tax partner in the Houston office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. David focuses his practice on tax disputes with trial experience in both federal and state courts. The tax matters David has litigated include disputes with taxing authorities and between private parties. The clients David represents include large and small partnerships, public and private partnerships, corporations, and high net worth individuals. His clients operate across an array of industries, including private equity, upstream (onshore and offshore), midstream, renewable energy, domestic and foreign manufacturing, real estate, and medical devices. Of course, the best outcome in a dispute is to avoid it altogether. To that end, David also leverages his dispute experience to advise clients on the front end of matters on approaches and strategies to minimize the likelihood of even having a dispute. When disputes happen, David represents clients in all phases of tax controversy from audit to IRS appeals to litigation. In his litigation practice, he has represented clients before the U.S. Tax Court, Federal Courts of Appeal, and in the Delaware Court of Chancery. He has extensive experience with partnership disputes, including litigating numerous cases under the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 (TEFRA) and advising clients on the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (BBA). David advises clients on all aspects of investments relating to renewable energy and carbon capture projects. Tax credits are critically important to the economics of these transactions, and David applies his practical tax dispute experience to help achieve and sustain the intended treatment of the tax credits.
Shanti Sadtler Conway

Shanti Sadtler Conway

Shanti Sadtler Conway is a partner in Kirkland’s New York office. Shanti focuses her practice on intellectual property, including copyright, trademark, false advertising, right of publicity, social media, licensing and contract issues. Her practice includes litigation and counseling in connection with a wide range of industries, including consumer products, fashion, hospitality, financial and insurance services, health care and pharmaceuticals, and media and entertainment. Shanti represents clients in a variety of fora, such as in federal and state trial and appellate courts, the International Trade Commission and the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, including in high-profile cases that have been featured in the mainstream media, legal periodicals, and trade press. She has been recognized in The Legal 500, sits on the Unfair Competition Committee of the International Trademark Association, is the Secretary of the Copyright and Literary Property Committee of the New York City Bar Association, and is on Law360’s Media & Entertainment Editorial Advisory Board. Shanti also represents non-profit corporations and low-income individuals in various pro bono matters, including intellectual property advice, child support cases, asylum applications, and Violence Against Women (VAWA) and U-Visa petitions. She directs the Firm’s NYC Public Service Fellowships, is a member of the Board of Directors for Immigration Equality, and has received the Immigration Equality Safe Haven Award four times for her asylum work.
Bernadette Coppola

Bernadette Coppola

Bernadette Coppola is a technology & IP transactions partner in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Bernadette’s practice focuses on technology, intellectual property, and data-related transactions and counseling, including mergers and acquisitions, outsourcing and services agreements, SaaS agreements, technology development agreements, supply chain agreements, intellectual property licensing arrangements, debt financing and bankruptcy matters, joint ventures, and strategic alliances. Bernadette’s practice also includes counseling clients on data security and data privacy matters. Bernadette has counseled clients in transactions involving a variety of industries including media and entertainment, consumer products, software and services, healthcare, fitness and wellness, and food and beverage.
Christopher Cox

Christopher Cox

Christopher Cox is a litigation partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Chris has represented an array of corporate clients, including medical device and pharmaceutical companies, consumer product manufacturers and insurers, in complex, civil litigation in state and federal courts across the country at both the trial and appellate levels. He has significant experience in coordinating and managing all stages of pre-trial discovery in multijurisdictional litigation. Chris regularly advises clients regarding discovery strategies and negotiates with opposing counsel regarding the scope of discovery, including in the e-discovery context. He has implemented and overseen factual investigation and expert witness development programs and has extensive experience in preparing company and expert witnesses for deposition and trial. In connection with his practice, he has developed knowledge regarding a variety of medical and scientific disciplines and public health issues. Prior to joining Kirkland, Chris was a member of several trial teams at Skadden and has experience as lead trial counsel. In 2010, acting as special assistant corporation counsel to the New York City Law Department, he tried more than 15 tort cases for the city of New York. Among other favorable outcomes he achieved on behalf of the city, Chris obtained a directed verdict in Ward v. The City of New York, which was affirmed on appeal by the Appellate Division, First Department. Chris has also advised clients in connection with investigations by state regulatory agencies and submissions to regulatory and legislative bodies. His appellate work includes key contributions to successful briefing before the Fifth Circuit and a New York state appellate court on behalf of a major life insurer.
Kevin Crews

Kevin Crews

Kevin Crews is one of the founding partners of the Dallas office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Kevin represents private equity sponsors and public and private companies in acquisitions and investments (controlling and minority), divestitures, joint ventures, financings, restructurings and other corporate matters. He also represents management teams in connection with the formation of joint venture platforms and follow-on transactions. In addition, Kevin has represented private equity sponsors in numerous preferred equity investments and other structured securities transactions. Kevin has wide-ranging industry experience, with a particular focus representing clients in the energy sector, including midstream oil and gas, oil and gas exploration and production, power generation and infrastructure.
Keith Crow

Keith Crow

Keith S. Crow P.C. is a partner based in the Firm's Chicago office. He represents clients in a wide range of U.S. and cross-border corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, securities offerings, joint ventures and spin-offs. In addition to transactional matters, he counsels public companies on corporate governance, public disclosure and other issues. He has significant experience with companies in distress situations and bankruptcy. Keith has been a Lecturer at The University of Chicago Law School for a number of years, where he teaches a course on business planning. Keith was seconded to a London law firm, where he was involved in a number of U.K. transactional and counseling matters.
Richard Cunningham

Richard Cunningham

Richard H. Cunningham’s practice focuses on antitrust and consumer protection law. Rich has extensive experience securing clearance for deals from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ), navigating FTC and DOJ investigations, and representing clients in government, competitor, and class action litigation involving antitrust and/or consumer protection claims. Rich began his legal career at the FTC, serving as a Staff Attorney and then as Senior Trial Counsel in the Bureau of Competition. At the FTC, Rich was a senior member of multiple litigation/trial teams, including in FTC v. OSF Healthcare System, FTC v. ProMedica, FTC v. LabCorp, and FTC v. Inova Health System, and the landmark FTC v. Whole Foods merger enforcement case. Rich also led high-profile FTC investigations that resulted in consent decrees/settlements, including DaVita/Gambro, Thermo Electron/Fisher Scientific, and Agilent/Varian. Rich received several awards during his tenure at the FTC, including the Director’s Award in 2008 and 2010 for exceptional contributions to the Bureau of Competition and the Stephen Nye Award in 2007 for outstanding performance by a junior attorney.
Gianni Cutri

Gianni Cutri

Gianni Cutri is a partner focusing on high-tech IP and commercial litigation, post-grant review proceedings and data protection and privacy matters. Gianni has litigated significant actions in state and federal courts around the country, including major patent cases in the Eastern District of Texas, the District of Delaware, the Northern District of Illinois, the Northern District of California, the Western District of Wisconsin the District of Colorado and the Federal Circuit. Gianni’s practice covers the full range of specialized IP courts as well, from the International Trade Commission, where has represented Complainants and Respondents in multiple Section 337 investigations, to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, where he is lead counsel in several ongoing post-grant review proceedings.
Daisy Darvall

Daisy Darvall

Daisy Darvall is a technology & IP transactions partner in the New York and Austin offices of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. She advises leading global private equity firms and strategic clients on a wide variety of commercial transactions involving intellectual property and technology, and has acted as a key advisor on some of the largest global technology deals in recent years. Daisy is highly experienced in a broad range of issues that arise in general corporate transactions, including private equity, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, equity and debt financing transactions and commercial agreements. Daisy has particular interest in software, AI, open source, privacy and data security, and IP protection issues, the latter arising from her background in media and entertainment. She has counseled global clients on IP protection and ownership issues in the context of collaborations and joint-ventures, and is recognized as a thought leader in the intersection of technology, ESG and AI. In addition to technology and software, Daisy’s advisory experience extends to a significant array of industries, including media, music, entertainment, fashion, advertising, sports and education. Daisy is qualified to practice in New York, Texas and Australia.
Luke Dauchot

Luke Dauchot

Luke Dauchot is a trial lawyer focusing on patent litigation. Luke has tried over twenty patent infringement and commercial cases in venues throughout the country. As lead trial counsel, he has obtained multiple defense verdicts and some of the country's largest patent plaintiff's verdicts. Luke’s consecutive jury trial wins for Samsung in 2015 won him recognition in 2016 as one of The National Law Journal’s IP “Trailblazers.” In 2011 alone, Luke won two jury verdicts totaling over $170 million. His clients include Medtronic, Samsung, Alcatel Lucent, and Intel among others. He also appears regularly before the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and United States Patent and Trademark Office Patent Trial and Appeal Board. Luke is consistently recognized as one of the country’s top patent trial lawyers. Those recognitions include: Benchmark Litigation 2013 - 2016, Local Litigation Star; Managing Intellectual Property, IP Stars 2013 - 2015; IAM Patent 1000: The World’s Leading Patent Practitioners, 2012 – 2016; The Legal 500 U.S., Recommended Lawyer, 2012 –2016; Law360’s “2011 MVP”; The Daily Journal’s “Top 75 Intellectual Property Lawyers in California,” 2009 – 2013; The Recorder's 2011 "Attorneys of the Year"; “Southern California Super Lawyers,” 2009 – 2015; The Best Lawyers in America, 2013 – 2015; and BTI Client Service All-Star, 2015. Luke has authored numerous articles on the subject of patent litigation, and he speaks regularly on the subject.
Jessica Davidson

Jessica Davidson

Jessica Davidson is a litigation partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Jessica, who was recently named a Distinguished Advisor of Product Liability by Financier Worldwide, is a widely recognized leader on product-related matters. She has been responsible for national case coordination, strategy, expert development and legal briefing in numerous federal and state court coordinated proceedings involving consumer products, prescription pharmaceutical products, medical devices and industrial products. She also has extensive class action and appellate experience in state and federal courts around the country.
Michael De Vries

Michael De Vries

Michael De Vries is a nationally recognized IP trial lawyer with substantial success representing plaintiffs in high-stakes intellectual property trials. He has served as lead counsel in numerous patent and other intellectual property-related matters. Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business has described him as “phenomenal at managing a case, but also phenomenal in a court,” as well as “experienced counsel for the handling of misuse of trade secrets allegations.”
John Decker

John Decker

John Decker is a partner in the Energy Regulatory Practice Group in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. John represents natural gas pipeline owners, liquefied natural gas importers, investor-owned utilities, owners of qualifying facilities, exempt wholesale generators, electric power marketers and municipalities before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the Department of Energy (DOE), and also counsels clients on commercial and regulatory issues in the domestic wholesale and retail electricity markets. In addition, he represents sponsors of energy infrastructure projects applying for grants and loan guarantees from the United States Department of Energy.
Armand Della Monica

Armand Della Monica

Armand is one of the leading members of Kirkland’s corporate practice and was a founding partner of the Firm’s Boston office after spending the first 20 years of his legal career in the Firm’s New York office. He represents large and middle-market private equity funds and their portfolio companies in a wide variety of transactions, including public and private acquisitions, divestitures, minority and growth equity financings, joint ventures and restructurings. He regularly counsels clients on corporate governance, securities law and strategic matters. Representative industries include health care, technology, media, business services, consumer products and retail, financial services, logistics/transportation services and manufacturing.
Paul Delligatti

Paul Delligatti

Paul Delligatti is an investment funds partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Paul’s practice focuses on representing investment advisers, registered investment companies and their independent directors and other pooled investment vehicles. His investment company clients include open-end and closed-end funds, exchange-traded funds, interval funds, tender offer funds, and business development companies. Paul is recognized as an industry leader in assisting private fund managers develop and structure products registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940, particularly interval and tender offer funds.
Kyle DeYoung

Kyle DeYoung

Kyle DeYoung is a partner in the Government, Regulatory & Internal Investigations Practice Group in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. He focuses his practice on representing public companies, financial institutions, and individuals in regulatory investigations and providing clients with strategic counseling when facing complex regulatory issues, potential enforcement actions, and corporate crises. Kyle has extensive experience handling regulatory investigations, both in private practice and at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and is an experienced litigator who has tried cases in federal court and in administrative proceedings. Kyle has investigated and litigated potential violations of the securities laws in a broad range of areas, including disclosure issues, insider trading, market manipulation, broker-dealer and investment adviser regulations, compliance failures, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, accounting issues, auditor independence rules, requirements for tender offers, failure to supervise, structured financial products, and whistleblower issues. He has significant experience with legislative and regulatory issues and has provided subject matter expertise to Congressional staff on a variety of topics including insider trading, market manipulation, stock buy-backs, activist investors, foreign companies listed on U.S. exchanges, administrative proceedings, public company disclosure requirements, the Electronic Communication Privacy Act, the Financial CHOICE Act and other issues.
Maureen Dixon

Maureen Dixon

Maureen S. Dixon is a corporate partner in Kirkland's Chicago office, focusing her practice on debt financing transactions. Maureen represents private equity groups and private and public borrowers in connection with the structuring, negotiation and documentation of secured and unsecured financings, leveraged buy-outs, bridge-debt facilities, asset-based financings, cross-border transactions, workouts, restructurings, DIP and exit financings, first-lien, second-lien, mezzanine and subordinated debt financings.
Thomas Dobleman

Thomas Dobleman

Thomas Dobleman is a corporate partner in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. He concentrates his practice principally in the areas of debt financing transactions, with an emphasis on leveraged buyouts, highly leveraged financings, work-outs, restructurings, liability management transactions and other special situation transactions. He represents private equity sponsors, private and public companies, hedge funds and alternative capital sources. The transactions that he has handled include complex secured and unsecured financings, leveraged buy-outs, debtor-in-possession and exit financings, bridge-debt facilities, asset-based financings, first-lien, second-lien, unitranche, mezzanine and subordinated debt financings and have ranged in size from billion dollar transactions to middle market and lower middle market transactions.
James Dolphin

James Dolphin

James “Jim” Dolphin is a partner in the Houston office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP working in the Environmental Transactions Practice Group. Jim manages environmental matters for private equity and industry clients involved in complex transactions concerning the acquisition and divestiture of large businesses and companies, and project development, including negotiating contractual language, counselling clients regarding regulatory compliance and exposure to environmental liabilities and advising on environmental insurance. Jim has significant experience advising clients on the environmental aspects of energy-focused transactions and projects, including energy transition projects involving carbon capture, utilization and sequestration, solar, energy storage, wind, geothermal, energy efficiency and environmental credits, attributes and offsets.
James Donohue

James Donohue

James Donohue is a partner in the Investment Funds Group in the Boston office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. James advises private investment funds, including private equity funds and venture capital funds, and their management companies on the formation of investment vehicles. He has extensive experience in the ongoing management and operation of private investment funds, including with establishing carried interest, co-investment and other compensation programs, structuring co-investment vehicles and fund investments, and advising on regulatory issues. He also has experience advising on management company matters and liquidity solutions within the private markets secondaries sector.
Daniel Donovan

Daniel Donovan

Dan Donovan, a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers, is an experienced trial lawyer. He tries energy, financial, technology and transportation disputes across the country. Dan has secured victories for plaintiffs and defendants in high-stakes matters before trial and appellate courts, juries and arbitration panels. He also counsels companies and executives on corporate governance matters. Dan has been ranked in Chambers USA and The Legal 500 U.S. and honored as The American Lawyer Litigator of the Week, a Benchmark Litigation Local Litigation Star and a BTI Consulting Group Client Service All-Star. Dan also litigates matters for voters, represents veterans seeking benefits, and spends substantial time training and mentoring lawyers. Dan has successfully tried and secured material judgments for plaintiffs: a multi-week arbitration for BNSF Railway resulting in a $200 million recovery; a two-week arbitration for BNSF Railway resulting in $109 million recovery; and a seven-week trial for BASF resulting in a $169.9 million jury verdict. Dan has successfully secured judgments for defendants as well: a seven-week trial for alleged fraud resulting in a complete defense verdict; judgment for an oil and gas producer in a series of cases preventing termination of leases in Utica Shale; and secured summary judgment against a certified class alleging underpayment of royalties. He has also argued appeals in federal Courts of Appeals, the Ohio Supreme Court, the North Dakota Supreme Court and intermediate state courts of appeals. Dan has tried many of the leading restructuring cases. In the past two years, Dan successfully tried confirmation trials for Chesapeake Energy and Covia Corporation, as well as representing Gulfport Energy during its restructuring. Dan represented Charter Communications in a 19-day trial against claims by its bank lenders that it breached its obligations in connection with more than $11 billion in secured financing and claims by creditors for breaches of fiduciary duties. In what the court characterized as the "most expertly tried” case over which he presided and “one of the most hotly contested confirmation battles ever conducted,” the court found in favor of Charter on all claims. The ruling was affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The case was spotlighted by The American Lawyer in its AmLaw Litigation Daily. In 2011, Dan successfully represented Innkeepers USA Trust against an investor for failing to close a $1.1 billion acquisition of a hotel portfolio due to an alleged material adverse effect. The litigation was closely tracked and noted in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.
Edward Donovan

Edward Donovan

Practice focused on intellectual property litigation including patents, trade secrets, trademarks, and related contract, antitrust, and unfair competition claims. Has represented clients in trials, preliminary injunction hearings, claim construction hearings, IPRs, arbitrations and before the ITC in technology areas including data networking, wireless communications, semiconductor manufacturing and circuitry, software, pharmaceuticals and medical devices. Trial experience in state and federal courts, the ITC, arbitration proceedings, and bankruptcy court. Experience counseling clients on appeals regarding patent-related issues involving industry standards, and FDA-implementation of the Hatch-Waxman Act.
Jeremy Dresner

Jeremy Dresner

Jeremy Dresner is a government, regulatory & internal investigations partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Jeremy’s practice focuses on government and internal investigations, regulatory counseling and crisis management assistance. He regularly counsels major financial institutions, market-leading companies and senior executives facing high-stakes reputational matters, frequently in connection with enforcement proceedings, congressional investigations and actions with significant collateral consequences.
Morton Dubin

Morton Dubin

Morty Dubin is a litigation partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Morty is a first chair trial lawyer known for developing innovative and successful trial defenses for clients in high stakes product liability matters. He has tried and won cases for The Dow Chemical Company, Johnson & Johnson and others throughout the most difficult jurisdictions in the United States. In recognition of his success and standards of practice, Morty has been elected by his peers into the American College of Trial Lawyers. Morty has been regularly selected by Benchmark Litigation as one of the Top 100 Trial Lawyers in the United States and was their Top Product Liability Litigation in the United States in 2021. In 2024, Morty was named one of 10 Powerhouse Trial Attorneys for his representation of Johnson & Johnson in its cosmetic talc litigation by Courtroom View Network (CVN). He has been ranked nationally for Products Liability & Mass Torts by Chambers USA for ten years, including a Band 1 ranking for Toxic Torts and a Band 4 ranking for Mass Torts. The publication recognized him as “an experienced mass torts litigator with a particular strength in asbestos related matters.” Clients interviewed by Chambers noted that he is “one of the top trial lawyers for our company” and “one of the best defense lawyers in the country in terms of mass torts.” He is also recommended by The Legal 500 United States, with the publication commenting that he is “noted for his trial skills, which have been put to good use in many high-profile product liability matters, including for Johnson & Johnson in its cosmetic talc litigation.” He was also selected by corporate counsel as a BTI “Client Service All-Star.” In addition to his product liability work, Morty also has experience with a broad range of commercial work.
Sam Dykstra

Sam Dykstra

Sam Dykstra is an environmental partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Sam advises private equity firms, financial institutions and strategic clients on a broad spectrum of environmental issues in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, real estate deals, and other transactional contexts. He leverages a sophisticated understanding of domestic and international environmental legal regimes to help clients achieve regulatory compliance and satisfy their risk management goals. Sam has significant experience with negotiating environmental contractual provisions and conducting due diligence, including retaining and working with engineers and other technical consultants. Additionally, he has advised clients in litigation, environmental insurance, and permitting matters. Sam has worked successfully with clients and targets across a wide array of industries, including transportation and logistics, healthcare, hospitality, agriculture, meat processing, retail, REITs, energy exploration and transmission, real estate development, environmental and restoration services, and the manufacturing and/or distribution of chemicals, pharmaceuticals, food products, cosmetics, electronic components, and plastics.
Robert Eberhardt

Robert Eberhardt

Rob Eberhardt is a debt finance partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Rob's practice focuses on the North American energy and infrastructure sector, in particular on renewable energy and energy transition matters. His clients include private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies, strategics and lenders, and he advises on debt finance, tax equity, tax credit transfers, acquisitions and dispositions, project development and commodity hedging. He has significant experience with a wide range of transaction types involving onshore and offshore wind, solar, conventional power, storage, transmission, carbon capture and sequestration, hydrogen and other assets.
Neil Eggleston

Neil Eggleston

Neil has a distinguished record of public service. He was White House Counsel to President Obama and advised on all legal and constitutional issues across a broad spectrum of domestic and foreign policy matters. Previously, Neil served in the White House Counsel’s Office for President Clinton, as Deputy Chief Counsel of the House Iran/Contra investigation, and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, including a stint as Chief Appellate Attorney. He also served as a law clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and for Chief Justice Warren Burger on the U.S. Supreme Court. Neil advises corporations and boards on a wide range of legal issues. He teaches a seminar at Harvard Law School on Presidential Power, a seminar he has also taught at Yale Law School. He is a Fellow with the American College of Trial Lawyers.
Kevin Ehrhart

Kevin Ehrhart

Kevin represents private equity funds, institutional investors, sovereign wealth funds, publicly traded REITs, owners, developers and others in all aspects of real estate-related transactions. Kevin focuses on capital investments within all segments of the capital stack, programmatic and one-off joint ventures, financings, property and operating company acquisitions. His practice includes all asset classes, with a particular emphasis on logistics and industrial assets, office, hospitality, multi-family, self-storage and other assets located throughout the United States and abroad.
William Eiland

William Eiland

William Eiland is a corporate partner in the Dallas office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. William’s practice focuses on private equity and energy transactions, with a particular emphasis on acquisitions and divestures in the upstream sector. His transactional experience also includes advising clients in connection with the formation of joint ventures, farmout and participation agreements to develop oil and gas properties, and other transactions concerning the acquisition, exploration and development of oil and gas properties. William began his career in the oil and gas industry working with private investors to acquire mineral interests located in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Montana and Alabama.
Bruce Ettelson

Bruce Ettelson

Bruce Ettelson, a partner and founder of Kirkland’s Investment Funds Group, focuses on structuring and forming premier private equity funds and their management companies, including funds for AEA, GI Partners, Golden Gate Capital, Gryphon Investors, Levine Leichtman, Madison Dearborn Partners, Marlin Equity Partners, Nautic Partners, Northern Trust, Peak Rock Capital, Summit Partners, Thoma Bravo, Vestar, Victory Park Capital and Wynnchurch Capital. Mr. Ettelson has represented over 100 private equity firms in the formation of over 500 funds. He also represents participants in secondary market transactions.
Michael Falk

Michael Falk

Michael Falk is a partner in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Michael advises clients in connection with qualified and non-qualified retirement plans, executive and equity compensation, Code Section 409A, Code Section 280G, and the compensation aspects of mergers and acquisitions. His experience includes assisting clients with the design and implementation of defined benefit and defined contribution retirement plans, nonqualified deferred compensation plans, and equity/incentive compensation vehicles.
Alexandra Farmer

Alexandra Farmer

Alex heads the Firm’s Sustainability Practice Group, which advises some of the world’s most sophisticated and dynamic private equity firms, corporations, and project sponsors and lenders on complex and evolving legal issues relating to ESG and climate-related regulatory requirements, investor demands, strategic opportunities, and voluntary reporting frameworks and coalitions. Having negotiated hundreds of successful transactions, Alex has significant experience advising clients on climate, environmental, and other ESG issues. This experience includes work on a number of renewable energy and energy transition-focused transactions and projects, such as solar, energy storage, wind, geothermal, energy efficiency, greenhouse gas offsets, and carbon capture, utilization and sequestration (CCUS). Alex provides strategic advice to clients on ESG & Impact issues arising in the context of fund formations, SPACs, IPOs, sustainable finance structures, and other complex transactions. Often bridging the gap between business, engineering, and law, Alex helps clients develop and implement ESG programs tailored to their specific investment strategies and investor preferences, ultimately maximizing opportunities, while minimizing downside risk. Such programs often involve voluntary and mandatory disclosures, due diligence, training, and risk mitigation tools.
Peter Farrell

Peter Farrell

Peter Farrell’s practice includes litigation matters before federal and state courts across the country. He has represented clients at all stages of civil and criminal litigation, including complex commercial disputes, civil RICO litigation, product liability matters, civil and criminal environmental litigation, defamation matters, civil and criminal False Claims Act litigation, criminal antitrust matters, and matters related to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. He also maintains an active pro bono practice.
David Feirstein

David Feirstein

David Feirstein’s practice concentrates on mergers and acquisitions, corporate and securities law matters and corporate governance. David is recognized in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business which states, “he is a superstar; he is incredibly smart and very efficient,” and clients “appreciate his ‘extraordinary attention to detail and ability to manage complicated issues and transactions.’” He was also recognized in 2016 and 2014 as a “Rising Star” by Law360 for Mergers & Acquisitions, in The Legal 500 U.S. for M&A: Large Deals ($1bn+) in 2018, 2017 and 2015, and by Super Lawyers for his corporate practice. David also teaches a class as an adjunct professor at NYU Law on negotiating corporate transactions.
Jeremy Fielding

Jeremy Fielding

Jeremy Fielding is a litigation partner in Kirkland’s Dallas office. He is an experienced trial lawyer, having tried dozens of complex commercial cases in state and federal courts, arbitrations, and other evidentiary proceedings across the country. Known for his creativity, relentlessness and extraordinary ability to connect with and persuade a jury, Jeremy has been recognized as one of the top trial lawyers in America and Texas by Chambers & Partners, Super Lawyers, Benchmark Litigation, Best Lawyers in America, Lawdragon and D Magazine. For his innovative approach to jury persuasion, the American Lawyer named him one of their 2022 “Trailblazers.” And Lawdragon selected him as one of its 500 Leading U.S. Energy Lawyers. According to Chambers 2023, clients describe Jeremy as “a phenomenal trial lawyer and counselor” with “a great courtroom presence” and who is “smart and quick and can pick up a complex case in the middle without missing a beat.” A versatile trial lawyer, Jeremy has successfully represented plaintiffs and defendants in complex, bet-the-company commercial disputes, ranging from complex business and energy litigation to antitrust and product defect matters. He has obtained numerous multimillion-dollar jury verdicts and settlements for plaintiff clients, including a multi-hundred-million-dollar jury verdict in 2014, one of the largest verdicts in the U.S. that year. Several of his trial wins have been highlighted by the American Lawyer in its litigator Wins of the Week column. Jeremy also has a First Amendment practice, representing companies in challenging commercial marketing regulations and restrictions on free speech grounds. Jeremy has won these cases at both the trial and appellate level, resulting in the invalidation of dozens of such regulations and restrictions across the country. For his pioneering work in this area, the National Law Journal recognized Jeremy as a First Amendment Trailblazer.
Mark Filip

Mark Filip

Mark Filip, a former federal judge and high-ranking Justice Department official, helps to lead Kirkland’s government enforcement defense and internal investigations group, and serves as a member of the Firm’s Executive Committee. As a partner in the Firm’s Chicago and Washington, D.C., offices, Mark has successfully guided numerous Fortune 100 companies and financial institutions through complex mission-critical moments, counseling leaders and Boards of Directors on high-stakes matters at the intersection of litigation, public policy and reputation. He also has an active civil litigation practice, and he is a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers.
H.T. Flanagan

H.T. Flanagan

H.T. Flanagan is a debt finance partner in the Dallas and New York offices of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. He advises private credit funds, alternative lenders and other investors in traditional private credit financings and bespoke capital solutions. He counsels such credit-oriented investors on direct originations, secondary market opportunities, complex intercreditor issues and novel structured capital investments. In addition to his private credit-focused lender-side practice, H.T. also advises private equity firms and their portfolio companies on a range of borrower-side leveraged finance transactions. He has extensive experience representing both lender and borrower private capital clients on acquisition financings, liability management transactions, debtor-in-possession financings, hybrid capital instruments and special situations investments.
Maggie Flores

Maggie Flores

Maggie Flores is a corporate partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Maggie represents an extensive roster of clients ranging from blue chip public companies to leading private equity sponsors to prominent private companies who tap her for their most complex and transformative transactions, including structuring and negotiating domestic and international mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, leveraged buyouts, carve-outs, de-SPAC transactions, capital markets offerings, and other recapitalizations, restructurings and strategic transactions. She also counsels clients on a range of general corporate and securities law matters, including corporate governance and fiduciary duties.
Brian Ford

Brian Ford

Brian Ford represents private equity firms, commercial lending institutions and other private and public companies in connection with the negotiation, structuring and documentation of secured and unsecured financing transactions for both borrowers and lenders, including senior, mezzanine and subordinated debt transactions, acquisition financings, dividend recapitalizations and loan workouts and restructurings, including debtor-in-possession and exit financings. Brian has led more than $20 billion of the most complicated and highest-profile financings over the last year.
David Foster

David Foster

David Foster is a partner in the Tax Disputes Practice Group in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. David advises a broad range of clients, including large corporations, private equity firms and hedge funds, partnerships, estates, exempt organizations and individuals, many of whom are subject to the IRS’ Global High Wealth initiative. His practice covers a diverse range of tax issues, including BBA partnership audit and litigation procedures, energy tax credits, international tax and transfer pricing, challenges to tax-exempt status, taxation of financial products, estate and gift taxes, deferred compensation, voluntary disclosures and criminal tax.
Kristen Fournier

Kristen Fournier

Kristen Fournier is a litigation partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Kristen has extensive experience in multidistrict litigations as well as mass tort and product liability litigation. She provides state-of-the-art defense strategies to companies facing high-profile, high-risk matters. Kristen is known for her sophisticated understanding of jury trends and her unique ability to craft messages that drive home her client’s objectives. She leverages her knowledge of human behavior to build long-term, litigation-wide strategies that ultimately guide judges and juries to the right conclusion for her clients.
Robert Fowler

Robert Fowler

Rob Fowler is an executive compensation partner in the Houston office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. He has extensive experience in the negotiation and drafting of employment and consulting agreements, restrictive covenants, clawback arrangements, golden parachute arrangements and other executive compensation and incentive programs, including the various forms of equity compensation arrangements, and regularly advises clients on issues under Sections 409A and 162(m) of the Internal Revenue Code. Rob also regularly advises clients regarding the executive compensation aspects of mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and restructuring transactions and regarding the integration of plans and arrangements following a transaction. Rob has helped design and implement compensation and benefits arrangements for numerous master limited partnerships (MLPs). He also has broad experience in the design and implementation of employee benefit plans, including multiemployer plans and related tax-qualification requirements, reporting and disclosure matters, prohibited transaction issues and other fiduciary concerns. Additionally, Rob advises clients regarding employee stock ownership (ESOP) transactions, and has also been involved in several benefits litigation matters.
Corey Fox

Corey Fox

Corey Fox is a partner in Kirkland's corporate transactional group. His practice is primarily focused on counseling private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies in structuring, negotiating and executing complex business transactions, including domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, leveraged buyouts, going-private transactions, purchases and sales through bankruptcy, carve-out transactions, corporate restructurings and recapitalizations, as well as general corporate matters. Corey has led representative matters ranging in size from several million dollars to $10 billion in a variety of industries, including technology, computer software and hardware, healthcare, financial services, manufacturing, education, retail, apparel, food, agriculture, restaurant, consumer services and automotive. Corey has handled such matters on behalf of, among other distinguished private equity clients, Thoma Bravo, Centerbridge Partners, Sun Capital Partners, Paine Schwartz Partners, SK Capital Partners, New Water Capital, and Soundcore Capital Partners. Corey is a member of Kirkland’s Recruiting Committee, Non-Share Partner Review Committee and Operations Committee.
Ted Frankel

Ted Frankel

Ted Frankel focuses on mergers and acquisitions and other strategically important transactions domestically and internationally, with a significant portion of his practice involving transactions for private equity funds and their portfolio companies. His practice also involves joint ventures, equity investments (including PIPEs and growth equity investments), recapitalizations and corporate restructurings. Ted’s transaction experience spans a variety of industries, including automation, software, technology, media, healthcare, consumer products, retail, business and financial services, specialty chemicals, industrial products, manufacturing and material handling systems. Clients include Arsenal Capital Partners, Bain Capital Partners, Berkshire Partners, Motive Partners, Thomas H. Lee Partners and Warburg Pincus.
Shellie Freedman

Shellie Freedman

Shellie Freedman is a partner in Kirkland’s Technology & IP Transactions practice. She focuses her practice on complex transactions involving technology and intellectual property, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic alliances, collaboration agreements, IP licenses, outsourcing arrangements, cybersecurity and data privacy, and other strategic commercial contracts. Building on her scientific degrees in molecular and cell biology, Shellie also has extensive experience in life sciences transactions including M&A support, joint ventures, collaborations, and licenses. In addition, Shellie has experience counseling clients in a broad range of other industries, including healthcare, consumer products, technology, financial services, insurance and media.
Sharon Freiman

Sharon Freiman

Sharon Freiman is a capital markets partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Sharon advises issuers and underwriters in a broad range of matters, including initial public offerings and other equity offerings, high-yield and investment-grade debt offerings, and private placements of securities. Sharon also regularly counsels issuers on SEC disclosure and compliance, corporate governance and general corporate matters. Sharon's experience ranges across a variety of industries, including life sciences, financial institutions, consumer goods and technology.
Todd Friedman

Todd Friedman

Todd Friedman is an intellectual property litigator and partner in Kirkland’s New York office, with a primary focus on patent disputes. In particular, Todd has significant experience representing clients in high-stakes litigation in all areas of technology, including semiconductors, computer software and hardware, telecommunications, and medical devices. Todd has tried numerous cases to verdict, and his clients have included some of the nation’s largest companies, such as Intel, Samsung, and IBM, among others. The Legal 500 U.S. has consistently recognized Todd’s work on the Firm’s Tier 1 Patent Litigation team and in the Firm’s International Trade Commission patent practice, and noted that he is an “excellent strategist” and “responsive, organized and an effective oral advocate.” Todd has tried and led patent cases in federal courts across the country and in the United States International Trade Commission. In addition to his trial work, Todd has served as lead counsel in many inter partes reviews before the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board. He also has extensive experience conducting infringement assessments, coordinating clients’ efforts in multinational patent disputes, and helping companies manage their patent portfolios through active licensing programs.
Jennifer Gasser

Jennifer Gasser

Jennifer Gasser is a corporate partner in the Houston office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. She advises public and private companies in the energy and infrastructure industries on strategic transactions, including mergers, acquisitions and divestitures and joint ventures. Jennifer also advises clients in connection with the negotiation of partnership and LLC agreements, securities laws compliance, and corporate governance. She has advised clients across a broad range of industries, including energy, infrastructure, technology, and financial services.
Olivia George

Olivia George

Olivia is a debt finance partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, practicing with a focus on energy and infrastructure project finance transactions. She has represented investment and commercial banks and sponsors in various types of project finance transactions.  Her work spans across industries as she has advised clients in respect of financings and acquisitions of solar and wind renewable energy, battery storage, conventional energy, LNG and midstream facilities, hydrogen, carbon capture, and mining.  She has significant experience negotiating financings across the project lifespan and throughout the capital stack.  She represents clients on financings at both the asset and mezzanine level, including hybrid corporate development loan facilities, acquisition financings, construction and term facilities, note purchase facilities and restructuring facilities.   Olivia was selected as a Rising Star in 2024 by Super Lawyers and has been recognized in 2024 by Legal 500 for her work with Kirkland's Project Finance team.
Michael Glick

Michael Glick

Michael Glick is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. With a practice focusing on trial and appellate litigation, Michael handles lawsuits in both state and federal courts and across all industries on both the plaintiff and defense side. Michael has represented Fortune 500 companies and other clients in matters involving contracts, fraud, the False Claims Act, false advertising, voting rights, antitrust, bankruptcy, constitutional law, mergers and acquisitions, and RICO. He has resolved cases with motions practice, represented clients at numerous trials (including first-chairing a federal bench trial), and argued before the federal court of appeals.
Robert Goedert

Robert Goedert

Robert Goedert concentrates his practice in capital markets transactions and public company mergers and acquisitions. Robert has extensive experience in all types of public and private securities transactions, including initial public offerings, block trades, high yield and investment grade debt offerings, tender offers and exchange offers. Robert also regularly advises both public companies as well as private equity funds on complex corporate transactions involving public companies, including going-private transactions, mergers, acquisitions and divestitures. In addition, Robert regularly advises publicly traded corporations and their executive officers and directors on corporate governance, SEC compliance and disclosure matters, stock exchange listing requirements, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Dodd-Frank Act, Section 16 reporting, stockholder activism and proposals, executive compensation and fiduciary duties of directors and officers.
Asheesh Goel

Asheesh Goel

Asheesh Goel is one of the leaders of Kirkland’s government & internal investigations practice and serves on the Firm’s Executive Committee. Asheesh advises clients on securities enforcement matters, including internal investigations, government investigations and enforcement actions. Asheesh has developed substantial depth on enforcement matters and transactional issues involving the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other related laws, financial statement and disclosure issues, insider trading and other securities enforcement issues.
Sandra Goldstein

Sandra Goldstein

Sandra Goldstein is a litigation partner in Kirkland’s New York office and was a member of the Firm’s Executive Committee. She has a broad litigation practice, with a particular focus on securities, M&A, and commercial disputes. Her clients have included 3G Capital, Barnes & Noble, Constellation Brands, CrowdStrike, Grubhub, Honeywell, IBM, J. Crew, Novartis, Pitney Bowes, Qualcomm, Starwood Hotels, Target, United Airlines and Xerox. Sandra represents clients, including corporations and their boards, in all manner of securities litigation—stock drop class actions, shareholder derivative suits, litigation demands—often securing pretrial wins, including a major summary judgment victory in a multibillion dollar securities fraud class action lawsuit. She has also regularly represented clients in contemplated or hostile transactions, with a cumulative value of hundreds of billions of dollars, and has aided clients in navigating complex corporate governance issues. Sandra is lead courtroom counsel, winning dozens of favorable decisions after oral argument at both the trial and appellate court levels concerning dispositive motions, motions for preliminary injunctions and expedited discovery. Recently, Sandra had two major victories for Constellation Brands. First, in March 2023 she secured a unanimous verdict after a two-week trial against Grupo Modelo, which is owned by Anheuser-Busch, by persuading the jury that hard seltzer is beer under the applicable contract. Then, in March 2024, Sandra successfully argued the defense of the Second Circuit appeal in that matter, which the Court affirmed in full. She also routinely advises boards, in house counsel and company executives on litigation and corporate governance considerations at various stages of a deal, in collaboration with the Firm’s transactional attorneys.
Robert Goodin

Robert Goodin

Rob Goodin is a partner in the Houston and Austin offices of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Rob’s practice focuses on complex and strategically important transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, private equity investments, divestitures, joint ventures and corporate governance, with a particular focus on the infrastructure and energy sectors. Rob is also an adjunct professor at The University of Texas School of Law where he teaches a course on transactional law and related skills entitled “Doing Deals.”
Scott Gordon

Scott Gordon

Scott Gordon is the leader of Kirkland’s Derivatives Practice Group and a member of the Structured Finance & Structured Private Credit Practice Group. Scott is a leading counsel to end-users, representing clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to many of the world’s preeminent private equity funds and their portfolio companies in connection with structuring, negotiating and documenting interest rate, currency, commodity, credit and equity derivative transactions. Scott also advises clients on derivatives regulation and derivatives issues in M&A, restructuring and securitization matters and acts as lead counsel in securitization offerings. Scott is also a senior member of Kirkland’s Structured Finance & Structured Private Credit Practice Group, where he acts as lead counsel in securitization transactions, with a focus on timeshare loans and esoteric assets, and handles matters relating to collateralized loan obligation (CLO) and collateralized fund obligation (CFO) transactions.
Christopher Greco

Christopher Greco

Chris Greco is a partner in the Restructuring Practice Group and is global co-chair of Kirkland’s Firmwide Recruiting Committee. He represents companies, sponsors and investors in complex liability management, financings, recapitalizations, restructurings and other special situation transactions. For nearly two decades, Chris has advised clients on some of the largest stressed and distressed situations in the energy, retail, healthcare, entertainment, media, education, technology, transportation, and global engineering and construction industries. In recent years, Chris has advised clients in some of the most complex and novel liability management exercises (LME) ever completed, including LMEs for Travelport, MultiPlan, Packer’s Sanitation, among many others. Chris has led dozens of successful out-of-court restructurings, avoiding the need for a formal court proceeding where possible, including matters such as Wheels Up, Casper Sleep, Wahoo Fitness, Dunn Paper, Service King, Team INC and PSS Industrial, as well as a significant number of other confidential engagements.
Leo Greenberg

Leo Greenberg

Leo Greenberg represents large and middle market buyout funds and their portfolio companies in a variety of domestic and cross-border transactions, including public and private acquisitions, divestitures, growth capital investments, joint ventures, equity financings, corporate restructurings and workouts. Representative industries include technology, media, health care, business services, consumer products, manufacturing, financial services, logistics/transportation services, oil and gas services, and retail.
Joshua Greenblatt

Joshua Greenblatt

Joshua Greenblatt is a litigation partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Josh counsels and represents private equity and other investment firms, corporations, partnerships, family offices, and individuals in complex commercial litigation, in arbitration, and in proceedings involving the SEC, FINRA and other regulators. Josh’s first-chair practice covers industries including financial services, real estate, insurance, accounting, media, and manufacturing. He handles a broad range of securities and credit-related matters, restructuring litigation, commercial and contract disputes, corporate governance issues, and investigations.
Ashley Gregory

Ashley Gregory

Ashley is a partner in Kirkland’s corporate department and focuses her practice on debt financings. She primarily represents public and private corporate borrowers and private equity clients in connection with complex financing transactions, both secured and unsecured, including leveraged acquisition financings, senior and subordinated lending transactions, second lien, mezzanine and asset-based financings, debtor-in-possession facilities, workouts and restructurings, and other banking and credit matters. Financings range across sectors and in size from tens of millions to in excess of $7 billion.
Nicole Griffin

Nicole Griffin

Nicole Griffin is an investment funds partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Nicole has over twenty years of experience counseling insurance companies, fund groups, investment advisers, independent directors and other industry participants. She has particular experience advising independent directors on governance matters and guiding advisers and funds on complex regulatory issues under the Investment Company Act of 1940. She also works with fund sponsors and independent directors on new funds, including exchange-traded funds. Nicole’s practice spans the full gamut of registered fund types, including open-end and closed-end funds, money market funds, exchange-traded funds, and variable and fixed life insurance and annuity products.
Robert Luke Guerra

Robert Luke Guerra

Luke Guerra is a partner in Kirkland’s corporate group. His practice focuses on private equity, mergers and acquisitions, corporate securities and finance and corporate governance. Luke represents entrepreneurs, buyers, sellers and private equity funds in transactions, including leveraged buyouts, mergers and acquisitions, equity investments, restructurings and recapitalizations. Luke frequently represents private equity firms, including Clearlake Capital Partners, TPG, Industrial Growth Partners, Lion Capital, Lovell Minnick Partners and Shamrock Capital Advisors, and their portfolio companies in a range of complex corporate transactions across industries such as technology, manufacturing, retail, financial services, energy, health care and media and entertainment.
Karl Gunderson

Karl Gunderson

Karl Gunderson is a litigation and white-collar partner with extensive experience in complex commercial, environmental, and products liability litigation, including multidistrict civil litigation and international arbitration, as well as governmental investigations and risk and compliance counseling. Karl’s practice has focused on representing clients in heavily regulated industries, including oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, and automotive manufacturing. He has extensive experience in various stages of litigation and investigations, including efficiently managing the discovery process to limit costs and effectively integrate it into the trial-preparation process.
Lucille Hague

Lucille Hague

Luci Hague is a leading national security advisor to private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies, asset managers and operating companies based in Kirkland’s Washington, D.C., office. Her practice focuses on CFIUS reviews, U.S. outbound investment controls and OFAC sanctions matters. She is widely recognized for her significant experience in addressing CFIUS and other national security considerations and risks across matter contexts and transaction types, including fund formation and design, transaction structuring, co-investments, joint ventures, license agreements and exits. Luci has also successfully led negotiations for many complex CFIUS mitigation agreements to address the U.S. government’s identified national security concerns in specific transactions, and maintains a leading practice on CFIUS non-notified, enforcement and penalty/settlement matters. Her experience includes securing CFIUS clearance for buy- and sell-side clients, including co-investors, across a range of industries including artificial intelligence, biotechnology, defense, real estate, logistics, infrastructure, telecommunications, cybersecurity, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and software.
Bryan Hales

Bryan Hales

Bryan Hales is an experienced first-chair trial lawyer with a focus on patent and trade secret litigation. He has won jury trials, bench trials and arbitrations first chair. Recent highlights include the successful defense as lead trial counsel for ZimmerBiomet in a multi-hundred-million dollar arbitration after a 10-day trial, winning a multi-patent case as lead trial counsel for Sandoz’ over its proposed generic version of ophthalmologic drugs, the successful defense as co-trial counsel for a major pharmaceutical company in two separate billion-dollar-plus arbitrations, and the successful defense as lead trial counsel for a major medical device manufacturer in two confidential arbitrations, and winning as lead trial counsel a five-day trial for Zimmer in Delaware federal court, defeating the claims of two prominent orthopedic surgeons—one was the head physician for the 1992 U.S. Olympic Basketball “Dream Team” and the head physician for the New York Knicks for more than 25 years—that they should be named as inventors on three Zimmer patents related to some of its most successful artificial knee implants.
Kimberly Meng Han

Kimberly Meng Han

Kimberly Meng Han is a partner in the Corporate Practice Group in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP and a member of the Mergers & Acquisitions and Insurance Transactions & Regulatory Practice Groups. Kimberly regularly represents public companies, private equity sponsors and private companies in a wide variety of complex business transactions with a focus on the insurance industry including mergers and acquisitions, reinsurance transactions, joint venture transactions, carve-outs and divestitures and strategic investments. Kimberly also counsels clients with respect to general corporate and governance matters.
Sophia Han

Sophia Han

Sophia Han is a tax partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Sophia's practice focuses on the tax aspects of domestic M&A and the renewable energy sector. She regularly advises project sponsors, tax equity investors and lenders on energy tax credits, project developments and financings, and M&A transactions for wind, solar and energy storage assets. Sophia represents clients on a variety of other federal income tax matters. Her experience also includes advising clients across a variety of industries, including medical device, retail and tech, on transfer pricing disputes.
Joshua Hanna

Joshua Hanna

Joshua Hanna is a partner in the Real Estate Practice Group in the Firm’s Chicago office. Josh focuses on complex real estate transactions including joint ventures, club deals, acquisitions and dispositions on behalf of private equity funds, REITs, foreign pension funds and other institutional investors. He also regularly advises clients in the financing, development, management and restructuring of real estate assets. Josh’s practice covers transactions involving various asset classes, including office, retail, multifamily, industrial, hospitality and community living properties.
John Hartmann

John Hartmann

John Hartmann is a partner in Kirkland & Ellis LLP’s Litigation Practice Group, where he focuses on shareholder, professional liability and business litigation matters, as well as regulatory enforcement proceedings and corporate internal investigations. John has represented leading corporations, professional services firms, private investment firms, as well as their directors, officers and partners, in numerous securities class actions, shareholder derivative suits, disputes over corporate transactions, and breach-of-contract actions in federal and state trial and appellate courts throughout the United States. He has also represented clients in dozens of SEC and other regulatory enforcement investigations and proceedings and has regularly advised corporations, boards, and board committees regarding internal investigations and corporate governance matters. John has tried many cases and argued numerous appeals in both state and federal courts.
Parimah Hassouri

Parimah Hassouri

Parimah Hassouri is a partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP whose practice focuses on insurance regulatory matters. Parimah advises US and international insurers on a wide range of insurance regulatory and corporate matters. She has represented clients operating in the life, health, property and casualty, financial guaranty, mortgage guaranty and title insurance industries. Parimah also represents private equity funds and other sponsors acquiring and divesting insurers and/or insurance-related entities. In addition, Parimah assists clients with regulatory filings associated with mergers, acquisitions and other changes in corporate structure, including mutual holding company conversions and redomestications. She also assists with the formation and licensing of insurance companies, insurance intermediaries and captive insurers, and routinely assists clients with corporate governance and compliance issues. Parimah also advises early-stage and developed InsurTech entities on regulatory and corporate issues. Parimah actively monitors state insurance legislative and regulatory developments in a variety of areas, including insurance holding company act compliance, rebating and inducement issues, and non-admitted insurance and reinsurance transactions.
Robert Hayward

Robert Hayward

Bob Hayward — named a 2025 “Dealmaker of the Year” by The American Lawyer — helps lead the global team that has been awarded “Capital Markets Practice Group of the Year” numerous times by Law 360. Bob was also named a “Notable Gen X Leader” by Crain’s Chicago Business in 2021 and a “Trailblazer in the Midwest” by The American Lawyer in 2022. Bob provides direct, thoughtful and practical advice to publicly-traded corporations — across all industries — and private equity funds and their portfolio companies in all aspects of securities, M&A, spin-offs, SEC compliance / disclosure, corporate governance, stockholder activism, executive compensation, crisis management and general corporate matters. He has extensive experience representing companies in IPOs, high-yield and investment grade debt offerings, private financings, joint ventures and public and private M&A transactions. Some of the publicly-traded corporations that Bob regularly advises include: The Boeing Company, Deere & Co., Kellanova, Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM), WK Kellogg, Cushman & Wakefield, Ryan Specialty Group, PowerSchool, JAMF Software, R1 RCM, Inc., Whirlpool Corporation, Sylvamo Corp., Victoria’s Secret, Wynn Resorts, Carvana Co., Maravai LifeSciences, Express, Inc., Flutter Entertainment, U.S. Silica Holdings, Inc., Innovage, Integrated Ad Science, Champion Homes and Equity Lifestyle Properties, Inc. After representing Kellogg Company for over 20 years, Bob led its separation into two independent, publicly traded companies — Kellanova and WK Kellogg Co.
Brendan Head

Brendan Head

Brendan primarily represents buyout funds and their portfolio companies in domestic and cross-border transactions, including mergers, leveraged buyouts, acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures and corporate restructurings. Brendan has been responsible for structuring, negotiating, documenting and closing transactions in a variety of industries including distribution, food and beverage, specialty chemicals, sports and media, healthcare, technology, business services and manufacturing. Brendan’s practice also includes representing parties in strategic transactions involving professional sports teams in the world’s major sports leagues including Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association.
Elizabeth Hess

Elizabeth Hess

Elizabeth Hess has broad experience representing clients in government enforcement defense and internal investigations, and in a variety of litigation matters. She defends corporations and corporate executives in government investigations and other criminal and regulatory proceedings in connection with various allegations. She also leads internal investigations for a variety of clients and counsels clients on the adequacy of their internal controls and compliance policies and procedures. Elizabeth has also acted as trial, appellate, and arbitration counsel in both individual and class action suits involving claims in various practice areas, including state and federal False Claims Act liability, complex commercial disputes, unfair and deceptive trade practices, consumer fraud, securities and shareholder class actions, and professional liability involving auditors/accountants, architects, engineers and contractors.
George Hicks

George Hicks

George W. Hicks, Jr., is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. His practice focuses primarily on Supreme Court and appellate matters and critical motions work. George has written successful merits briefs in seven cases before the Supreme Court, obtained successful summary dispositions in two other cases, and written successful petitions for certiorari as well. He has also authored successful briefs and dispositive motions before numerous federal and state courts of appeals and trial courts. His matters have addressed a wide range of subjects including administrative law, bankruptcy, CERCLA, commercial law, due process, election law, employment law, equal protection, ERISA, federal criminal law, the First Amendment, intellectual property, jurisdiction, preemption, presidential power, and securities law. George also provides strategic counseling and expertise to leading companies and organizations on a variety of legal issues. He has represented a diverse array of clients, including companies in the pharmaceutical, financial services, technology, insurance, air carrier, and energy and utility industries; states and municipalities; and individuals. He has argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth (en banc), Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Circuits, federal bankruptcy court, and the Maryland Court of Appeals.
Rodney Hill

Rodney Hill

Rodney H. Hill is a tax partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Rodney advises clients on the tax aspects of a range of transactions, with a particular focus on investment fund formation and transactions involving investment fund sponsors. Rodney has extensive experience in connection with the structuring and formation of investment funds, including private equity funds, hedge funds, funds-of-funds and separate accounts across alternative asset classes, including buyout, growth, venture, infrastructure, renewable energy, credit and real estate. He also frequently represents clients in connection with GP stakes transactions, continuation funds and GP-led secondaries.
Sean Hill

Sean Hill

Sean is a partner in Kirkland’s Investment Funds Practice Group. He advises investment managers and sponsors across the full life cycle of their businesses, with a focus on private fund formation, secondaries and liquidity solutions, and other fund- and sponsor-level matters. Sean works with managers across the spectrum of size and maturity, from emerging managers to well-established multistrategy firms, bringing a practical, market-informed perspective to complex mandates. Sean counsels sponsors on the formation and structuring of private funds across buyout, credit, special situations, secondaries-focused funds and funds of funds. His experience includes hybrid and evergreen structures, funds of one, separate accounts, co-investments, rated note offerings and collateralized fund obligation structures. Sean has more than 25 years of experience advising on the full spectrum of secondaries and other liquidity transactions, including GP-led transactions, preferred equity investments, NAV-based financings, structured and synthetic transactions, tender offers, leveraged secondaries and fund liquidations. He regularly advises on the structuring and execution of complex single-asset, multi-asset and credit portfolio GP-led and continuation fund transactions, as well as fund recapitalizations and restructurings. Beyond fund formation and liquidity transactions, Sean advises sponsors on firm ownership and operations, succession planning and incentive arrangements. He also advises on strategic transactions involving alternative asset managers, including seed capital arrangements, minority and strategic investments, structured capital transactions, investment team spin-outs, joint ventures and asset management mergers and acquisitions.
Neil Hirshman

Neil Hirshman

Neil Hirshman focuses his practice on both domestic and international transactions, including outsourcing (business process and information technology), software development, software, data, trademark, patent and technology licensing, telecommunications, commercial agreements (supply, distribution, development), joint ventures and strategic alliances. In addition, Neil advises clients on the intellectual property and technology issues that arise in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, recapitalizations and bankruptcies.
Amanda Hollis

Amanda Hollis

Amanda Hollis is an intellectual property litigator and partner in Kirkland’s Chicago office. Her practice includes all areas of technology, including biotechnology, medical devices, chemistry, computing and electronics, and her clients have included some of the nation’s largest companies, such as Abbott Laboratories, Pfizer, Baxter, Teva, C.R. Bard, IBM, Samsung and Cisco, among others. Amanda has tried and led patent cases in federal courts across the country and in the United States International Trade Commission. She also has served as lead counsel in many inter partes reviews before the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board. Amanda was named to Benchmark Litigation’s 2016–2019 “Under 40 Hot List,” Law360’s 2018 “Top Attorneys Under 40” for Intellectual Property, and Best Lawyers 2017 “Women of Influence” list. Amanda also was recognized for Patent Litigation in The Legal 500 U.S., 2017–2020 and was recommended in the 2021 edition of the IAM Patent 1000 - The World’s Leading Patent Professionals.
Mark Holscher

Mark Holscher

As a nationally recognized trial lawyer and former Assistant U.S. attorney, Mark represents clients in their most significant matters across an array of industries. These matters range from securities litigation and white-collar and regulatory investigations, to trade secret and fraud and RICO matters. His 30-year career has cemented him as one of California’s most creative and winning trial attorneys. Mark is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers. His methodical approach to working-up cases and always being steps ahead to protect his clients has earned him a spot on the Daily Journal’s “Leading Lawyers” list every year since 2008, as well as earning him two California Attorney of the Year awards. Mark has been recognized by Chambers USA in the areas of Commercial Litigation and White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations every year since 2008. Clients describes him as "great on his feet, very strategic and always available." Another client remarked he is “a go-to litigator for tough matters."
Walter Holzer

Walter Holzer

Walt Holzer is a partner in Kirkland's Chicago office focusing on complex business transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, buyouts, recapitalizations, divestitures, venture capital and growth equity investing, and executive compensation. He has handled numerous transactions in a wide variety of industries for private equity, family office and strategic clients, including The Riverside Company, Resilience Capital Partners, The Heritage Group, Incline Equity Partners, Align Capital Partners, Driehaus Private Equity, Fort Point Capital Partners and Solera Holdings.
Shagufa Hossain

Shagufa Hossain

Shagufa Hossain is a capital markets partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Shagufa represents private equity firms and their portfolio companies, investment banks, and public and private companies in debt and equity financing and other transactions. She helps clients across the business lifecycle — from the earliest stages to maturity — navigate market conditions and devise effective capital structures. Shagufa brings commercial perspective and extensive experience to advise clients on leveraged buyout transactions and high-yield and investment-grade notes offerings, initial public offerings, liability management transactions, De-SPAC transactions, cross-border transactions, and public company representation and corporate governance. Earlier in her legal career, Shagufa worked in Hong Kong, where she represented foreign private issuers in equity and debt offerings. She was previously an analyst in the London office of an international investment bank.
Matthew Howard

Matthew Howard

Matthew Howard is a partner in the Investment Funds Practice Group at Kirkland & Ellis LLP. For more than twenty years, Matt has advised his investment fund clients on asset management matters, including the structuring and offering of private investment funds and other alternative investment vehicles that have raised billions of dollars across asset classes and geographies. In addition, to his work on fundraisings, clients rely on Matt’s counsel and strategic advice on a variety of matters core to their businesses, including liquidity solutions, strategic investments, spin-outs and transformative acquisitions, management company arrangements, carried interest plans and other incentive arrangements.
Kuan Huang

Kuan Huang

Kuan Huang is a litigation partner and trial lawyer whose practice focuses on trying, and winning, complex and high-stakes commercial disputes. Over the course of his career, Kuan has tried nearly 30 major commercial cases to verdict across a variety of forums, including federal court, state court and key arbitration venues (AAA, JAMS, FINRA, CPR, ICDR, ICC, DIS); conducted over 100 witness examinations, including more than 25 expert cross-examinations; and delivered nearly two dozen opening statements or closing arguments, all while maintaining an overall trial win rate of over 90%. Kuan has a wide-ranging practice that spans multiple industries and subject matters, including extensive experience in commercial contracts, M&A, fraud, securities, banking, financial services and broker-dealers, bankruptcy, liability management and debt finance, manufacturing and supply issues, earnout disputes, product liability, copyright and trade secrets, private equity and employment.
Sophia Hudson

Sophia Hudson

Sophia Hudson, lauded for her commerciality, judgement and “incredible technical proficiency” is a corporate partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP and leads the Firm’s global Capital Markets Practice Group. Most recently recognized as a 2023 Law360 MVP, one of the legal industry’s rarest and most prestigious awards, Sophia’s experience spans numerous industries, public clients and private equity sponsors. Sophia provides thoughtful advice and business-minded solutions to clients on the full range of capital markets transactions, including IPOs and follow-on equity offerings, public and private high-yield, investment grade and convertible debt offerings and private placements of equity and convertible securities. Clients also value her counsel on disclosure and compliance, board and shareholder governance and general corporate law matters. She has advised many corporate clients on addressing crises as well as executive succession. Sophia regularly advises many of the most well-known public companies in the United States and around the world — across disclosure and their most important transactions, providing seamless advice and quarterbacking the Kirkland teams. In addition, Sophia also advises the largest and most sophisticated private equity firms, including Bain Capital, Clayton Dubilier & Rice, Hellman & Freidman and Patient Square Capital, among others.
Emily Hughes

Emily Hughes

Emily Hughes is a litigation partner in Kirkland's Washington office. Her practice focuses on commercial litigation in federal and state trial and appellate courts, and the arbitration of complex commercial disputes. Emily has represented Fortune 500 companies in a variety of complex commercial and class action litigations involving contract disputes, fraud and fiduciary duty claims, securities fraud, shareholder derivative suits, and bankruptcy matters. She also routinely advises and counsels private equity and corporate clients on litigation risks associated with deal structures and targets.
Chad Husnick

Chad Husnick

Chad Husnick represents debtors, creditors, equity holders and other stakeholders in all aspects of corporate liability management, restructuring, bankruptcy and insolvency proceedings. He has represented clients in a variety of industries, including energy, real estate, hospitality, gaming, retail, manufacturing, media, transportation and infrastructure. Clients include Frontier Communications, Neiman Marcus, Cirque de Soleil, Regus, Seadrill Partners, Oasis Petroleum, Barneys New York, Toys “R” Us, Energy Future Holdings, Cobalt International, C&J Energy Services, MS Resorts, GGPLP L.L.C, Nebraska Book Company, Masonite Corporation, Calpine and United Airlines.
Richard Husseini

Richard Husseini

Richard has extensive knowledge of privilege and ethical issues affecting tax practice. He regularly counsels clients on their interactions with outside auditors, tax issues affecting financial disclosure issues, and tax investigations. He has deep experience in every facet of the tax controversy practice. His experience includes handling matters before the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in examination, mediation and appeals proceedings, before arbitrators in private party tax disputes, and before courts and regulatory bodies, including those before the United States Tax Court, United States Court of Federal Claims, United States District Courts, state courts, and public utility commissions. He also has an active federal transactional tax practice, with specific experience in tax issues affecting the energy, oil and gas, and electric and gas utility industries (including tax normalization issues).
Melissa Hutson

Melissa Hutson

Melissa Hutson is a finance partner in Kirkland’s New York office and a member of the Firm’s Executive Committee. Melissa’s practice focuses on syndicated debt facilities, debt commitments and bridge loan financings for leveraged acquisitions by private equity firms, their portfolio companies and public and private companies. She also advises clients on a broad range of other secured lending and financing transactions, including debt restructurings. Melissa advises private equity sponsors, borrowers and lenders in the structuring, negotiation and documentation of debt financing transactions. She has substantial experience in acquisition financings, recapitalizations and debt restructuring.
Lanchi Huynh

Lanchi Huynh

Lanchi’s principal areas of practice are capital markets, corporate governance and compliance, and mergers and acquisitions. Her capital markets experience includes the representation of both issuers and underwriters in public offerings and private placements of equity and debt securities, and she regularly advises public companies on governance and SEC compliance and disclosure matters. Lanchi also represents private equity investors, their portfolio companies, as well as public and private companies, in connection with mergers, acquisitions, dispositions and strategic investments.
Kevin Jacobsen

Kevin Jacobsen

Kevin’s practice focuses on technology and intellectual property-related transactions, including licensing and transfer agreements (patents, trademarks, software, trade secrets, and other intellectual property and technology), commercial agreements, outsourcing and service agreements, SaaS agreements, technology development agreements, and website terms and conditions and privacy policies. In addition, Kevin’s practice includes counseling clients in various industries on the intellectual property and technology, cybersecurity, and data privacy aspects of mergers and acquisitions, debt financing transactions, and other corporate transactions.
Stephen Jacobson

Stephen Jacobson

Stephen Jacobson is an executive compensation partner in the Houston office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. He advises public and private companies, private equity firms and their portfolio companies on a wide range of employment, executive compensation and employee benefit matters, including in connection with complex business transactions. Stephen regularly advises clients on structuring and implementing equity and cash-based incentive plans as well as the applicable tax, securities law, corporate governance and disclosure implications of those arrangements. Known for providing practical advice, Stephen also represents clients in negotiating employment, separation and incentive agreements.
Christopher Jagoe

Christopher Jagoe

Christopher Jagoe focuses his practice on patent litigation related to chemical, pharmaceutical and biotech matters. He has experience in all aspects of litigation, including numerous jury trials, bench trials and appeals to the Federal Circuit. He was named an “IP Star” by Managing Intellectual Property in 2013 and 2014. Christopher has litigated patent cases involving synthetic organic chemistry, medicinal chemistry and pharmaceuticals, medical devices and polymers, as well as biology, agriculture, and biofuels. He is also registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office. In addition to counseling on patent prosecution, intellectual property enforcement and freedom to operate, Christopher has advised clients in merger and acquisition deals and licensing matters.
Lindsey Jaquillard

Lindsey Jaquillard

Lindsey Jaquillard is a corporate partner in the Houston office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Her practice focuses on mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and joint venture formation involving energy assets and companies across the energy value chain, with an emphasis on domestic energy transactions in the upstream and midstream sectors. Lindsey's transactional experience includes advising clients in connection with the purchase and sale of a broad range of energy assets, complex joint development projects, farmout and participation agreements, oil and gas financing transactions, transportation and gathering agreements, natural gas processing agreements and other commercial transactions.
Stephanie Jeane

Stephanie Jeane

Stephanie Jeane is an executive compensation partner in the Houston office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Stephanie’s practice focuses on executive compensation and benefits matters in connection with mergers and acquisitions, spin-offs and divestitures and public offerings. Stephanie also advises clients on a wide range of compensation and associated tax, securities and corporate governance matters, including the design, disclosure and implementation of equity and cash incentive programs, employment, consulting and severance arrangements, change in control plans and retention programs.
Sonali Jindal

Sonali Jindal

Sonali’s practice focuses on representing private equity sponsors in complex financing transactions, including leveraged buyouts and cross border financings. Sonali has significant experience with a variety of transaction structures, including syndicated debt financings, split collateral structures, first- and second-lien financings, asset-based loans, and unitranche financings. Her transactions span a range of industries, including software, industrials, healthcare, and retail, where the financings range from tens of millions to in excess of $6 billion. Representative clients include financial sponsors such as Vista Equity Partners and HGGC.
Ian John

Ian John

Ian John is an antitrust and competition partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. He advises clients and represents them before the antitrust enforcement authorities on matters relating to mergers and acquisitions and joint ventures, including complex cross-border transactions. He has represented clients from a diverse range of industries, including aerospace, beef processing, beer, building material, chemicals, computer hardware and software, consumer goods, defense, fertilizer, financial products, food and beverage, hospitality, insurance, life sciences, managed care, media and telecommunications, natural gas and oil exploration and transportation, retail, satellites, semiconductors, skilled nursing facilities, and transportation. Ian John is noted by clients as “particularly good at conveying legal risks in a way that is digestible and as acceptable as possible to the business side.” Ian has appeared before the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Department of Defense, state antitrust authorities, the Canadian Bureau of Competition and the European Commission, representing a number of major corporations in connection with antitrust investigations of merger and acquisition transactions, both consensual and contested. Ian also has experience in litigated matters, such as participating in the representation of Anheuser-Busch InBev and Express Scripts in separate merger-related litigation matters, and advising four universities, each of which was then a member of the Big East Conference, in connection with the move of several schools to the Atlantic Coast Conference. In addition, Ian advises clients on other antitrust matters, including issues related to trade associations, product distribution and pricing. He also works with clients to design and implement antitrust compliance programs. Ian is a member of the board of directors at Row New York. Through the discipline of rowing and rigorous academic support, Row New York transforms the lives of underserved, mostly middle and high school aged, New Yorkers, regardless of background or ability.
Evan Johnson

Evan Johnson

Evan Johnson is a corporate partner in New York and a member of the Firm’s Shareholder Activism & Hostile Takeover Defense practice, which is ranked in Band 1 for Takeover Defense by Chambers USA. Evan's practice focuses on preparing for and responding to shareholder activism, proxy fights and hostile takeovers. He also advises public companies and their boards of directors and management on corporate governance, investor relations and other corporate, transactional, and securities law matters and special situations. His practice is informed by his prior experience advising hedge funds and other investors on matters including proxy contests, hostile takeovers, mergers and acquisitions, campaign settlement negotiations, shareholder proposals, securities filings, SEC rulemaking and corporate governance.
Erin Johnston

Erin Johnston

Erin Johnston is a litigation partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Erin has represented several Fortune 500 companies and household names, helping them to resolve complex business disputes in state and federal courts across the country. She has successfully handled class actions, securities and accounting fraud cases, contract disputes, antitrust matters, government investigations, and appeals. In each instance, she is trusted to take ownership of her clients’ cases, no matter how complicated, sensitive, or high profile they may be. Erin was named a "Rising Star" in Business Litigation by Super Lawyers. Erin earned her law degree from the NYU School of Law and her B.A. cum laude from the University of California at Los Angeles. In law school, Erin interned with both the Innocence Project and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. She has continued that civic commitment at Kirkland, receiving the firm’s Pro Bono Service Award multiple times. Erin also holds several leadership roles within the firm, including as Chair of the Women’s Leadership Initiative in the D.C. office, for which she was profiled in Washington Lawyer Magazine.
John Kabealo

John Kabealo

John Kabealo is a partner in the International Trade and National Security Practice Group in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. John’s practice focuses on U.S. national security regulatory processes, including with respect to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA), among others. Prior to joining Kirkland, John founded a globally recognized boutique law firm concentrating on U.S. national security regulatory processes, with clients including multinational asset managers, public and private companies, defense contractors and startups. He was previously a corporate attorney at a major U.S. law firm where he gained a strong foundation in corporate and transactional matters. After four years, John joined the firm’s recently formed national security group, where he spent the next seven years exclusively focusing on national security and regulatory reviews. John has frequently been recognized by Chambers USA and Chambers Global as one of the top CFIUS attorneys in the world, having received a Band 2 ranking in 2024. He is also regularly quoted in leading publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Marketplace and MLex. He has also spoken at American Conference Institute conferences on export controls and classified information requirements. His articles have appeared in leading industry publications such as The M&A Lawyer, Transaction Advisors and Law360, and he is a senior advisor, U.S./Transatlantic to the CELIS Institute.
Chris Kallos

Chris Kallos

Chris Kallos is internationally recognized as a leading private equity attorney, with over 30 years of experience and a specialty in private equity firm management and fund formation. He is recommended as a “strategic thinker” and “problem solver” who is “really commercially minded” (Chambers USA), and has been described as a “private equity guru” (Who’s Who Legal). As a leader of Kirkland’s Investment Funds Group, Chris was instrumental in developing Kirkland’s industry-leading global practice over the last 30+ years. In addition, he regularly oversaw M&A, financing, restructuring, litigation, securities, intellectual property, tax and estate planning matters for a wide-range of public and private clients. In recommending Chris as an “exceptional” practitioner, clients praised his “excellent business judgment and responsiveness” — noting that “he really cuts through to the problem and finds a solution,” providing “tailored advice for all situations” (The Legal 500 U.S.; Chambers USA). Chris led fund matters for large and middle-market buyout, growth equity, debt, secondary, venture, technology, real estate and other funds. These matters ranged from fund formations to team spin-outs, fund restructurings, SPAC sponsorships, minority stake investments in fund management companies, succession planning, key person events, conflicts resolution, co-investments, secondary transactions and internal manager operations. Representative clients included leading national and international private equity sponsors, such as AEA Investors, Arsenal Capital, Comvest Partners, Equity Group Investments, Equity International, Graham Partners, Hammond, Kennedy, Whitney & Co., HCI Equity Partners, Madison Dearborn Partners, Sorenson Capital, Valor Equity Partners, Versa Capital Partners, Vestar Capital Partners, and Corner Ventures, in addition to select limited partners, family offices and public companies. Chris lectures as an Associate Fellow at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School, where he also works with the school’s Private Equity Institute, and he serves on the Advisory Board for the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce.
Sam Kamyans

Sam Kamyans

Sam Kamyans is a partner in the Tax Practice Group in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. He is known as a “very talented” advisor in partnership taxation, uniquely in structuring tax-driven transactions to invest in, finance, or acquire carbon capture, hydrogen, clean fuels, solar, storage, and other energy transition projects. Sam has developed tax structures to implement market leading transactions relying upon section 45Q, 45Z, 45V, and 45/48 credits. He advises energy clients, including domestic and international private equity funds, and major sponsors to structure creative transactions to optimize each clients’ commercial and tax goals. In addition, Sam brings a solutions-oriented approach to structure and implement mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, equity extractions, distressed asset restructurings, and public and private offerings. In addition, Sam frequently publishes articles that clients rely upon to structure their deals, including a carbon capture financing guide, a guide to evaluating how to optimize credits for multi-credit projects, and practical publications on implementing IRS guidance. Prior to joining Kirkland, Sam served at the Internal Revenue Service, where he assisted in issuing guidance on partnership taxation and energy-related matters. He has also served as tax counsel to Sempra Energy, a Fortune 500 energy company, and as a partner at a prominent U.S. energy-focused firm.
Jason Kanner

Jason Kanner

Jason Kanner is one of the most senior partners in the Firm’s Debt Finance Group and one of the most experienced finance lawyers in the United States. He represents private equity funds, their portfolio companies and other borrowers in financing transactions throughout the bulge-bracket and middle market, in connection with complex secured and unsecured financing transactions for U.S. and cross-border transactions, including major leveraged buy-outs, bank/bridge commitments, first and second lien financings, ABL facilities, leveraged recapitalizations, liability management transactions and other less traditional financings. He also has extensive experience representing debtors in restructurings.
Jeffrey Kaplan

Jeffrey Kaplan

Jeffrey Kaplan is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading private equity attorneys, advising private equity firms for over 20 years in all aspects of their business and operations, with a particular emphasis on the formation and operation of investment funds, as well as the organization, structuring, and operation of their management companies. As one of the leaders of Kirkland’s market leading global investment funds practice, Jeffrey has played a key role in the development of Kirkland’s innovative platform serving the industry. Clients routinely turn to Jeffrey for his legal advice, commercial judgement and creative solutions in connection with their most important complex matters, including with respect to the formation of private equity funds and SPVs, product and strategy expansion, fund restructurings, continuation fund transactions, co-investment programs, investment warehousing, seed capital and anchor investor arrangements, cross-fund transactions, investor defaults, strategic GP-level transactions, succession planning and personnel management, investor relations and PR/crisis-management issues, mergers and acquisitions, debt financings, regulatory compliance, conflicts issues and general corporate counseling. Jeffrey is a frequent speaker, panel moderator and market commentator, and has been recognized year after year in numerous publications as a leading private equity attorney. He is described by clients in Chambers Global as “an impressive person; commercially savvy, strategic and he has high integrity. Those are just standout qualities of his.” In addition to his practice representing some of the world’s leading established private equity firms, Jeffrey runs Kirkland’s market leading private equity emerging manager program, advising emerging managers in all aspects of their business, from the initial start-up phase through a successful fund launch and beyond.
Hariklia Karis

Hariklia Karis

Hariklia Karis is a litigation partner in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis with extensive experience in jury and bench trial, arbitration and appellate, product liability, insurance coverage, and construction law litigation in state and federal courts throughout the country. Hariklia’s successful defense of General Motors Corporation was chosen as one of the top defense wins by The National Law Journal. She was also recently recognized as a Lead Female Trial Lawyer for her work in large exposure civil litigation. In 2018, she was named to Crain’s list of Most Notable Women Lawyers. She serves as an Adjunct Professor at Northwestern University School of Law, where she teaches “Trial Advocacy.” Hariklia has managed and tried massive disaster litigation cases for clients, in which substantial reputational and financial exposure is at risk. She served as lead trial counsel for BP in the litigation arising from the “Deepwater Horizon” oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as in several regulatory agency and government investigations that resulted in numerous nationally televised and highly publicized trials. She also serves as trial counsel for General Motors in state and federal cases arising out of the company’s voluntary recalls related to ignition switches and other safety issues.
Andrew Kassof

Andrew Kassof

Andrew Kassof leads Kirkland’s litigation practice globally and serves on the Firm’s Executive Committee. Andrew has spearheaded the enormous growth of Kirkland’s litigation practice over the last several years. Bloomberg Law profiled that rapid growth in an article in 2025. As part of that expansion, Kirkland has added industry-leading talent across various types of litigation while opening and growing new offices for litigation in Salt Lake City, Boston, Miami, Philadelphia and Nashville. Kirkland now touts top-of-the-market practitioners across commercial litigation, product liability and mass torts, securities, antitrust, IP, government regulation, internal investigations and enforcement, private equity, sports and entertainment, real estate and other areas in offices around the globe. Andrew also leads Kirkland’s alternative fee program, which has expanded dramatically over the last five years. In his practice, Andrew has earned multiple “Litigator of the Week” awards by The American Lawyer. In one case, the court “adopted” Andrew’s oral argument as “the grounds for its opinion” after “finding that Mr. Kassof’s exposition, explanation, and reasoning aligned with what I would write in a written opinion.” Andrew’s commercial litigation practice cuts across different industries and types of cases, including life sciences, healthcare, oil and gas, sports and entertainment, private equity and other industries. Twice he has tried billion dollar cases to successful verdicts — once on the plaintiff side in a fraud-based suit in federal court in NY, and the other for the defense in a False Claims Act case in Texas; has first-chaired many additional trials in various jurisdictions and in arbitration; and has successfully represented clients in different types of complex commercial disputes, False Claims Act suits, class actions, and other cases in state and federal courts in nearly every state in the country.
Jacquelyn Kasulis

Jacquelyn Kasulis

Jacquelyn Kasulis is a partner in the Government, Regulatory & Internal Investigations Practice Group in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Jackie is a former federal prosecutor and experienced courtroom advocate, and most recently served as the Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York (EDNY). At Kirkland, she focuses her practice on representing and counseling companies, executives and boards of directors in investigations and litigation. As an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the EDNY, Jackie investigated and prosecuted a wide variety of criminal matters involving securities fraud, market manipulation, national security, digital currency and cybercrime, investment adviser fraud, healthcare fraud, money laundering and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the Bank Secrecy Act. She spent close to 14 years at the U.S. Attorney’s Office and served in various senior leadership positions, including Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney, Chief of the Criminal Division, and Chief of the Business & Securities Fraud Section. As Acting U.S. Attorney, Jackie oversaw a team of 480 employees, including 175 Assistant U.S. Attorneys, and was responsible for all criminal, civil and appellate matters for the district. During her career, Jackie led such high-profile matters as the prosecution and trial conviction of hedge fund manager and pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli, also known as “Pharma Bro,” and the investigation and prosecution of major financial institutions for various financial crimes. She also supervised a number of corporate resolutions and countless trials. She frequently coordinated with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Fraud Section and Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Sections, the FBI and the IRS, and with domestic and foreign regulatory and enforcement authorities, including the SEC, the CFTC, the Federal Reserve Bank and the U.K. Serious Fraud Office. Jackie is a regular speaker on legal and leadership topics and has received several accolades, including the Eastern District Association’s Charles E. Rose Award, the Federal Law Enforcement Foundation’s Prosecutor of the Year Award, and the Assistant Attorney General’s Award. She was an adjunct professor at New York University School of Law in the Federal Prosecution Externship Clinic and is currently a member of the Board of Advisors of the Program on Corporate Compliance & Enforcement at the law school.
Katherine Katz

Katherine Katz

Katherine Katz is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office. Her practice includes a broad range of complex commercial litigation and class action matters in federal and state courts. Katherine has represented clients in litigation matters involving a wide range of practice areas including products liability, antitrust and commercial disputes. In addition to litigation matters, Katherine represents and advises companies faced with investigations and enforcement actions brought by the U.S. Department of Justice and State Attorneys General.
Robert Keane, Jr

Robert Keane, Jr

Robert Keane is a real estate partner in the Los Angeles office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. He concentrates his practice primarily on the representation of private equity firms, opportunity funds, domestic and international companies, investment banks, commercial banks, non-regulated lenders and pension funds in real estate-related equity investments, joint venture formations, lending, acquisitions and dispositions and debt restructuring, workouts and reorganizations. Robert is one of only five lawyers ranked Band 1 for Real Estate in Southern California since the 2021 edition of Chambers USA with clients stating in the most recent edition that he “is an excellent lawyer. He's very practical and is really good at understanding the business perspective and can get deals done.” In prior editions of Chambers USA, clients noted “his market knowledge, commercial awareness and constructive approach to negotiations are incredibly effective," “he is the most efficient attorney that I have ever worked with, he distills things down so quickly” and “I think he is a superstar in the real estate industry.” Prior editions of Chambers USA also described Robert as “phenomenal” adding that his clients report “he is truly an excellent lawyer — he knows his stuff, gets along well with opposing counsel and is incredibly responsive” adding “he is incredibly knowledgeable about statute, law and legal precedent and also a great negotiator.”
Christopher Keegan

Christopher Keegan

Chris Keegan is a partner in Kirkland’s San Francisco office. He has extensive experience representing parties in a broad variety of commercial litigation matters in both state and federal courts. Chris’ cases have involved claims in the area of products liability, consumer claims, privacy, trade secrets, fraud and breach of contract, mass torts, energy litigation and other complex commercial disputes. Additionally, Chris has experience in white collar and government investigation matters in California and elsewhere.
Michelle Kelban

Michelle Kelban

Michelle Kelban is a real estate partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. She advises clients on a range of complex and prominent real estate transactions, including private capital raising and financing, acquisitions, joint venture recapitalizations, and workouts and restructurings. Nationally recognized as a leading real estate lawyer, Michelle serves a variety of key market players, including private equity firms, U.S. and foreign investors, institutional lenders and family offices. She leverages her broad-based experience in highly structured and multifaceted deals involving bespoke structures. A collaborative and creative problem solver, Michelle works closely with clients to understand their key business needs. She delivers pragmatic, commercially driven advice, with a focus on building consensus among key stakeholders and achieving a client’s strategic objectives.
Natalie Keller

Natalie Keller

Natalie Keller's practice focuses on all aspects of tax controversies, including IRS audits, IRS appeals and litigation. She has litigated cases in the U.S. Tax Court, U.S. Court of Federal Claims, U.S. district and bankruptcy courts and U.S. courts of appeal. Natalie also advises U.S. and foreign multinational clients on intercompany transfer pricing planning and compliance, resolution of transfer pricing audits, competent authority proceedings and advance pricing agreements. Her transfer pricing experience includes significant cases in the automotive, consumer electronics, medical products and pharmaceutical industries.
Molly Kelley

Molly Kelley

Molly Kelley is a litigation partner concentrating in government enforcement and antitrust in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Prior to joining Kirkland, Molly served as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Department of Justice, both at the Antitrust Division and at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Indiana. While a federal prosecutor, Molly investigated and acted as trial counsel in a variety of criminal cases, including jury trials. She has experience prosecuting criminal antitrust conspiracies involving procurement fraud, price fixing, bid rigging, and market allocation in national and international industries. Before her government service, Molly worked at a global law firm assisting multinational clients with antitrust investigations, compliance audits, counseling, and litigation.
Atif Khawaja

Atif Khawaja

Atif Khawaja litigates high-stakes commercial disputes. For more than twenty years, he has tried and won bet-the-company cases across industries and subject matters—from existential disputes surrounding corporate control and investments, to multibillion dollar commercial disputes, to expansive claims of product liability, IP infringement and regulatory violation. Atif has successfully led matters in forums nationwide involving complex claims of antitrust, appraisal, breach of contract, fiduciary duty, fraud and misrepresentation, patent infringement, trade secret theft and unfair competition. Based in New York, Atif is sought out by prominent businesses across the globe when facing material U.S. litigation. He is known for pragmatic solutions, and his matters routinely garner press and public attention, including in The New York Times, Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal.
Vladimir Khodosh

Vladimir Khodosh

Vladimir Khodosh is a partner whose practice is focused on technology transactions. Vladimir has handled a variety of software licensing, software development, and business outsourcing transactions. Vladimir has counseled clients in many intellectual property and information technology aspects of corporate transactions, including in the merger, acquisition, and bankruptcy contexts. Vladimir, a registered patent attorney, relies significantly on his software development experience, and his experience counseling clients on protecting patent, copyright, and trade secret aspects of business method, software, and Internet-based intellectual property assets, in representing clients in transactions.
Jonathan Kidwell

Jonathan Kidwell

Jonathan Kidwell is a partner in Kirkland’s global Environmental Practice Group with a focus on energy and infrastructure matters. Previously honored as both an “MVP of the Year” and a “Rising Star” by Law360, Jonathan is a “talented” lawyer according to Chambers and also recognized as a “Leading Lawyer” by Legal 500. Jonathan’s clients rely on him to identify, evaluate and strategically manage complex environmental, regulatory and permitting liabilities and opportunities, primarily in the context of corporate mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, energy and project finance transactions, site development projects, financing transactions, real estate investments and corporate restructurings. Jonathan has extensive experience in the energy (conventional and renewable), power, data center, waste management and solutions, manufacturing, chemical and mining sectors through his work on thousands of commercial transactions and several high-profile bankruptcy matters. Jonathan routinely advises clients on environmental regulatory risks and trends, identifies and assesses environmental risks and liabilities, coordinates due diligence, negotiates with regulatory agencies, manages consultants and technical experts, drafts and negotiates contracts and agreements, coordinates lender issues, negotiates environmental insurance coverage, coordinates environmental regulatory approvals and pursues resolution of cleanups and permitting, regulatory compliance and environmental liability issues.
Michelle Kilkenney

Michelle Kilkenney

Michelle Kilkenney is a corporate partner in Kirkland's Chicago office and an active committee member and Chicago office Pro Bono Coordinator, of the Firm’s award-winning pro bono program. Michelle focuses her practice on debt financing transactions and represents private equity groups, commercial lending institutions and other private and public companies in connection with the negotiation, structuring and documentation of secured and unsecured financing transactions for both borrowers and lenders, including senior, mezzanine and subordinated debt transactions, acquisition financings, and loan workouts and restructurings, including debtor-in-possession financings.
Gregg Kirchhoefer

Gregg Kirchhoefer

Building on work experience in the computer industry, Gregg Kirchhoefer’s practice focused on transactional and counseling matters primarily involving information technology, telecommunications, eCommerce, artificial intelligence, robotics, life sciences, pharma, biotechnology, other technologies, and intellectual property, corporate and commercial issues. Gregg founded the Firm’s intellectual property/technology transactions and outsourcing practice groups. In addition, Gregg worked closely with the Firm’s corporate, private equity, tax, and restructuring attorneys on mergers, acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, venture capital/private equity transactions, securities offerings, financing transactions, and restructuring counseling and related transactions, and with the Firm’s litigation attorneys on contentious matters requiring consulting on matters within Gregg’s knowledge domain. Gregg’s outsourcing experience spans more than 35 years and in that time he handled some of the largest, most comprehensive outsourcings in history. One transaction that exemplified the breadth and historical strength of such experience is the original services agreement between General Motors Corporation and EDS in 1985 (as well as many subsequent agreements) that included all of General Motors’ IT functions, assets and personnel. He also was responsible for the seminal BPO transactions in the late 1980s and first handled an offshore IT outsourcing transaction with an Indian service provider in 1988. Gregg represented both service providers and customers in manufacturing, financial services, utilities, consumer products and other industries in these types of transactions. Gregg’s IT outsourcing experience covered the panoply of IT-related and IT-enabled functions and has included data center operations and hosting, applications process outsourcing (APO) (including applications development and maintenance), applications service provider (ASP) (including applications hosting and management), Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), help desk, telecommunications services (including voice, data, and video services), and network management.
Allan Kirk

Allan Kirk

Allan Kirk's practice focuses on domestic and international mergers and acquisitions in the energy and infrastructure sectors, with a particular emphasis on private equity and complex joint ventures. Allan’s experience covers a broad spectrum of matters, including oil and gas (e.g., onshore and offshore E&P, transportation and midstream, refining, oilfield services, water infrastructure and power generation), energy transition (e.g., renewable power generation including solar, wind, hydrogen, nuclear and thermal power generation, renewable fuels, LNG, energy as a service, grid expansion, carbon credit trading platforms and electric vehicles), data center and digital infrastructure projects, and financing greenfield developments (e.g., various energy-related projects, carbon black processing and semiconductor manufacturing).
David Klein

David Klein

David Klein is a corporate partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. His practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, activist defense and other significant corporate matters, representing publicly traded and privately held companies, private equity firms and other investors. David was recognized in the New York Law Journal as a “Dealmaker of the Year” for 2023, in MergerLinks as “Top Private Equity Lawyers in North America” in 2023 and in Law360 as a “Rising Star” in 2019 for his mergers and acquisitions practice. He was also shortlisted on the MergerLinks' “Top Technology Lawyers in North America” list in 2023.
Laura Knoll

Laura Knoll

Laura Knoll is a corporate partner in the Boston office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Laura concentrates her practice in the areas of mergers and acquisitions and related corporate advice, guiding both public and private companies through transformative events and critical governance matters. Her clients have included companies across biopharmaceutical, technology and adjacent sectors. Laura has been recognized by Chambers USA, The Best Lawyers in America and The Legal 500 United States. She has also been named a Rising Star in Life Sciences by Law360, selected as one of Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Dealmakers in America, awarded M&A Attorney of the Year by LMG Life Sciences, received the Emerging Leaders Award from The M&A Advisor and honored as Merger and Acquisition Attorney of the Year at the New England Legal Awards in 2024. In addition, Laura was ranked among the top 10 female M&A attorneys in North America by deal value in 2023 and 2024, according to MergerLinks and reported by The American Lawyer.
Joshua Kogan

Joshua Kogan

Joshua Kogan is a corporate partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. His practice regularly serves large and middle-market private equity/leverage buyout fund clients and their portfolio companies in connection with leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations, mergers, venture capital/growth equity investments, and restructurings. Some of Josh’s clients include L Catterton, New Mountain Capital, Abry Partners, Blackstone Group, The Carlyle Group, Avista Capital Partners, Irving Place Capital, KPS Capital Partners, and Trilantic Capital Partners.
Mary Kogut

Mary Kogut

Mary Kogut is a debt finance partner in the Houston office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Chambers USA 2022 describes her as “quite simply the best debt finance attorney I've had the pleasure of working with in my career.” Mary’s practice spans a wide array of debt financing transactions, including the representation of private equity funds, private credit funds, hedge funds and private and public companies. She has successfully handled complex financings in connection with leveraged buyouts, public offerings, reserve-based financings and refinancings, and restructurings (including in-court and out-of-court restructurings, debtor-in-possession financings and exit financings). Known for her unique ability to calmly and masterfully advocate for clients in high stakes negotiations, Mary is a “go to” attorney for complex transactions. With corporate, private equity and private credit clients ranging from Cyrus One and Northern Oil & Gas to KKR, Apollo Global Management and Oaktree Capital, Mary has been involved in some of the most high-profile recent acquisition-related financings, structured financings and restructurings in the infrastructure and energy space.
Joshua Korff

Joshua Korff

Josh Korff represents private equity sponsors and public companies in connection with all forms of capital markets transactions. With a focus primarily on initial public offerings, high-yield and acquisition finance and complex restructuring matters, Josh shepherds multi-million-dollar deals for Kirkland clients in a broad spectrum of industries. Lauded by The Legal 500 U.S. as “a leader in his field,” he is often ranked first in the United States for IPO Issuer’s Lawyers by IPO Vital Signs. Clients turn to Josh for his ability to manage challenging transactions that contain a high degree of complexity and uncertainty. They say they appreciate his efficiency and ability to take a complicated situation, translate it into understandable terms and business principles, and advise them on proceeding wisely to achieve their goals. A sharp intellect, strong work ethic, practicality, market knowledge, and top-notch communication skills combined with a unique access to valuable resources make Josh an integral part of an exceptionally capable and results-oriented finance arena legal team. Josh brings these skills to bear for public companies while simultaneously guiding them through the tricky and ever-evolving compliance landscape that must be negotiated because of the heavier regulations governing their conduct, such as Securities Exchange Commission and Stock Exchange rules and liability laws. Josh’s experience negotiating very favorable terms in financing documents helps assuage private equity clients’ concerns about achieving optimal returns on their investments as they execute complicated transactions. For restructuring clients, Josh contributes a deep understanding of the various players, deal structures and commercial drivers that could help craft a creative and cost-effective strategy for their companies, whether it’s an overhaul of the balance sheet or a liquidation or bankruptcy filing.
Sean Kramer

Sean Kramer

Sean Kramer is a partner in the Firm’s private equity practice on the West Coast, primarily located in the Bay Area office, where he supports top-tier financial sponsors and their portfolio companies on all types and sizes of M&A transactions. Sean regularly represents large cap, middle market and growth equity funds — including Alpine Investors, Blackstone, Francisco Partners, Genstar Capital, H.I.G. Capital, Origami Capital Partners, Permira, TA Associates, Truelink Capital, TSG Consumer and Turn/River — across sectors, with a particular focus on technology; healthcare and consumer; and business services. Sean’s broad experience in business, law and education provides a unique perspective to dealmaking, and Sean’s clients value that his legal judgment is complemented by a deep understanding of the commercial implications of transactions for investors and other stakeholders.
Michael Krasnovsky

Michael Krasnovsky

Mike Krasnovsky is a partner in the Firm’s tax department and a member of the Firm’s Executive Compensation Group. Mike’s practice focuses on executive compensation and employee benefits matters in connection with mergers and acquisitions and other business transactions. Mike also advises clients on executive compensation and related corporate governance matters, including the design, implementation and disclosure of equity and cash incentive compensation and retention programs and the negotiation of executive employment, change in control and separation agreements.
Erika Krum

Erika Krum

Erika Krum is an associate in Kirkland’s International Trade and National Security Practice Group in the Washington, D.C., office. Erika advises clients on complex cross-border transactional and counseling matters related to U.S. national security and foreign investment, including reviews by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA), economic sanctions administered by Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), export controls (ITAR/EAR), government contracts, antiboycott regulations and anti-corruption (FCPA). In addition, Erika has spent time in Kirkland’s London office focusing on global foreign investment control regimes.
Ross Kwasteniet

Ross Kwasteniet

Ross M. Kwasteniet is a partner in the Restructuring Group. His practice is centered around the representation of distressed companies in all aspects of Chapter 11 reorganizations and out-of-court restructurings. Ross also has considerable experience representing both buyers and sellers of distressed assets. Ross has been recognized in the 2018–2025 editions of Chambers USA. Sources note Ross “provides great client service,” is “truly amazing,” “smart, engaged and commercial,” and is “a great advocate for his clients.” Sources additionally mention that Ross is “on high-profile cases and is very impressive,” “extremely practical, smart and efficient, and great at arriving at solutions” and “is a strong counselor, has excellent legal and business judgment, and is a good communicator.” Ross was recognized in 2024 edition of The Legal 500 for Restructuring: Corporate. Ross was also recognized in the 2021 edition of IFLR1000. In 2019, Ross was recognized as a Dealmaker of the Year by The American Lawyer. Ross was selected by Law360 as one of seven Bankruptcy “Rising Stars for 2016” in its list of top attorneys under 40. In 2015, Ross was named an “Outstanding Young Restructuring Lawyer” by Turnarounds & Workouts, one of 12 individuals selected under the age of 40 for accomplishments in corporate restructuring.
Brian Land

Brian Land

Of Counsel with more than 30 years of experience in the environmental aspects of corporate transactions, including environmental due diligence, environmental liability and risk allocation, financings, restructurings, public offerings, and SEC environmental disclosure. Negotiates indemnities and insurance coverage for complex environmental risks. Enforces environmental indemnification rights and manages the post-sale resolution of environmental issues. Advises and counsels on remediation and cleanup matters, including under CERCLA, RCRA, and state cleanup programs. Counsels clients regarding environmental regulatory compliance matters.
Adam Larson

Adam Larson

Adam Larson is a partner in the Houston and Austin offices of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Adam’s primary practice areas include mergers and acquisitions, private equity, and capital markets. He has counseled private equity investors, their portfolio companies, and other public and private companies in connection with mergers, acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures and offerings of equity and debt securities. Adam also advises clients in connection with the negotiation of partnership and LLC agreements, securities laws compliance, and corporate governance. Adam has advised clients across a broad range of industries, including energy, renewables and sustainability, consumer products, and industrials.
Thomas Laughlin

Thomas Laughlin

Thomas Laughlin is one of the founding partners of the Dallas office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Thomas regularly represents private equity investors, their portfolio companies, and other various public and private companies in mergers and acquisitions, investments (controlling and minority), divestitures, joint ventures, financings, restructurings and other corporate matters. He also represents management teams in connection with the formation of joint venture platforms and follow-on transactions. Thomas has broad experience across many industries, but in particular, he has focused his practice representing clients in the energy, infrastructure and logistics sectors, including upstream and midstream oil and gas, oilfield services, manufacturing and transportation services.
Daniel Lavon-Krein

Daniel Lavon-Krein

Daniel Lavon-Krein is a partner in the Investment Funds Group at Kirkland & Ellis LLP and serves on the Firm's Executive Committee, the governing body of Kirkland & Ellis. He has championed countless large global private equity fund formations ranging from boutique sponsors to mega-funds across a wide variety of strategies. In addition, as the co-founder and co-head of the Strategic GP Advisory Practice Group at Kirkland, Daniel is widely recognized as a leader and pioneer in advising private equity sponsors and buyers on complex minority investments in existing firms, control sale transactions, liquidity events and other strategic transactions. In his fund formation practice, Daniel has advised on the formation and fundraising of more than 80 funds with total capital commitments exceeding $165 billion. As the co-head of the Strategic GP Advisory Practice Group, Daniel has led the representations of over 40 firms selling interests in this rapidly evolving market, including advising on the largest five GP stakes deals completed to date. In connection with these transactions and fund formation matters, his mature, multidimensional practice also includes advising sponsors on internal firm restructurings, succession planning and other major strategic issues.
Christopher Lawless

Christopher Lawless

Chris Lawless is a partner in Kirkland’s Intellectual Property Group, focusing on litigation and trials involving patent, trade secret, copyright, trademark, and unfair competition claims. Chris also broadly advises clients on intellectual property strategy. Chris has substantial experience leading large case teams with billions of dollars in alleged damages through all phases of complex litigation, from pre-suit investigations through case inception, trial, and appeal. Many of Chris’s cases also involve parallel proceedings in foreign jurisdictions in Asia and Europe. Chris has served as trial counsel in multiple trials in U.S. District Courts and the International Trade Commission, and appeals at the Federal Circuit. His technological case experience includes wireless technology, computer hardware and software, semiconductor fabrication, internet content delivery, precision manufacturing methods, medical devices and equipment, and chemical engineering.
Daniel Laytin

Daniel Laytin

Dan Laytin is a litigation partner in Kirkland’s Chicago office. His practice is principally concentrated in the areas of antitrust and other complex litigation. Dan is consistently recognized as a leading antitrust practitioner by Chambers (2006–2025), The Legal 500 U.S. (2016–2024), Benchmark Litigation (2019–2025), and The Best Lawyers in America, U.S. News and World Report, Best Lawyers® (2013–2025). In 2018, Dan was named one of The National Law Journal’s “Mergers & Acquisitions and Antitrust Trailblazers.” He was also named as one of only five Rising Stars in the area of Antitrust by Law360 in 2013 for his significant accomplishments as an attorney under the age of 40.
Christopher Leach

Christopher Leach

Christopher Leach is a litigation partner in Kirkland’s Washington, D.C., office. As a former attorney with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), his practice focuses on consumer-facing issues, including data privacy, false advertising, marketing practices and other aspects of customer acquisition. He represents and advises clients in a broad range of industries, including the fintech, financial services, food and beverage, automotive and telecommunications industries, defending those companies in litigation, before government agencies and in self-regulatory proceedings such as the National Advertising Division (NAD). As a lawyer in the FTC’s Division of Financial Practices, Christopher investigated and litigated consumer protection enforcement actions and developed enforcement policy. His relevant areas of experience include fintech, cryptocurrency, consumer financial data privacy, gig economy, fair lending and consumer telecommunications. He worked on some of the agency’s most visible fintech actions, including active litigation against FleetCor Technologies, Inc. and its CEO for deceptive advertising and charging customers hundreds of millions of dollars in unauthorized fees through its B2B payment system; a $10 million settlement with Yellowstone Capital in connection with the company’s merchant-cash-advance practices; and advised on cryptocurrency issues.
Edward Lee

Edward Lee

Edward J. Lee is a corporate partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Ed’s practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions and shareholder activism defense. Ed also regularly counsels corporations and boards of directors on securities law, corporate governance and crisis management. Ed has extensive experience advising major public companies and private equity firms on their most significant domestic and cross-border M&A transactions, as well as on spin-offs and carve-outs, joint ventures, and initial public and other complex securities offerings. During his career, he has advised on announced transactions with an aggregate value of over $850 billion. Ed has represented clients in some of the most significant and complex M&A transactions in recent years, including United Technologies’ $140 billion merger of equals with Raytheon Company and simultaneous spin-offs of Carrier Global and Otis Worldwide; Celgene Corporation’s $98 billion acquisition by Bristol Myers Squibb; Kimberly-Clark’s $49 billion acquisition of Kenvue; Walgreens Boots Alliance’s $24 billion sale to Sycamore Partners (the largest retail M&A transaction on record); Walgreens’ $27 billion two-staged acquisition of Alliance Boots GmbH; NortonLifeLock’s ~$25 billion combination with Avast; Salesforce’s $15.7 billion acquisition of Tableau; and Warner Bros. Discovery in its separation into two publicly traded companies.
Ross Leff

Ross Leff

Ross Leff is a corporate partner in Kirkland’s New York office. Ross has broad transactional experience and counsels companies and sponsors on capital-raising through public and private equity and debt offerings and acquiring and disposing of businesses and assets. He represents issuers and underwriters in public and private finance transactions, including equity offerings, high yield and investment grade debt offerings and tender and exchange offers. Ross also advises U.S. and international companies with respect to corporate and securities law matters, including corporate governance and SEC, NYSE and Nasdaq disclosure, reporting and compliance obligations.
Jay Lefkowitz

Jay Lefkowitz

Jay Lefkowitz is a litigation partner at Kirkland. He is also an adjunct professor at Columbia Law School, where he teaches a seminar on Supreme Court advocacy. Jay has served as lead trial and appellate counsel in a wide variety of substantive areas, including shareholder disputes, antitrust, product liability, litigation against the FDA and False Claims Act matters. He has also conducted numerous internal investigations for public companies and audit committees. In its 2013 release of “The 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America,” The National Law Journal describes Jay as “a leading voice on school choice issues” and “a no-nonsense appellate and antitrust lawyer for an array of blue-chip clients.” The Legal 500 U.S. noted that Jay “provides a depth of understanding and influence in some of the highest courts of our country,” and in Chambers USA, America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, clients say, “‘Jay is brilliant; there is no other way to put it.’” Jay was also named a Law360 “MVP of the Year” in 2011 for his Appellate practice, and in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 for his Life Sciences work. Jay is one of only three of the 189 MVPs named to the list six years in a row. The American Lawyer named him its “Lawyer of the Week” in December 2012 for his role in winning an antitrust lawsuit in the pharmaceutical industry.
David Lenzi

David Lenzi

David Lenzi is a corporate partner in Kirkland’s New York office, focusing on the representation of private investment fund sponsors. He has represented a wide range of clients on the development, formation and marketing of funds, as well as providing advice on ongoing transactional and regulatory matters. He has significant experience representing sponsors on internal governance and ownership arrangements and has advised on a number of private and public asset management M&A transactions.
Russell Levine

Russell Levine

Russell is a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP where he has spent his entire 40+ year career. He focuses his trial (jury, bench and ITC), appellate (Federal Circuit), and alternative dispute resolution practice on patent infringement and trade secret misappropriation matters, and disputes involving and relating to technology transfer, patent license, confidentiality and know-how agreements. His technology transfer and licensing practice includes structuring and negotiating both licensing-in and licensing-out transactions.
Jennifer Levy

Jennifer Levy

Jenny Levy is a litigation partner who has been with Kirkland for 23 years. She has appeared before trial courts and arbitration panels across the country. Jenny focuses on complex commercial litigation, state Attorney General litigation and investigations, pharmaceutical litigation, and product liability cases. She has litigated a wide variety of cases including consumer protection actions, public nuisance claims, allegations of fraud and misrepresentation, data breaches, breach of contract, business torts, product liability, antitrust, false claims qui tam actions, and class actions. Her practice has involved a diverse array of subject matters and allegations including Public Nuisance, Medicaid/Medicare fraud, drug pricing fraud and unfair competition (AWP/WAC inflation), HIPAA, HITECH violations, contracts for the sale of energy, state and federal Fair Debt Collection Act violations, collection contracts for the sale of businesses and stock purchase agreements, alleged violations of shareholder agreements, international licensing agreements, allegations of unlawful insurance practices, conspiracy and antitrust violations, and numerous product liability cases on behalf of manufacturers of automotive products, lead products, tobacco and pharmaceuticals. Jenny is a pro bono coordinator for Kirkland’s Washington, D.C. office.
Daniel Lewis

Daniel Lewis

Dan Lewis is a partner in Kirkland’s Technology & IP Transactions Practice Group, focusing on acquisitions and sales of businesses for both private equity and public company clients where technology or intellectual property is a key value driver. Dan has substantial experience in structuring and negotiating carve-out transactions involving complex business separations and has led the business separation and technology aspects of numerous high-profile carve-out transactions, including Berkshire Hathaway’s acquisition of OxyChem from Occidental Petroleum, Celanese Corporation’s acquisition of a majority of DuPont’s Mobility & Materials business, Verizon’s sale of Verizon Media to Apollo Global Management, Honeywell International’s acquisition of Air Products’ LNG process technology and equipment business, Thomas H. Lee’s acquisition of the semiconductor automation business of Brooks Automation and Thoma Bravo’s acquisition of Symantec’s website security business. His broader practice also includes joint development and collaboration agreements, pharmaceutical drug development, supply and manufacturing, telecommunications, software licensing and system implementations, outsourcing (BPO and ITO), other forms of IP licensing (know-how, technology, patent, and brand licenses), and IP and technology issues in restructuring and bankruptcy matters.
Polina Liberman

Polina Liberman

Polina is a partner in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. She advises clients on a broad range of complex corporate and commercial tax matters with a particular focus on private equity and insurance industry transactions including domestic and cross-border mergers, acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, separations, joint ventures, recapitalizations and debt and equity restructurings. Polina has worked on numerous private equity, LBO and merger and acquisition transactions ranging from several million dollars to several billion dollars for clients including: Audax Group, Bain Capital, CIVC, GTCR, Flexpoint Ford, Levine Leichtman, Waud Capital and others. She has also represented distressed public and private companies in connection with bankruptcy and restructuring transactions.
Fred Lim

Fred Lim

Fred Lim is a corporate partner in the Bay Area office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Fred focuses on representing private equity sponsors and capital sources in complex financing transactions, representing private equity groups in structuring and negotiating financing transactions in connection with leveraged buyouts, take-private acquisitions, recapitalizations, cross-border transactions and restructurings. He is also experienced with representing lenders in private debt financings, asset based and other secured lending and specialized collateral transactionsfRED lIM
Jeremy Liss

Jeremy Liss

Jeremy advises private equity funds, leading companies, family offices and business owners on structuring and negotiating complex transactions, including domestic and cross-border transactions, divestitures, purchases and sales through bankruptcy and out-of-court restructuring, and equity financings. He helped pioneer the development and popularization of transactional risk insurance products, including representations and warranty insurance, and heads Kirkland’s transactional risk insurance practice. Jeremy is a leader in Kirkland’s initiative to use technology to develop innovative ways to deliver premium legal services and enhanced value to clients. Jeremy is business-oriented advisor who approaches negotiations with a win-win mindset and draws from his vast experience across industries and deal types to drive value.
Aaron Lorber

Aaron Lorber

Aaron Lorber is a partner in Kirkland’s Chicago Technology & IP Transactions practice. He focuses his practice on structuring, drafting, and negotiating complex business transactions, including corporate and M&A deals, joint ventures and strategic alliances, IP licenses, supply chain agreements, and outsourcing and other commercial arrangements. Aaron counsels clients on IP and technology issues that arise in mergers and acquisitions, private equity and venture capital transactions, debt financing transactions and other forms of corporate and financing transactions. He also is experienced with respect to data security and data privacy issues. Aaron has also represented clients in patent infringement litigations involving a variety of technologies and actively represents pro bono clients, including various clients referred through the Lawyers for the Creative Arts.
Nick Losurdo

Nick Losurdo

Nick Losurdo is a partner in the Investment Funds Group in the Boston office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Nick advises financial institutions, public companies and investors on regulatory, policy, transactional, enforcement and strategic matters. Nick’s focus is predominantly on broker-dealers, equity and option exchanges, ATSs and other trading platforms and intermediaries regarding rules and regulations of the SEC, FINRA, state regulators and SROs. Nick also regularly supports private equity and venture funds during strategic transactions involving financial institutions. He also advises technology and other companies in the areas of fintech and blockchain/crypto/digital currency. Chambers USA has recognized Nick for his work in broker-dealer regulation and compliance in the U.S. Prior to joining Kirkland, Nick led the team that The Legal 500 United States ranked Tier 1 for broker-dealer regulation in the U.S. Clients have noted that “Nick has excellent expertise, service and awareness” and “his understanding of the markets and regulatory nuances is outstanding.” Nick has served in high-level government, private practice and in-house roles. Prior to joining Kirkland, Nick was a partner at another international law firm. Before that, he served at the SEC as counsel to one of the commissioners. While at the SEC, Nick advised the commissioner on a broad array of legal, policy and regulatory matters. Early in his career, Nick was in-house counsel at an SEC-regulated options exchange.
Sharre Lotfollahi

Sharre Lotfollahi

Sharre Lotfollahi is a partner in Kirkland & Ellis’ Intellectual Property Litigation Group and focuses on disputes involving patent, trade secret, trademark, and copyright, including licensing disputes regarding intellectual property. She has represented clients in disputes involving various areas of technology, including semiconductor manufacturing, microprocessor design, athlete tracking, online ad creation and customer service software, and medical devices and implants. Sharre has been a member of 11 trial teams, including serving as a first-chair on two trials. At trial, Sharre has conducted direct and cross-examinations of fact and expert witnesses, including preparing witnesses on jury-related performance. She has argued numerous motions, including at trial, and managed numerous other trial activities. She successfully led a trial team on behalf of low-income tenants against slumlords in South Los Angeles. Sharre also advises clients on matters before the Patent and Trademark Office, contractual and licensing issues, and commercial legal strategy.
Matthew Lovell

Matthew Lovell

Matthew Lovell is a partner in Kirkland's Chicago Technology & IP Transactions group. Matthew's practice is focused on intellectual property and technology-related transactions and counseling, including in the areas of intellectual property licensing (patent, trademark, software and technology), intellectual property acquisitions and transfers, outsourcing (business process, information technology and software development), software licensing and implementation, software development, e-commerce, telecommunications, advertising, sponsorships and endorsements, data security and data privacy, social media, commercial agreements (supply, distribution and general services), and technology-focused strategic alliances and joint ventures.  Matthew also assists clients with intellectual property and technology issues and agreements arising in connection with mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, investments, financings, bankruptcies and restructurings. During the 2006–2007 academic year, Matthew served as a Teaching Fellow and Clinical Instructor at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, instructing students and assisting with research and pro bono legal projects involving the intersection of law, technology, digital content, and related public policy.
Joseph Loy

Joseph Loy

Joseph Loy is an intellectual property litigation partner whose practice includes patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret disputes before federal trial and appellate courts nationwide. Joseph has represented clients in cases involving a wide range of industries, including medical devices, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, wireless telecommunications, petrochemicals, oil drilling, cruise ships, digital photography, smart phones, tablet computers and computer software. Joseph's client victories have been featured in The American Lawyer, New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Law360. In 2019, The Legal 500 recognized Joseph for his patent litigation work before the International Trade Commission as well as for his trade secrets work involving both litigation and non-contentious matters. He was also named a Litigator of the Week (runner up) in The American Lawyer in 2019. In 2016, Benchmark Litigation named Joseph to its inaugural “Under 40 Hot List” to honor “the achievements of the nation’s most accomplished legal partners” age 40 and under. He was also selected as a Federal Circuit Bar Association 2016-2017 Global Fellow; and a “Super Lawyer” in Intellectual Property Litigation from 2016–2019. In 2015, the New York Law Journal named Joseph a “Rising Star,” an honor awarded to only 50 attorneys that year. Each year from 2012 to 2015, Super Lawyers Magazine named Joseph a “Rising Star” in Intellectual Property Litigation, a distinction awarded to less than 2.5% of New York lawyers under 40. In 2011, Joseph was named a “Best LGBT Attorney Under 40” in the United States by the National LGBT Bar Association. Joseph's pro bono matters have included the successful representation of over forty asylum seekers before the Department of Homeland Security, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Board of Immigration Appeals, and in immigration court. He has served as Special Assistant District Attorney for the Kings County District Attorney's Office and Special Assistant Corporation Counsel for the Law Department of the City of New York. Joseph has also coached New York City high school mock trial teams and judged mock trial and moot court law school competitions. In 2012, Kirkland named Joseph its Pro Bono Partner of the Year. Joseph is also a member of the Firmwide Pro Bono Management Committee.
Roger Lucas

Roger Lucas

Roger Lucas is a tax partner in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. He concentrates his practice on business formations, mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, executive compensation, and financings. Roger regularly represents private equity funds in connection with their acquisitions and dispositions. Roger also represents Fortune 500 companies and private companies in connection with their acquisitions and dispositions. His clients have included Water Street Healthcare Partners, EOS Partners, Monitor Clipper Partners, Norwest Equity Partners, Excellere Partners, Sycamore Partners, Olympus Partners and others. In addition to his mergers and acquisitions practice, Roger assists sponsors with the structuring of investments in their funds.
John Lynn

John Lynn

John Lynn co-leads Kirkland’s Technology & IP Transactions Practice and heads the practice on the West Coast out of the San Francisco office. John's practice focuses on the acquisition, financing and sale of intellectual property and technology-focused businesses, particularly in the software and high technology fields. John is on the forefront of understanding the complex relationships between intellectual property and technology, on the one hand, and business matters and risk, on the other hand. John's practice focuses on efficiently understanding and addressing client needs and monitoring and advising on risk, and focusing on changes in the legal and business markets that affect technology and intellectual property. John works on a wide variety of matters in which intellectual property, information technology and data protection play a key role, including private equity matters and other mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures; financings and secured lending matters; and bankruptcies and restructurings. In addition John assists clients in connection with joint ventures and strategic alliances; intellectual property and technology transfers, licenses, and development agreements; royalty buy-outs; data transfer and license arrangements; and other commercial contracts (such as supply, distribution, and service agreements). Before moving to the San Francisco office of Kirkland, John was a partner in Kirkland's New York office.
Damien Lyster

Damien Lyster

Damien Lyster is a partner in the Energy Regulatory Practice Group in the Houston office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Damien represents companies in the energy industry in transactional and regulatory matters. He has advised clients on numerous transactional and state and federal regulatory issues related to investments in and the sale or acquisition of assets and entities in the natural gas, oil and conventional and renewable electric power industries. He has counseled clients with respect to the purchase and sale of commodities such as: hydrogen, sustainable aviation fuel, renewable natural gas, traditional natural gas and liquid hydrocarbons; power sales and marketing; the transportation and sequestration of carbon dioxide, the production, gathering, transportation, terminaling and storage of natural gas and liquid hydrocarbons. Damien has experience representing pipeline and storage companies and shippers in negotiating commercial agreements and pursuing applicable authorizations from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the Texas Railroad Commission. He has worked with midstream and exploration and production companies in drafting and negotiating gathering, processing and transportation agreements. In addition, he works on matters involving FERC-regulated wholesale power market participants in regulatory and compliance matters. He has represented clients in administrative litigation before FERC, in FERC enforcement investigations, and in ratemaking proceedings before FERC and the Texas Railroad Commission. He has represented a range of clients, including gas and liquids transmission providers, owners of electric generation and power marketers before the Department of State, Department of Energy and FERC.
David MacDonald

David MacDonald

David MacDonald focuses on intellectual property, pharmaceutical and technology transactions, including joint ventures, consortiums and strategic alliances. He regularly advises pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients on transactional matters, including licensing, marketing and co-promotion, supply and distribution, and other collaboration arrangements. He advises global technology companies on patent strategies, patent and software licensing (including settlement of patent litigation), and monetization (assertion, securitizations, trusts and investment funds). David also advises clients on the intellectual property issues that arise in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, recapitalizations and bankruptcies. Since 2010, David has been included in Intellectual Asset Management magazine’s list of the world’s top 250 patent and technology licensing lawyers for his “cutting-edge expertise on how patent law issues complicate licensing deals” and his “impressive profile in IT outsourcing.” David has also been included in the IAM Patent 1000 since 2012, which describes him as “one of the pharmaceutical industry’s go-to deal brokers” and says he “manifests a rare faculty for facilitating complex collaborations and transactions between life sciences entities.” David was also highlighted in The Legal 500 United States 2012, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 guides to leading U.S. law firms for business. David is the former Chair of the Transactions Involving IP Rights Committee of the ABA and named one of Managing Intellectual Property magazine’s “IP Stars,” 2020–2025.
Sean Malone

Sean Malone

Sean Malone is an investment funds partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. He focuses his practice on advising private equity sponsors on the formation, marketing and management of investment products. He has counseled private fund sponsors on legal, compliance and governance matters, internal economic arrangements, spin-outs and separately managed accounts. Additionally, he has advised private equity sponsors on minority investment transactions, joint ventures, liquidity events and seeding arrangements.
Christopher Marcus

Christopher Marcus

Chris represents debtors, creditors, equity sponsors and investors in distressed companies in various industries, including retail, telecommunications, media, real estate and manufacturing. Representative debtor clients include iHeartMedia, 21st Century Oncology Holdings, BCBG, Sabine Oil & Gas, SandRidge Energy and Cengage Learning. Lender and creditor representations include the Chapter 11 cases of Breitburn Energy and Nextel International. Turnaround & Workouts selected Chris as one of its “Outstanding Restructuring Lawyers” in 2017.
Aaron Marks

Aaron Marks

Aaron Marks has a broad commercial litigation practice, which focuses on contractual disputes, M&A and securities litigation, real estate, restructuring, entertainment, mass torts and consumer fraud, and trade secret misappropriation. Many of the cases that Aaron litigates are bet-the-company matters for clients. Aaron’s clients have included Blackstone Group, National Australia Bank, H.I.G. Capital, Tapestry, AMC Networks, and Hilton Worldwide. Aaron is an accomplished trial lawyer, having taken more than 15 jury trials to verdict. He also frequently argues as lead counsel, recently wining several favorable decisions after oral argument before trial and appellate courts.
Peter Martelli

Peter Martelli

Peter is one of the leading members of Kirkland's corporate practice and a member of the Firm’s Executive Committee. Focusing on mergers and acquisitions, Peter regularly represents private equity firms and public companies in their most complex transactions. Peter’s experience spans the entire range of M&A activity, including many significant leveraged buyouts, minority investments, strategic mergers, joint ventures and cross-border transactions. He also counsels public company clients on governance, securities and other corporate matters.
Michael Masri

Michael Masri

Michael Masri is a partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Mike is a transactional lawyer whose principal areas of practice are tax, energy and infrastructure. He regularly advises his clients on energy tax credits, government incentive programs, project developments and financings, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and all forms of leasing transactions. Mike represents investors and developers in tax equity financings across the renewable energy sector. He also assists clients in a broad range of federal income tax matters, including domestic and cross-border M&A, restructurings, financings, private equity and securities offerings. Mike was recognized as “Up and Coming” in the 2021 edition of Chambers USA for his work in Projects: Renewables & Alternative Energy where commentators note, “He has a very good feel for tax equity's unique needs and helps the client to think strategically." "He is a creative thinker, has good technical skills and is good at explaining tax to non-tax people." He was also recommended by Legal 500 for US Taxes.
Shaun Mathew

Shaun Mathew

Shaun is a corporate partner and a leader of the Firm’s Shareholder Activism & Hostile Takeover Defense practice, which was recognized by its peers as the #1 activism defense law firm practice in 13D Monitor’s 2025 qualitative league tables. Shaun is recognized as one of the 500 leading lawyers in America across all practice areas by Lawdragon, and as among the top five lawyers for activism and takeover defense by Chambers USA and The Legal 500 US. Shaun is a frequent speaker on shareholder activism and corporate governance. He has appeared on Bloomberg TV and has guest lectured at Harvard Law and Michigan Law School, among others. His articles have been featured in Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, and he has been quoted in leading publications including The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, The New York Times, The Deal and Law360. In his practice, Shaun counsels public companies and their boards in defending live proxy fights, negotiating truces with activist hedge funds, responding to short attacks, defending M&A deals against activist opposition, as well as guiding companies through complex corporate governance and other crisis matters. His recent experience includes defending public companies and private equity sponsors in several of the most high profile challenges to M&A transactions, and he has defended clients against campaigns mounted by a number of activist investors including Elliott Management, Starboard Value, Politan Capital Management, Carl Icahn and JANA Partners.
Christine Matott

Christine Matott

Christine Matott is an investment funds partner in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP with a focus on ERISA. Christine represents real estate, private equity, hedge funds and other private funds and investment vehicles on all ERISA matters relating to fund structuring and formation, including but not limited to issues relating to venture capital operating companies, real estate operating companies and other exceptions issued under the “plan asset” regulations. She also advises pension plan investors, as well as investment managers, on general ERISA compliance matters, including fiduciary duties under ERISA, prohibited transactions and fee structuring.
Todd Maynes

Todd Maynes

Todd Maynes focuses his practice on the tax aspects of debt restructurings, bankruptcy and insolvency, and tax litigation. Todd served as Chair of the Planning Committee for both the University of Chicago Federal Tax Conference and the Chicago-Kent College of Law Federal Tax Institute. He taught bankruptcy taxation at Northwestern University School of Law and the Law School at the University of Chicago, previously taught advanced income taxation at Chicago-Kent College of Law, and has lectured frequently at the University of Michigan.
Mary Mazzello

Mary Mazzello

Mary Mazzello is an intellectual property litigation partner in Kirkland’s New York office. Her practice focuses on trademark, copyright, trade secret, and music royalty matters. Mary has litigated cases across a wide range of venues, including trademark disputes before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, music copyright matters before the Copyright Royalty Board, IP disputes in state and federal courts, and appellate issues before the United States Supreme Court. Mary also advises clients on pre-litigation issues, branding matters, new product launches, and IP acquisition and licensing issues. In addition, Mary has extensive experience with trademark clearance, registration, and maintenance for clients across a variety of industries, including sports, health, financial services, consulting, real estate, fashion, and technology. Mary frequently lectures on IP-related issues. She also maintains an active pro bono practice, including representing veterans in claims before the Department of Veterans Affairs. Mary has been a firm mentor since 2014 and was the 2022 Summer Associate Program Committee Liaison for the New York Copyright, Trademark, Internet, and Advertising group.
Robin McCue

Robin McCue

Robin McCue is a partner in the Chicago office who focuses on intellectual property litigation, primarily on trademark and false advertising litigation. Robin has extensive courtroom experience on such matters, and has considerable experience litigating trademark and false advertising matters in the context of requests for expedited relief. Robin also has substantial experience working with experts in the field of trademark and advertising surveys. Robin has been the attorney primarily responsible for both bringing and defending actions before the National Advertising Division (the "NAD") of the Better Business Bureau. Robin regularly counsels clients in the areas of trademark and advertising and has primary responsibility for maintaining, protecting and enforcing clients' trademark portfolios at the PTO. Robin also has extensive experience in handling the damages side of intellectual property litigation. She has been the attorney primarily responsible for litigating multi-million dollar damages claims on trademark and patent litigation matters, including working extensively with damages experts.
Sean McEldowney

Sean McEldowney

Sean McEldowney is a partner in Kirkland’s Intellectual Property Litigation Group. Sean has litigated patent, trade secret, breach of contract, and other intellectual property cases in federal district courts around the country, the International Trade Commission, and in state courts. He has been trial counsel in more than 10 patent and trade secret cases, and he has also represented clients in appeals at the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. In addition to his trial experience, Sean also prides himself on developing litigation strategies that drive favorable settlements or summary judgments. He has represented clients in litigation matters involving a variety of technologies including chemical technology, semiconductor technology, medical equipment, various software and hardware applications, and industrial technologies. Sean was selected as a “Rising Star” in Washington, D.C. by Super Lawyers Magazine for 2014–2016.
Janette McMahan

Janette McMahan

Janette McMahan is a partner in the Structured Finance & Structured Private Credit Practice Group in Kirkland’s New York office. She has significant experience in auto loan, auto lease, marketplace loan and trade receivables transactions. Additionally, Janette has represented clients in single-family rental deals, whole business securitizations, equipment financings, health care receivables transactions, restructurings, investments and acquisitions. Janette has worked with ABS sponsors in drafting comment letters on regulatory reform since 2010, including on Regulation AB II, shelf eligibility, loan level disclosures and risk retention. She has given numerous presentations to ABS sponsors and underwriters on these new rules. Janette was the lead outside counsel on the second effective Regulation AB II shelf. This shelf was declared effective prior to all other shelves other than one SEC pilot program issuer shelf.
Miranda Means

Miranda Means

Miranda Means is a partner in the Boston office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Her practice focuses on litigation and counseling in the fields of copyright, trade secret, trademark, right of publicity, art, internet and advertising law. She represents clients on matters implicating a range of media (social media, video games, fine art, sports, music, film) and technologies (artificial intelligence, computer software, consumer electronics). Miranda has been recognized for her work by American Lawyer, which named her as a “Litigator of the Week” in connection with her work on the first AI copyright fair use case in United States legal history. Miranda is committed to inclusivity and pro bono work, and has proudly worked on matters centered on protecting LGBTQ+ rights.
Kelly Mellecker

Kelly Mellecker

Kelly Mellecker is a partner in the Structured Finance & Structured Private Credit Practice Group in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Kelly’s practice focuses on advising sponsors, credit funds, initial purchasers, institutional investors, investment banks and borrowers on a broad array of structured finance transactions including securitizations, structured private credit and private placements. Kelly has been instrumental in designing a number of hybrid financing structures melding securitization with traditional leveraged finance and liability management transactions. Kelly is known as a thought leader in the structured finance and infrastructure financing space, having been profiled by Bloomberg, The Banker and other outlets. Before joining Kirkland, Kelly was a managing director at Goldman Sachs, where she led a number of efforts in digital infrastructure securitization and pioneered the non-contracted fiber-to-the-home securitization asset class. Prior to joining Goldman, Kelly was an attorney at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, where she represented issuers and sponsors as well as investment banks in connection with some of the highest-profile securitizations in the market, including Wendy’s, Dunkin’ Brands, Dine Brands, Diamond Communications and Coinstar.
Hamed Meshki

Hamed Meshki

Hamed Meshki is a partner in Kirkland’s Los Angeles corporate group. His practice focuses on highly structured and complex business transactions, including mergers & acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, restructurings, recapitalizations and financings. Hamed has structured, negotiated and completed transactions in a wide variety of industries, including apparel, broadcast media, consumer products, energy and oilfield services, gaming and lodging, healthcare, industrials and manufacturing, publishing, software and technology, sports and entertainment, and transportation and shipping.
Sara Michaelchuck Webber

Sara Michaelchuck Webber

Sara Webber is a partner in Kirkland’s global Environmental Practice Group, where she has spent more than 20 years advising clients on complex and cutting edge environmental issues, primarily in the context of corporate mergers, acquisitions and divestitures and real estate investments in the U.S. and around the world. Sara has managed the environmental aspects of more than one thousand transactions involving all types of businesses, industries and real estate assets. Sara is the go-to environmental transactions counsel for many private equity firms, real estate investment firms and public companies who rely on her to identify and evaluate environmental liabilities and develop creative, practical and commercial solutions to allocate, mitigate and manage the risks associated with those liabilities. Sara’s business-minded support focuses on understanding and achieving the client’s goals and spans the entire course of the transaction from pre-deal counseling to pursuing post-closing resolution of identified environmental compliance and contamination issues. Sara has extensive experience in managing the environmental due diligence process, negotiating environmental indemnities and securing environmental insurance coverage for environmentally sensitive businesses and contaminated real estate portfolios. Sara has been recognized by attorney ranking directories, such as Chambers USA, The Legal 500 and Lawdragon. Lawdragon recognized Sara as a “Leading Environmental Lawyer.” In The Legal 500, Sara is recommended for her experience working on environmental matters in M&A and real estate investments. Chambers USA recognized Sara as “an exceptional attorney with an ability to understand and explain complex environmental risks to non-experts” with clients further noting that she is “incredibly knowledgeable,” “very proactive and solutions-based,” and “fantastic to work with.”
Alexandra Mihalas

Alexandra Mihalas

Alexandra Mihalas is a partner in the Firm's employee benefits practice. Her practice focuses primarily on transactional ERISA matters for private and public companies, with a particular emphasis on acquisitions and sales by venture capital and other private equity funds, and the ERISA issues that arise in complex bankruptcy restructurings. Alexandra is ranked in the 2025–2026 editions of Chambers USA for Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation in Illinois. She was also recommended in the 2018–2025 editions of The Legal 500 U.S. for Employee Benefits.
Christopher Mizzo

Christopher Mizzo

Chris Mizzo is a trial lawyer who focuses on complex commercial and intellectual property litigation. Over the past 20 years, Chris has gained extensive experience in all phases of litigation, has first- chaired high-stakes, bet-the-company cases, and routinely tries cases in federal and state courts and before the U.S. International Trade Commission. In addition to his trial work, Chris has experience conducting post-grant reviews before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Chris represents and regularly advises a diverse number of clients in a broad range of industries, ranging from Fortune 100 companies to outstanding, innovative entrepreneurs.
Stephen Mohr

Stephen Mohr

Jason Monfort is an investment funds partner in the Boston office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Jason represents open- and closed-end funds, exchange-traded funds, independent directors/trustees of mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, business development companies, registered investment advisers, banks, broker-dealers, private investment funds, insurance companies and other financial institutions in the full spectrum of financial services regulation applicable to developing, marketing and offering financial products. He advises clients on new product offerings, mergers and acquisitions, regulatory filings, reorganizations, compliance policies, regulatory investigations, exemptive applications and other innovative regulatory issues. Jason is a frequent speaker on financial industry topics and is a contributing author to PLI’s treatise entitled “Mutual Funds and Exchange Traded Funds Regulation.”
Tatiana Monastyrskaya

Tatiana Monastyrskaya

Tatiana Monastyrskaya is an infrastructure finance partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Tatiana represents private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies in a variety of energy and infrastructure financing transactions, including commercial bank debt, Term Loan B, private placements and bank-bond deals. She works across energy transition and renewables industries, including battery storage, RNG, carbon sequestration and storage, hydrogen, as well as transmission, LNG, and digital infrastructure (including financing portfolios of data centers). In addition to single-asset project financings, she advises on structuring back leverage and mezzanine financings for acquisitions of portfolios of projects in the context of joint ventures. While Tatiana focuses primarily on representing sponsors in infrastructure financings, she also represents developers in energy transition development projects, and credit funds as direct lenders. Tatiana has been recognized by The Legal 500, where clients note, "Tatiana Monastyrskaya is unrivaled in terms of brilliance, creativity, speed, and business-minded focus." She has repeatedly been selected for inclusion in Chambers USA and Chambers Global, where commentators note, "Her due diligence and risk mitigation abilities are excellent. She is very diligent, knowledgeable and capable of distilling significant amounts of information for clients."
Jason Monfort

Jason Monfort

Jason Monfort is an investment funds partner in the Boston office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Jason represents open- and closed-end funds, exchange-traded funds, independent directors/trustees of mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, business development companies, registered investment advisers, banks, broker-dealers, private investment funds, insurance companies and other financial institutions in the full spectrum of financial services regulation applicable to developing, marketing and offering financial products. He advises clients on new product offerings, mergers and acquisitions, regulatory filings, reorganizations, compliance policies, regulatory investigations, exemptive applications and other innovative regulatory issues. Jason is a frequent speaker on financial industry topics and is a contributing author to PLI’s treatise entitled “Mutual Funds and Exchange Traded Funds Regulation.”
Lee Morlock

Lee Morlock

Lee Morlock is a tax partner in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. His practice focuses on international tax planning and transactional matters. Lee focuses his practice on international tax planning and transactional matters. He advises Fortune 500 and Global 500 companies on the structuring of cross-border operations, including implementing strategic restructuring transactions and post-acquisition integration, as well as cross-border financing activities. Lee also regularly represents private equity firms and U.S. and non-U.S. corporations in acquisitions, divestitures and other M&A transactions.
Nadia Murad

Nadia Murad

Nadia Murad is a partner in the Investment Funds Group where her practice focuses on the formation, structuring and management of premier private equity funds, hybrid (private equity / hedge) funds, fund-of-funds, co-invest funds, alternative investment vehicles, private investment and family office vehicles, and their management companies. Nadia has been one of the primary attorneys on numerous fund formation matters across a variety of fund strategies, with aggregate capital raised totaling in the tens of billions of dollars. She also has been a lead attorney advising clients on acquisition structuring, structured secondaries, spin-outs, and the establishment and restructuring of firm internal arrangements, admission and separation agreements, and succession planning. In addition, she has extensive corporate counseling experience and has counseled clients on a wide range of ongoing operational issues including regulatory and compliance, ESG and impact investing, limited partner transfers, confidentiality agreements, cross-fund transactions, conflicts and investor relations matters.
Andrea Murino

Andrea Murino

Andrea Agathoklis Murino is an antitrust and competition partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Her unique combination of private and public sector experience allows her to combine a deep understanding of antitrust caselaw and current enforcement priorities to create bespoke and efficient pathways to achieving her clients’ business objectives. Her primary focus is securing clearances for proposed transactions from the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), state attorneys general and international competition law enforcement agencies. She has successfully represented hundreds of clients through intensive investigations, high-profile Second Requests, and federal and administrative litigation. Andrea also has a vibrant practice representing third parties in connection with agency investigations and litigation. Clients have called Andrea “super responsive, very practical and a creative problem solver” who is “a real pleasure to work with” according to Chambers USA. To The Legal 500 U.S., clients noted she is “a very strong and persuasive communicator” who can “distill down the primary advocacy arguments in a case and communicate those ideas persuasively to the antitrust agencies.”
Allison Murphy

Allison Murphy

Allison Murphy is a partner in the Government, Regulatory & Internal Investigations Practice Group in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Having served in the White House Counsel’s Office and on Capitol Hill, Allison brings her strong government experience to bear when guiding clients through high-stakes congressional and federal government investigations. Some of the world’s largest public and privately held companies have relied on Allison for responding to investigations and crisis management environments. With a practice often driven by headline risk matters, she is well-versed in handling parallel inquiries by congressional committees and government agencies, and in litigation. She has prepared chief executive officers, senior executives and members of boards of directors for public testimony. She also regularly advises companies on reputational risk and strategic matters. Her broad practice has covered matters where healthcare, financial, consumer, energy and technology issues are under scrutiny. In being recognized for her work in the 2025 edition of Chambers, her clients note that she “has intimate knowledge of the space and is incredibly smart,” and “provides good guidance and counsel to clients in a proactive and valuable way.” Before joining Kirkland & Ellis, Allison served as Associate Counsel in the White House, providing legal advice on sensitive matters to senior Executive Branch officials at the Treasury Department and others, dealing with high-profile congressional investigations, and advising on litigation implicating executive privilege. Also, she spent a decade on Capitol Hill, including as Chief Oversight Counsel of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis under the Oversight Committee, as well as Counsel for the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Allison has led inquiries related to the coronavirus pandemic, the financial crisis and other complex events. She also previously served as an enforcement attorney with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission handling market manipulation and other sophisticated cases. Allison also counsels tax-exempt entities and as maintains an active pro bono practice.
Jordan Murray

Jordan Murray

Jordan Murray, a partner in Kirkland’s Investment Funds Group, is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading investment funds lawyers and is co-head of Kirkland’s industry-leading Strategic GP Solutions practice. His multi-dimensional and mature practice focuses on advising sponsors in every aspect of the private equity and asset management fund space. Jordan is a well-known leader in advising premier private investment firms on complex strategic minority and preferred equity investments. In the past three years alone, he has led the representations of firms selling interests to each of the prominent buyers in this rapidly evolving market, including AE Industrial Partners, Arlington, Carnelian Energy, Centre Lane, Cortec Group, Francisco Partners, GI Partners, Golub, I Squared, Kayne Anderson Real Estate, MSouth, Marlin, Oak Street, Siris, Spear Street and Veritas as well as a number of other clients on closed (unannounced) and active transactions. In his fund formation practice, Jordan has led the representations of sponsors offering open- and closed-ended private securities covering a wide spectrum of sectors, geographies and strategies, such as buyout, credit, real estate, infrastructure, growth equity and hedge, raising more than $100 billion for funds and separate accounts.
Matthew Nadworny

Matthew Nadworny

Matt Nadworny is the founding partner of the Houston and Dallas Investment Fund Practice Groups. He has represented U.S. and non-U.S. fund sponsors on tens of billions of private fund formations across a wide variety of strategies, including leveraged buyout, energy, infrastructure, growth equity and credit. Matt also advises fund sponsors on a wide variety of related matters, including succession planning, “key person” events, spin-outs, conflict resolution, co-investments and internal manager operations.
JoAnne Nagjee

JoAnne Nagjee

As a partner in Kirkland’s Chicago office, JoAnne Mulder Nagjee represents a range of clients—including private equity firms, large corporations, and high-net-worth individuals—in Federal, state, and local tax controversies. JoAnne has extensive experience at all stages of the administrative process, from audit through administrative appeal and post-appeals mediation, and in tax litigation in Federal and state courts. JoAnne’s representations frequently involve highly complex areas of the tax law and/or sophisticated transaction structures, and she is adept at making these challenging concepts comprehensible and digestible for decision-makers at every level. JoAnne also regularly advises clients on the tax aspects of litigation settlements and judgments, including on issues under Section 162(f). JoAnne maintains an active pro bono practice, including helping immigrant victims of violent crimes obtain temporary legal status, work eligibility, and a path to permanent residency.
Christian Nagler

Christian Nagler

Christian Nagler represents issuers, private equity sponsors, and underwriters in a broad range of securities transactions including offerings, consent solicitations, acquisition financing, and tender and exchange offers involving convertible securities, trust preferred securities, investment grade and high yield debt, and equity derivatives. Christian also represents companies and funds with respect to SEC reporting and compliance, including Section 13 and Section 16 obligations, corporate governance issues, and disclosure obligations. Christian has completed transactions in numerous industries including chemicals, consumer goods, energy, financial institutions, food & beverages, healthcare, hotels, media, real estate, shipping, and technology. Christian also has vast experience in working with special purpose acquisition companies.
Roald Nashi

Roald Nashi

Roald Nashi is a partner in the Washington, D.C., and Houston offices of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. He represents private equity and infrastructure fund clients on investments in energy and infrastructure assets, including structured equity financings, bank and bond financings, tax structured financings, leveraged lease, and margin loan facilities. Roald has been recognized by The American Lawyer as a 2023 Dealmaker of the Year, Chambers Global in Projects, Chambers USA in Projects, Legal 500 as Next Generation Partners for Project Finance, IFLR1000 as Highly Regarded in Project Finance, Lawdragon as one of the 500 Leading Dealmakers in America, and Law360 as a 2019 Project Finance MVP.
Kim Nemirow

Kim Nemirow

Kim Nemirow is a partner in the Government & Internal Investigations Group in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Kim has more than 15 years of experience advising multinational organizations and individuals in a wide variety of U.S. DOJ and SEC investigations, internal investigations, and compliance matters. She had led countless investigations for private equity, pharmaceutical, medical device, technology and other clients into potential violations of the FCPA, securities laws, and various health care fraud statutes. Having lived and practiced in Asia and Latin America for several years, Kim brings a deep awareness of international business and cultural norms to every matter. A frequent author and speaker, Kim is also regularly called upon by clients to advise on highly sensitive matters, including those involving workplace misconduct and compliance. Kim also teaches a class at the University of Chicago of Law School titled, “International Enforcement Risks in Cross-Border Transactions.”
Kevin Neylan

Kevin Neylan

Kevin Neylan is a litigation partner in Kirkland’s New York office. He has a broad trial and appellate practice with a particular focus on antitrust, securities and general commercial disputes. Kevin has been a leading member of numerous trial teams, and has significant experience examining and cross-examining fact and expert witnesses, taking and defending depositions and arguing high-stakes motions at critical junctures including at the motion to dismiss, summary judgment and class certification stages. Kevin also has substantial appellate experience, having been the lead drafter of numerous briefs at the U.S. Supreme Court (on the merits and at the certiorari stage), the Delaware Supreme Court and many of the circuit courts of appeals. His pro bono work has focused on issues related to school choice and religious liberty. His clients have included Teva Pharmaceuticals, Genius Sports, Sun Pharmaceuticals, 3G Capital, GlaxoSmithKline, Gilead Sciences, Occidental Petroleum, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals and Success Academy.
Jeffery Norman

Jeffery Norman

Jeffery Norman is a partner in Kirkland & Ellis LLP’s cutting-edge Technology and Intellectual Property Transactions Practice Group. Mr. Norman offers more than two decades of experience and strategic counseling in complex transactions where technology or intellectual property rights are critical to the success of the venture. Mr. Norman’s focus and extensive experience includes high profile international and domestic joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, business carve-out transactions, master franchising agreements, financial technology and blockchain related transactions, long term supply and manufacturing agreements, research and development agreements, patent and know-how licensing in multiple domains (including pharmaceutical, biologics, medical devices, computer-related inventions technologies, telecommunications, and chemicals), “clean room” strategies and execution of clean room development, trademark licensing, and software development and licensing.
Lisa Nosal

Lisa Nosal

Lisa Nosal is an investment funds partner in the Boston office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Lisa has a decade of experience representing registered investment companies and their investment advisers and boards of directors. Her clients have included traditional open-end and closed-end investment companies, tender offer and interval funds, exchange-traded funds and business development companies (BDCs). Lisa has extensive experience in the formation and ongoing representation of alternative products that provide retail access to private assets, such as funds of private equity funds, funds of hedge funds, private credit funds and registered hedge funds.
John O’Quinn

John O’Quinn

John O’Quinn’s practice focuses on litigation, including intellectual property disputes, commercial litigation, regulatory matters, and other complex litigation matters at the trial and appellate levels. He has argued over seventy appeals in courts throughout the country, including more than forty in the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. For each of the past five years he has been named in the IAM Patent 1000, particularly for his work in the Federal Circuit. His work has also been recognized in the National Law Journal, the Legal 500, the Financial Times, and in Law360, where he was named a “Rising Star” in appellate litigation. John has been to trial multiple times, where he has examined expert and fact witnesses. Representative clients include Abbott, Charter Communications, Cisco Systems, C.R. Bard, IBM, Motorola, POET LLC, and Teva Pharmaceuticals.
John O’Neil

John O’Neil

John is a globally recognized leader in the private equity field. He heads Kirkland & Ellis’ Investment Funds Group, the firm’s leading-edge global platform that provides innovative and bespoke legal strategies to sponsors and funds of all kinds. John is also a member of the Firm's Executive Committee. John is a founding member of the firm’s Private Funds Crisis Management Group, which guides investment fund sponsors, advisory boards, and other market participants through some of their most challenging situations. As the go-to advisor to some of the world’s most dynamic funds, John leverages more than two decades of industry knowledge to achieve optimal results for his clients in day-to-day operations and extraordinary events and transactions, including “key person” events, investor defaults, and spin-outs. John is a global thought leader on private equity market trends, firm leadership and culture, and community engagement. John also serves on the boards of the Susan G. Komen breast cancer foundation, and the Constellation Fund, an organization that fights poverty in the Twin Cities community.
Christine Okike

Christine Okike

Christine A. Okike is a restructuring partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. She represents public and private companies, sponsors, investors, creditors and purchasers in high-stakes, liability management transactions, recapitalizations and restructurings. She also advises boards of directors and senior management on fiduciary duties and corporate governance. Christine has a broad range of experience across a number of industries, including cryptocurrency, automotive, sports, entertainment, retail, energy, real estate, financial services, technology, transportation, travel, health care, media and telecommunications.
Karin Orsic

Karin Orsic

Karin Orsic, a partner in the Investment Funds Group, focuses her practice on structuring, forming and advising private investment funds covering a broad range of strategies, including leveraged buyout funds, distressed investment funds, growth equity funds, venture capital funds and funds of funds.  In addition to spearheading their fund formation transactions, Karin also counsels her fund sponsor clients on various operational and firm management issues. She routinely assists clients in implementing management, executive compensation and succession planning arrangements and counsels such clients on a wide variety of deal-structuring and regulatory compliance matters. Karin has also guided clients through various extraordinary events such as key person events, executive separation arrangements, conflict resolutions and spin-outs of private equity executives and teams from more established firms. Karin also represents select investors in their fund investments, co-investments and secondary transactions. Karin is a founding partner of Kirkland & Ellis LLP’s San Francis
Matthew O’Brien

Matthew O’Brien

Matthew O'Brien is a corporate partner in the Firm's Chicago office. Matthew represents private equity sponsors and public and private company clients in mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, going-private transactions, joint ventures, divestitures, private financings, recapitalizations and restructurings, and in related corporate governance, executive compensation and general corporate matters. Matthew joined Kirkland in 2006, has been a partner since 2012 and was selected by The Deal as a “Rising Star” M&A attorney in 2019.
Matthew Pacey

Matthew Pacey

Matt advises clients on a wide variety of complex capital markets transactions, including initial public offerings, high yield and investment grade notes offerings, structured capital and liability management matters, particularly for private equity-backed and venture capital-backed companies. Matt also regularly advises public company boards on governance, conflicts and sensitive SEC compliance and disclosure matters. He has extensive experience in the energy, infrastructure, digital infrastructure, technology and aviation sectors.
Christopher Palmer

Christopher Palmer

Chris Palmer is an investment funds partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. For more than 30 years, Chris has worked with funds, fund sponsors and investment advisers on the creation and operation of a wide range on registered funds, including open-end funds, closed-end funds, interval funds and exchange-traded funds. He advises fund independent directors on legal, governance and industry practice issues. Chris also represents insurance companies on the design, regulatory approval and operation of registered and unregistered life and annuity products and unregistered funds and products used in the retirement marketplace. He advises clients on regulatory, compliance and examination issues for funds, fund directors, advisers and insurance companies.
Leah Patrick

Leah Patrick

Leah Davis Patrick is a partner in the Houston office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Leah Davis Patrick's practice focuses on U.S. federal income tax controversy matters and litigation. Leah represents large companies and high net worth individuals nationwide in tax disputes with the IRS. Leah regularly assists clients in matters involving complex tax controversies and assists individuals, partnerships, and corporations in navigating challenging income and excise tax issues. Her practice also includes advising clients regarding the tax-efficient structuring of business mergers, acquisitions and dispositions and transactions involving corporations, partnerships, and S corporations.
Sanford Perl

Sanford Perl

Sanford (Sandy) Perl serves as a lead advisor and counsel in complex business transactions including LBOs, mergers and acquisitions, equity investments, PIPEs, IPOs, management compensation arrangements and restructurings. Fund clients include Beecken Petty O'Keefe, Clearlight Partners, Flexpoint Partners, Glencoe Capital, GTCR, Insignia Capital, Lake Capital Partners, Lake Pacific Partners, Madison Dearborn Partners, Maranon Capital, Mountaingate Capital, New Harbor Capital, Periscope Equity, Shorehill Capital, Stephens Group, Victory Park Capital, and their portfolio companies. Mr. Perl also represents entrepreneurs, management teams and public and private companies. Mr. Perl also chairs Kirkland’s Audit Committee.
Daniel Perlman

Daniel Perlman

Daniel Perlman is a partner in the Real Estate Group in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. He has extensive experience in advising pension funds and their advisors, national developers, foreign institutions, public and private REITs as well as investment banks and hedge funds on real estate fund and venture formations, loan workouts, sales and purchases of distressed loans, securitized, conventional and mezzanine financings, commercial development, and commercial acquisitions and dispositions.
Adam Petravicius

Adam Petravicius

Adam Petravicius is an experienced technology and IP transactions attorney with substantial experience in leading technology-driven deals. He has worked with companies of all sizes, from emerging companies to the largest public companies, in a wide range of industries, including software/IT, life sciences, electronics, consumer products, manufacturing, chemicals, defense and automotive. He routinely advises executives and business owners on strategy and legal issues, providing business-oriented advice and practical solutions to mitigate risk and maximize value. Adam works with clients on strategic commercial transactions, joint ventures and strategic alliances, licenses, development agreements, commercialization and other collaboration agreements, technology acquisitions and sales, outsourcing, consulting and services agreements, and other complex commercial agreements. He also works closely with Kirkland’s Corporate/M&A practice in connection with the technology and IP aspects of corporate transactions, and in working with portfolio companies on the types of transactions described above.
Adam Phillips

Adam Phillips

Adam D. Phillips is a partner in Kirkland’s corporate transactional group and manages the Corporate practice in the Firm’s Palo Alto office. Adam’s practice is focused on acquisitions and investments for a number of the leading technology-focused buyout and growth equity funds in Silicon Valley and representations of their portfolio companies in a variety of corporate and securities matters. In addition to his tenure at Kirkland, Adam spent 13 years in the corporate sector as both an in-house counsel and a senior M&A executive for private and public companies. In 1997, he was named one of the 45 most influential in-house lawyers in the country under the age of 45 by CCM – The American Lawyer’s Corporate Counsel Magazine.
Mark Premo-Hopkins

Mark Premo-Hopkins

Mark Premo-Hopkins is a litigation partner and trial lawyer in Kirkland’s Chicago office. He represents companies as both plaintiffs and defendants in a broad range of business disputes. Mark recently co-led and won a trial in Delaware state court, where the jury awarded $82 million to a private equity client based on defendants’ fraud in the sale of a clinical trial software business. The American Lawyer selected Mark and his partner as Litigator of the Week based on the win. Mark also served as trial counsel for AbbVie in its successful pursuit of injunctive relief against a former employee that secretly joined a start-up company working on a competing drug. Mark went to trial for Baxter Healthcare in its successful defense of a $400 million breach of contract suit, obtaining significant wins at summary judgment and a favorable post-trial settlement. Mark has deep experience on behalf of private equity clients and their portfolio companies and in the healthcare/pharma industry. His clients benefit from the unique perspective and strategic insights he gained during four years as a successful plaintiff’s attorney in Colorado. When he’s not trying cases, Mark is an avid golfer and loves working with kids. He coaches youth sports for his local Park District.
Scott Price

Scott Price

Scott Price is a partner in the Firm’s Executive Compensation Practice Group. Scott has extensive experience handling a wide range of executive compensation matters in complex business transactions, including domestic and international mergers, leveraged buyouts and other acquisitions. In addition, Scott has represented numerous high profile executives and management teams in negotiating employment and incentive arrangements. Scott’s practice includes structuring and implementing management equity arrangements, deferred compensation, severance and other executive programs, advising on securities, accounting and tax law issues regarding executive compensation arrangements.
Craig Primis

Craig Primis

Craig is a trial lawyer with deep experience defending America’s leading companies in their most challenging commercial disputes. He has defended clients in corporate disputes, class actions, and litigation and investigations brought by state and federal governments. His work covers diverse areas including antitrust, securities, trade secrets, False Claims Act, mergers and acquisitions, product liability, breach of contract and fraud. Craig’s appellate experience as a U.S. Supreme Court clerk and appellate advocate and two decades of trial court experience allow him to combine outstanding written work with excellent courtroom skills to deliver successful results for clients.
Thomas Prommer

Thomas Prommer

Thomas Prommer is a partner in Kirkland’s Complex Securitizations Practice Group. He focuses on complex credit transactions, including securitization, structured private credit, fund financing, traditional leveraged financing, LBOs and restructurings. His experience spans unique securitizations involving esoteric assets, such as royalties, oil and gas assets, power supply agreements, cellular towers, fiber optic networks, data centers, GPUs, outdoor advertising assets and other traditional financings. Thomas advises sponsors, issuers, borrowers, credit funds and asset managers on innovative and specialized finance structures, including for private equity, senior credit, mezzanine credit, special situations, real estate, infrastructure and other strategies.
Jay Ptashek

Jay Ptashek

Known as one of the most experienced finance lawyers in the nation, Jay Ptashek represents private equity firms, their portfolio companies, and corporate borrowers on both acquisition finance and corporate finance transactions. With a broad and diverse practice serving a wide spectrum of clients, Jay also advises on debt restructuring and capital structure management matters. Jay has earned a reputation for bringing the full breadth of market knowledge in structuring, negotiating and implementing financing arrangements for Kirkland’s clients in matters across the U.S., Europe and Asia. He has been recognized every year since 2012 in Chambers Global and every year since 2010 in Chambers USA, which described him as “a strong leader and superb lawyer” and stated “he is excellent and provides good guidance.” The Legal 500 US recognized Jay as a hall of fame lawyer, and IFLR1000 has named him a “Market Leader” in Banking since 2018. Jay collaborates closely with his colleagues to provide clients with the Firm’s collective knowledge and resources, which helps drive favorable economic and operating outcomes. Outside of his legal practice, Jay is passionate about the arts. He serves on the national council of the board of directors for the University Musical Society, one of the oldest performing arts presenters in the U.S., which is housed on the University of Michigan campus.
Alan Rabinowitz

Alan Rabinowitz

Alan Rabinowitz is a partner in Kirkland’s Intellectual Property Litigation Group. Alan counsels clients on IP issues, with a focus on complex patent matters before federal district courts, the International Trade Commission (ITC) and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).  Alan represents clients on a broad range of technologies, including telecommunications and networking, computer graphics, image processing, audio and video compression, semiconductor fabrication, encryption and digital rights management, computer software and hardware, and medical devices.
Stanley Ramsay

Stanley Ramsay

Stanley Ramsay is a tax partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Stanley’s practice is focused on representing private equity sponsors, institutional asset managers and investors on the formation and operation of private equity funds and investment vehicles, partnerships, joint ventures and limited liability companies. Stanley has significant experience in the structuring and documentation of private equity and merger and acquisition transactions, and has advised clients on the formation and structuring of a wide range of private equity funds.
Maria Raptis

Maria Raptis

Maria Raptis is an antitrust and competition partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Her practice focuses on advising clients in connection with antitrust aspects of mergers, acquisitions, litigation, investigations and counseling. She represents clients across a wide range of industries, including healthcare and pharmaceuticals, technology, consumer products, financial services, entertainment and manufacturing. She also has substantial experience litigating antitrust cases. Prior to joining Kirkland, her recent matters included defending Activision Blizzard in its acquisition by Microsoft, and Juniper Networks in Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s acquisition of the company.
Karthik Ravishankar

Karthik Ravishankar

Karthik Ravishankar is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. He has significant experience facilitating cases through discovery and bringing cases to trial, particularly at the U.S. International Trade Commission, where he has managed over thirty investigations and taken over a dozen cases to trial. His practice is focused on intellectual property litigation — including patents, trade secrets, false advertising and trademarks — and he has represented clients at the ITC and in district court involving a variety of technologies, including cellular devices, mobile payments, data encryption, spray guns, non-invasive body-contouring, pharmaceuticals and AI dashcams. Karthik’s practice also includes consulting on and litigating global FRAND issues and IP-adjacent antitrust matters.
Claudia Ray

Claudia Ray

Claudia Ray is a partner in Kirkland’s New York office and a member of the Firm’s Intellectual Property Practice Group. She represents clients across a wide range of industries, including financial services, technology, consumer products, and entertainment and media, in litigation, arbitration, and administrative proceedings involving copyright, trademark, Internet, contract/licensing, and trade secret issues. Claudia also advises clients on pre-litigation issues, IP issues arising out of corporate transactions and licensing matters, and overall IP protection and brand-building strategies, including the registration, maintenance and policing of their trademark and copyright portfolios.
Matthew Reilly

Matthew Reilly

Matt Reilly is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Matt is one of the preeminent antitrust practitioners in the country. Matt’s practice focuses on a wide range of antitrust matters, including antitrust litigation, complex transactions and antitrust counseling and government investigations. He is regularly relied on by major clients to navigate the approval process for the most complex, high-profile transactions, and to prepare to litigate mergers that face steep resistance from the agencies.
Yosef Riemer

Yosef Riemer

Yosef Riemer is a litigation partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, which was named "Litigation Department of the Year" by The American Lawyer. He has extensive experience as lead trial and appellate counsel for a broad group of clients, handling their most significant disputes including: breach of contract claims; antitrust cases; litigation over M&A and corporate control matters; securities, fraud and class action litigation; trade secret cases; RICO actions; and contested restructuring matters. He has achieved consistently strong results, whether by winning litigation on pretrial motions, in victories at trial in Federal and State courts and before arbitrators, or in negotiating favorable settlements.
Graham Robinson

Graham Robinson

Graham Robinson is an M&A partner in the Boston office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Graham’s practice focuses on transactions involving the acquisitions of public companies, specifically within the biopharmaceutical industry. He is ranked first by deal value and number of deals among U.S. attorneys for public biotechnology M&A transactions since January 2016, according to Deal Point Data. Graham also has extensive experience within the shareholder activism space. He has helped companies prepare for and respond to unsolicited acquisition proposals, as well as dealing with activist investors. He provides counsel to boards of directors and special committees on corporate governance matters and internal investigations.
Donald Rocap

Donald Rocap

Don’s practice focuses on the tax aspects of complex business transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, formation of private equity funds, and liquidity solutions for private equity funds and private equity sponsors. He is a lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School and is a co-author of 'Mergers, Acquisitions, and Buyouts,' by Martin Ginsburg, Jack Levin and Donald Rocap, and of 'Structuring Venture Capital, Private Equity, and Entrepreneurial Transactions,' by Jack Levin and Donald Rocap.
David Rosenberg

David Rosenberg

David Rosenberg is a partner in the Real Estate Group in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. He has extensive experience advising clients in commercial real estate transactions, including acquisitions and dispositions, sale-leasebacks, joint ventures and all types of real estate-based debt financings. He counsels private equity firms, public companies, public and private REITs and operators involving all asset classes, in particular including industrial, net lease, data centers, multi-family, office, retail and self-storage.
Martin Roth

Martin Roth

Martin Roth is a trial lawyer whose practice spans complex litigation matters across a wide array of industries. Martin has won trials for clients like BP, Sycamore Partners and Bixby Bridge Capital in state and federal courts across the country. Martin has also argued and won significant appeals for clients, including Blackstone, 3i Group and Sun Capital Partners. Martin’s recent Seventh Circuit win on an issue of first impression in a class action under the Genetic Information Privacy Act was highlighted in The National Law Journal and recognized by The American Lawyer in its “Litigator of the Week” series. Martin’s recent summary judgment win in a substantial M&A deal dispute was profiled by the New York Law Journal and again acknowledged by The American Lawyer. Martin serves as lead trial counsel in many privacy class action cases, M&A deal-related litigation, and in significant commercial disputes involving private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies. Martin is known for achieving efficient wins and commercial outcomes, whether through trial, arbitration, motion practice or negotiated settlements. Martin leads the Firm’s transactional risk insurance claims team, which has assisted clients in evaluating and making Rep & Warranty insurance claims, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in recoveries. In addition, Martin leads numerous post-M&A disputes, including purchase price adjustment and earn out arbitrations, valuation disputes and employment matters. Martin serves on Law 360’s Illinois Editorial Advisory Board and the American Bar Association Business Law Section Host Committee. Martin is also dedicated to the community and serves on the Board of Friends of Prentice, a nonprofit organization supporting Northwestern Medicine’s Prentice Women’s Hospital. Before joining Kirkland, Martin clerked on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals for the Honorable Michael Kanne.
Anna Rotman

Anna Rotman

Anna is an accomplished first-chair trial lawyer who represents plaintiffs and defendants nationwide in high-stakes and complex business, environmental, products liability and restructuring disputes in state and federal courts, as well as in arbitrations. Chambers describes her a “go-to litigator in energy-sector disputes,” praising her as an “exceptional advocate” with commanding courtroom presence and practical judgment. She also advises boards, in-house counsel and executives on litigation strategy and corporate governance. A Texas Lawyer “Woman in Energy,” Anna has helped shape landmark cases across the energy industry.
Katrina Rowe

Katrina Rowe

Katrina S. Rowe is a partner in the Investment Funds Group at Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Her practice focuses on representing domestic and international sponsors on forming, marketing and operating private investment funds covering a wide spectrum of sectors, geographies and strategies, including buyout, credit, distressed debt, infrastructure, real estate, energy and mezzanine. Katrina also has significant experience working with sponsors on co-investment arrangements, joint ventures and separately managed accounts, as well as structuring, regulatory and compliance matters. In addition, Katrina has represented institutional investors in making investments in private funds.
Nicole Runyan

Nicole Runyan

Nicole M. Runyan is an investment funds partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, and heads the Firm’s registered funds practice. Nicole has over two decades of experience advising clients on the formation, registration, operation and oversight of nearly every type of registered fund as well as business development companies (BDCs). Nicole has a broad background representing mutual funds, ETFs, listed closed-end funds and other traditional registered funds investing across a variety of asset classes and strategies, including: public and private U.S., developed and emerging market equities; private credit, structured credit, high-yield, preferred securities, directly originated and broadly syndicated loans and other income-producing strategies; real estate and infrastructure assets; and commodities and natural resource assets, including managed futures strategies. She also commits significant time to counseling clients on the design and offering of alternative investment products, such as BDCs, funds of funds, interval funds and tender offer funds, that offer access for retail and high net worth investors to a variety of traditional “private market” asset classes, such as private credit and private equity, including on a primary, secondary, direct or co-investment basis. Additionally, Nicole advises clients on the full range of issues facing registered funds, their independent directors and investment advisers. These include regulatory and compliance matters, SEC exemptive relief applications and compliance, trading and conflict issues, registration and disclosure matters, seed capital and other funding transactions, financing arrangements, and extraordinary events such as restructurings, acquisitions and activist matters. Clients value Nicole’s practice advice and experience. Chambers USA reports that clients say she is an “incredibly strong and experienced funds lawyer” and is “thoughtful, thorough and of real value to us.”
Kelly Ryan

Kelly Ryan

Kelly Ryan is the global leader of Kirkland’s real estate funds practice, with 20+ years of experience in fund formation across the U.S., Europe and Asia. Kelly represents many of the largest global private equity firms, as well as sector-specific operators, newly formed spin-outs and family offices in launching open-end and permanent capital products, closed-end funds, club deals and separately managed accounts focused on real estate, infrastructure and other real assets. His practice also focuses strategic investments, secondary transactions and other liquidity events involving private equity firms.
Douglas Ryder

Douglas Ryder

Douglas Ryder is a corporate partner in Kirkland’s New York office. His practice focuses on advising private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies, as well as public and private companies, on various mergers and acquisitions, financings, restructurings and general corporate matters. Doug has worked with a number of private equity sponsors including Advent International, Apollo Global Management, CCMP Capital, Cerberus Capital Management, Fortress Investment Group, Levine Leichtman Capital Partners, Mubadala Development Company, Nexus Capital Management, ONCAP Management Partners and Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, as well as public companies including AMC Entertainment, BAE SYSTEMS, Bristol-Myers Squibb, IAC/InterActiveCorp, Norwegian Cruise Line and Ticketmaster.
Nader Salehi

Nader Salehi

Nader Salehi is a partner in the Government, Regulatory and Internal Investigations Practice Group in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Nader represents clients in high-profile and complex internal and government investigations, and has counseled investment banks, asset managers and public companies in matters of enterprise-wide significance. He has led clients through significant matters involving the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), and other federal and state regulators. His enforcement practice often involves the defense of complex trading and valuation issues, particularly those involving allegations of insider trading, manipulation, and financial misstatements. Nader is a frequent speaker at major industry events, including the SIFMA C&L Annual Conference and PLI’s Broker Dealer Regulation and Enforcement Conference.
Drue Santora

Drue Santora

Drue represents top-tier private equity funds and their portfolio companies, Fortune 500 companies, corporate borrowers and financial institutions in connection with structuring, negotiating and documenting interest rate, currency, commodity, credit and equity derivatives transactions. He advises clients on derivatives issues across many practice areas, including mergers and acquisitions, debt finance, restructuring, energy and project finance. Drue also advises on cross-border derivatives regulation.
Michael Saretsky

Michael Saretsky

Michael Saretsky is a partner in Kirkland’s global Environmental Practice Group, based in the Firm’s New York and Bay Area offices. Michael’s practice focuses on all aspects of environmental matters in business transactions, from public and private M&A and investments, to real estate and debt transactions, bond offerings, infrastructure development, environmental insurance and restructuring matters. Michael helps clients identify and manage environmental liabilities and risks in the transactional and operating contexts, employing both regulatory and business insight and creative thinking to help them achieve their objectives. Michael is also profoundly interested in emerging environmental issues and advises clients on future environmental considerations that may impact their bottom line. In 2024, Chambers & Partners recognized Michael as a leading Environmental Transactional attorney for New York in Chambers USA, and he has received other industry recognitions as an expert in environmental law. Prior to joining Kirkland, Michael served as counsel for the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy in Washington, D.C., a specialized funding agency in the U.S. Department of Energy, where Michael assisted with establishing and implementing funding programs for research and development of advanced energy technologies. Outside of the office, Michael enjoys connecting with students in a unique experiential class on Environmental Transactional Law at NYU Law, co-taught with other colleagues from Kirkland’s New York office.
Anup Sathy

Anup Sathy

Anup Sathy is an internationally recognized practitioner who advises companies, boards, investors, sponsors and lenders on balance sheet and capital structure solutions, workouts and corporate restructurings, including liability management transactions, refinancings, exchanges, out-of-court restructurings and court-supervised reorganizations. Over a career that spans more than 30 years, Anup has been involved in many of the country’s largest and most complicated transactions and has restructured well over $100 billion of debt obligations across virtually every industry and business segment. Described as a “phenomenal lawyer” who is “intellectually gifted” and “a great problem solver,” Anup has been recognized by Chambers USA as one of America’s Leading Lawyers for Business in Bankruptcy/Restructuring for more than 20 years. In recent editions, sources applauded Anup as “a really superb lawyer who is practical and creative.” Clients also noted his “brilliant legal insight” and “incredibly strategic approach.” He is described as someone “with a global reach” and “absolute integrity” who is “not only a great lawyer, but a business strategist” and “great in a courtroom and the boardroom.”
Frank Saviano

Frank Saviano

Frank Saviano is a corporate partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. . He advises on complex, high-stakes corporate transactions across the sports and media sectors. He represents private capital firms, professional sports teams and ownership groups, major leagues, financial institutions, media networks and strategic companies operating at the intersection of sports and related industries. Frank is widely recognized as a preeminent lawyer in the sports industry. He is a member of the Sports Business Journal “Forty Under 40” Hall of Fame, after being named to the list three times (2015, 2018, 2019). He also has been featured on The Hollywood Reporter’s inaugural “Top Sports Lawyers” list in 2025, The National Law Journal’s “NLJ Trailblazer for Sports, Gaming & Entertainment Law” in 2021, and Variety’s “Dealmakers Impact Report” (2019–2020) and “Dealmakers Elite list” (2017). Additionally, He has been recognized by Chambers USA, Law360, The Legal 500 United States, Euromoney and Leaders in Sport.
Rebekah Scherr

Rebekah Scherr

Rebekah Scherr is an antitrust partner in Kirkland's Washington D.C., office. Rebekah’s practice is focused on advising U.S. and multinational clients on a range of antitrust and competition issues, with an emphasis on merger notification compliance under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act and globally. Rebekah also counsels clients with respect to general compliance with antitrust laws, including integration planning, gun-jumping and other aspects of the merger review process. Rebekah has represented a diverse range of clients, including public and private companies and investment funds. Rebekah has experience in a multitude of industries, including pharmaceuticals, computer software, luxury goods and consumer products, transportation, energy, construction machinery and equipment, emerging technologies and others.
Ivan Schlager

Ivan Schlager

Ivan Schlager is a nationally recognized leader in national security law in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Ivan provides counsel on structuring, negotiating and documenting transactions to address regulatory issues, including approval by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). He represents a diverse group of clients ranging from defense companies, major telecommunications providers, and media and technology companies to private equity firms and companies in the financial services, energy, manufacturing and health care industries. Ivan has significant experience navigating national security reviews and negotiating complex mitigation agreements. He has developed innovative structures to address national security issues in some of the largest and most complex cross-border transactions. He also assists clients with industrial security (including mitigation of foreign ownership, control or influence (FOCI)), international trade, export control and government contracting issues, as well as congressional investigations and other matters involving government relations and investigations. In 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025, Chambers Global also assigned Ivan a Band 1 rating in International Trade: CFIUS Experts (USA). Before joining Kirkland, Ivan was a partner and head of the national security practice and served on the Policy Committee at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. His prior experience includes serving as the chief counsel and staff director to the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, where he supervised subcommittee professional staff and devised legislative strategy.
Leslie Schmidt

Leslie Schmidt

Leslie is an experienced trial lawyer whose practice focuses on patent and trade-secret litigation. Leslie has first-chair experience and represents clients in complex disputes in federal court, at the U.S. International Trade Commission and in arbitration. Since 2019, she has represented clients in IP litigations that resulted in jury verdicts of over $1.8 billion in damages and the entry of several permanent injunctions. Leslie also has significant experience with global FRAND litigation, and has tried and argued unique FRAND issues, and has coordinated strategy across multiple jurisdictions. Leslie’s practice involves a wide range of technologies, including pharmaceuticals, chemicals, medical devices, semiconductors, mobile devices, software, batteries, and oil and gas technology. Leslie has also argued before the Seventh Circuit. Leslie is a consistent recipient of Kirkland’s Pro Bono Service Award. Leslie was recognized in litigation in the IAM Patent 1000: The World’s Leading Patent Professionals in 2024–2025. She was named to “40 & Under Hot List” by Benchmark Litigation in 2020–2022 and recognized as a 2019 “Rising Star” in Intellectual Property Litigation by Law360. She was also included in Law360’s “Legal Lions” feature in February 2020 for her work for Motorola Solutions.
Mark Schneider

Mark Schneider

Mark focuses on representing businesses, their boards and executives in complex criminal, civil, and administrative investigations, government enforcement proceedings, risk assessments, and related litigation, often in highly regulated industries and international contexts. Mark has substantial experience representing clients in matters related to the False Claims Act, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, environmental law, securities enforcement, cartel investigations, healthcare, fraud, and trade secret theft.
Mark Schwed

Mark Schwed

Mark Schwed is a tax partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Mark advises public companies and private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies on their domestic and international acquisitions, investments, divestitures, joint ventures, financings and restructurings. He also has significant experience advising on SPAC initial public offerings, financings and business combinations. Additionally, Mark regularly advises on the structuring and negotiating of complex real estate transactions, including the formation of REITs. Mark is recognized as a leading lawyer for Tax in New York by Chambers USA. In the 2025 edition, a client noted “Mark is really good at understanding the goals of transactions and is able to get to an answer that works for everybody.” In previous editions, sources praise him for being “able to take very complex tax issues and distill them down to easily understandable insights that are relevant to our business goals” and note “he's super practical, very commercial and has the industry experience to advise across a broad range of matters.” Mark is also recognized as a “Leading Lawyer” for both International Tax and US Tax: Non-Contentious by The Legal 500 United States and as a “Bankruptcy Tax Specialist” by Turnarounds & Workouts magazine. Mark has been named as one of “500 Leading Global Real Estate Lawyers” in Lawdragon’s 2024 and 2025 lists.
Jeffrey Seifman

Jeffrey Seifman

Complex business transactions and general corporate counseling, including mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, leveraged buyouts of private and public companies, venture capital and growth equity investments, recapitalizations, debt and equity restructurings and workouts, executive compensation and equity incentive arrangements, and private equity and mezzanine fund formations. Lead counsel for numerous blue-chip clients in hundreds of transactions (domestic and cross-border) ranging from a few million dollars to a billion dollars, across a wide variety of industries. Partner since 1998 and a senior member of Chicago Corporate Practice Committee.
Julian Seiguer

Julian Seiguer

Julian’s principal areas of practice are corporate finance and securities law, including securities offerings, mergers and acquisitions, liability management and general corporate representation. Julian focuses his practice on complex equity and debt capital markets transactions representing both issuers and investment banks on initial public offerings, follow-on equity offerings, Rule 144A offerings and other corporate financing transactions. He has extensive experience advising private equity-backed companies in IPOs and high-yield debt offerings, particularly in the upstream, oil-field services and midstream sectors. He also represents private equity funds and their portfolio companies, along with other public and private companies, in mergers and acquisitions, dispositions and investments.
John Senior

John Senior

John Senior is a partner in the Investment Funds Practice Group in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP and a member of the Firm's Liquidity Solutions Team. His practice focuses on counseling sponsors and investors in strategic secondary transactions, as well as advising on the organization and operation of private investment funds. Since 2016, John has advised on fund formation and continuation fund transactions exceeding $75 billion in commitments across investment strategies ranging from buyout, infrastructure, real estate and natural resources, to social impact and venture capital. John also advises clients on internal partnership arrangements, succession planning, regulatory compliance and fund-related transactions. John was named a Rising Star for Investment Funds by IFLR1000 (2022) and has spoken at numerous conferences and panels on fund formation and secondaries matters. His investment manager clients have included Ardian, BTG Pactual, Burford Capital, CenterOak Partners, GCM Grosvenor, Generate Capital, Harkness Capital, J.H. Whitney, Leonard Green, Main Street Advisors, Macquarie, Neuberger Berman and Olympus Partners. Prior to joining Kirkland, John was a corporate partner at Gibson Dunn and a member of Gibson Dunn’s investment funds practice group. Before attending law school, he served for several years as a foreign service officer with the U.S. State Department, including diplomatic postings in India and Bulgaria, and as a U.S. negotiator in the United Nations Security Council. He holds the State Department’s Superior Honor Award and the American Foreign Service Association’s Sinclaire Award.
Steven Serajeddini

Steven Serajeddini

Steven Serajeddini is a partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Steven advises companies, ad hoc committees, private equity firms and other investors on capital structure, liquidity and other strategic solutions for public and private companies across industries, including liability management transactions, exchange transactions, refinancings, amend and extend transactions, mergers and acquisitions, out-of-court restructurings and court proceedings. Steven also advises boards of directors and senior management on fiduciary duties and corporate governance. Steven has led some of the largest and most complex liability management transactions and restructurings of all time. Steven has been recognized as a leading lawyer in the space by numerous national and international publications. Steven was awarded an “MVP of the Year” by Law360 for 2024. He was also recognized as an “Outstanding Restructuring Lawyer 2024” by Turnarounds & Workouts. Steven was previously recognized as a member of the “40 Under 40–Emerging Leaders” by the American Bankruptcy Institute, where he was described as “the consummate tactician. He can see around corners to anticipate issues and is able to find common ground in the most complex and contentious situations.” He has been recognized as a runner-up for “Litigator of the Week” by The American Lawyer and cited as leading Turnaround & Workouts “Successful Restructurings” in 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023. He received an award for Turnaround of the Year 2023 from the Turnaround Management Association for leading the Pipeline Health Systems turnaround. He has been individually profiled by Bloomberg Law, LevFin Insights and other publications. Steven is a frequent lecturer, speaker and writer on capital structure-related topics. He has published articles in notable industry publications, including Journal of Corporate Renewal and Law360, among others. Steven also regularly serves as a guest lecturer, moderator and panelist on liability management, restructuring and debt investing at top academic institutions and industry forums, including the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, Northwestern University, the ABI and INSOL.
Marcus Sernel

Marcus Sernel

Marc Sernel concentrates his practice on patent and other technology-related litigation with a particular focus on chemical, biotechnology, and computer science-related matters. Representative of Marc’s experience in the biotech area are patent matters involving DNA microarrays, intracellular transcription factors, and transgenic plant technology. Praised in the Legal 500 for his “excellent legal instincts,” Marc has acted as lead counsel and handled all aspects of trial work in district courts and at the International Trade Commission, and has successfully argued at the Federal Circuit.
Chadé Severin

Chadé Severin

Chadé Severin is an M&A partner in the Boston office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Chadé’s practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions for public and private companies primarily in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and technology industries. She has advised boards of directors on many transactions involving controlling stakeholders, both on behalf of the controlled company and the controller. She was named as a winner in the New Leaders in the Law category of the 2024 New England Legal Awards, and also as a Rising Star in Life Sciences in 2021 by Law360.
Anthony Sexton

Anthony Sexton

Anthony Sexton is a tax partner in Kirkland’s Chicago office. The principal focus of Anthony’s practice is representing debtors, creditors, and potential investors in connection with all aspects of in- and out-of-court restructuring transactions, special situations and financings (including liability management transactions), the interpretation and application of tax sharing agreements, and other complex structuring issues. Anthony is widely recognized as a leading practitioner on tax issues faced by distressed companies. He has obtained several novel private letter rulings from the Internal Revenue Service to optimize the tax outcomes for his restructuring clients, has been listed as a “Bankruptcy Tax Specialist in the Nation’s Major Law Firms” by Turnarounds & Workouts since 2018, has been listed as a leading lawyer and “noted for his tax work as it relates to bankruptcies and restructurings” since the 2022 edition of Chambers USA, and has been recognized by The Legal 500 United States. Anthony frequently speaks at conferences, writes articles, and participates in the drafting of comment letters regarding the tax matters that are relevant to distressed companies, and is an editor for Colliers on Bankruptcy Taxation. Additionally, he is currently a member of the Committee on Government Submissions of the ABA Tax Section, with responsibility for submissions made by the Corporate; Affiliated and Related Corporations; and Tax Collection, Bankruptcy and Workouts Committees, and was previously Chair of the Affiliated and Related Corporations Committee of the ABA Tax Section (2021–2022). He is also a member of the planning committee for the University of Chicago Federal Tax Conference, teaches courses on the taxation of bankrupt companies and general business planning at the University of Chicago Law School, and is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Taxpayers' Federation of Illinois. Prior to joining Kirkland, Anthony clerked for the Honorable Frank H. Easterbrook of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
Adam Shapiro

Adam Shapiro

Adam Shapiro is a debt finance partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Adam focuses on banking and credit matters within the debt financing sector while advising private equity firms and their portfolio companies on some of the most sophisticated transactions in the space. He has experience with acquisition financing, bridge loans and refinancing transactions and has worked across industries, including consumer, entertainment, healthcare, industrial, infrastructure and technology. Adam regularly represents clients including Apax Partners, BayPine, GI Partners, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Silver Lake Partners, Stone Point Capital and Warburg Pincus.
Rachel Sheridan

Rachel Sheridan

Rachel Sheridan is a partner in the Capital Markets Practice Group in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Rachel focuses her practice on capital markets transactions, representing private equity funds and their portfolio companies, issuers, investment banks and public companies in a wide range of matters. She has extensive experience with public and private offerings of equity and debt securities, as well as buyout, liability management, restructuring and SPAC transactions. She also regularly counsels public companies regarding their public reporting obligations, corporate governance matters and other issues related to public company status.
David Sherman

David Sherman

David Sherman is a partner in the Investment Funds Practice Group in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, where he focuses his practice on advising sponsors regarding private equity fund matters, including forming, marketing and managing investment vehicles, launching new business lines, as well as operational, legal and regulatory issues at both the fund and sponsor level. David represents a wide range of sponsors, including publicly traded global asset managers, prominent middle-market sponsors and first-time fund sponsors, across various investment strategies, including buyout, aviation/transportation, credit, special situations, real estate, senior equity and growth equity funds, with fund sizes ranging from $100 million to $10 billion. He also frequently represents sponsors on raising capital for targeted individual investments or subsets of investments, including forming co-investment vehicles, overage funds, annex funds, warehouse vehicles and continuation funds. David also counsels sponsor clients on internal economic and governance arrangements, seed investments, spin-outs, conflict transactions and other corporate transactions involving private investment funds.
Monica Shilling

Monica Shilling

Monica Shilling is a transactional partner in the Los Angeles office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. She has a broad corporate, M&A and securities law practice that focuses on advising asset managers, private equity funds, and their portfolio companies on the full lifecycle of transactions. She also represents public companies, financial advisors, investment banks and issuers. She has over 25 years of experience with mergers and acquisitions, capital markets offerings, leveraged buyouts, general corporate law and corporate governance, securities laws, and NYSE/Nasdaq compliance. Monica’s practice also has a particular focus involving specialty finance enterprises. She advises companies on the establishment of business development companies (BDCs), special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) and other private and public equity vehicles. She is among a relatively limited number of attorneys in the country who actively represent BDCs.
Michael Shipley

Michael Shipley

Michael Shipley has a broad background representing companies and individuals in complex commercial litigation as well as white collar and regulatory matters. Michael's experience includes fraud, securities, and shareholder disputes including merger and acquisition disputes. Michael has represented both buyers and sellers in disputes involving a broad range of claims such as shareholder litigation over fiduciary duties, post-closing disputes, valuation disputes, working capital disputes, indemnifications and representations and warranties. Michael has extensive experience in both federal and state courts, including pre-filing investigations, discovery, motions practice, trials, post-trial practice, and appeals.
Yaman Shukairy

Yaman Shukairy

Yaman Shukairy is a real estate partner in the Bay Area office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Yaman’s practice focuses on representing private equity sponsors and public and private companies in complex matters relating to their real estate investments and strategies. He advises clients on a variety of transactions, including platform acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, divestitures, private financings, recapitalizations and restructuring transactions. He has extensive experience advising clients with respect to the formation and capitalization of joint ventures, separate managed accounts and private funds in the real estate space. Prior to rejoining Kirkland, Yaman served as in-house general counsel for a leading alternative asset manager where he was responsible for all legal aspects and risk areas in North America and Europe. Yaman advised on asset and portfolio acquisitions, take-private transactions, carve-out transactions and platform build-ups. He also advised on dispositions, financings, and capital raising and fund formation activities, and provided support to portfolio companies and management teams.
Dean Shulman

Dean Shulman

Dean Shulman is a tax partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. He represents clients on a wide range of U.S. and international tax matters, including mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, tax-free spin-offs, leveraged buyouts, initial public offerings and the formation of funds. Dean has extensive experience advising on and structuring transactions, including partnership workouts and restructurings, and like-kind exchanges, as well as transactions involving the formation and operation of partnerships, limited liability companies, joint ventures, funds and real estate investment trusts. He also has represented regulated investment companies, publicly traded partnerships and investment partnerships and advises clients, including investment advisers, on the tax aspects of structuring financial instruments and other derivatives, as well as in various capital markets transactions.
Victoria Shusterman

Victoria Shusterman

Victoria Shusterman is a real estate partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Victoria focuses her practice on commercial real estate finance. Her work includes representing credit funds, private equity, domestic and foreign commercial banks and insurance companies in commercial real estate financing transactions, including mortgage and mezzanine financings, preferred equity investments, permanent and bridge loan originations, construction loans, loan participations, syndications including loan sales and other co-lender arrangements; workouts and restructurings. She has experience representing clients in financing transactions across a variety of asset types, including industrial, mixed-use, hotel, multi-family, retail and office properties throughout the United States. Victoria is ranked as a leading New York real estate finance practitioner by Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, which notes that she is “a phenomenal lawyer in everything she does,” “outstanding counsel,” a “powerhouse who is tireless, dedicated, practical and beloved by her clients” and a “problem-solver who gets the deal done in a responsible way.” In addition, she is recognized as a leading real estate attorney by The Best Lawyers in America. Victoria received her Juris Doctor in 1998 from Washington University School of Law, where she served as Notes Editor of the Washington University Law Review.
Ahmed Sidik

Ahmed Sidik

Ahmed Sidik is a partner in the Houston and Austin offices of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Ahmed advises clients on complex corporate transactions, including carve-out transactions, mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, private equity, growth equity and project development investments, recapitalizations, joint ventures, commercial arrangements and related general corporate counseling, with a particular focus on the energy, infrastructure and technology sectors. Prior to law school, Ahmed worked for an oilfield equipment and services company, where he was involved in projects with clients primarily from Southeast Asia. Ahmed has been recognized in The Legal 500 United States for Renewable/Alternative Power and Energy Transactions: Electric Power, by Lawdragon as one of the 500 Leaders in Energy, and has been named a Texas Rising Star for Mergers & Acquisitions by Thomson Reuters.
Joshua Simmons

Joshua Simmons

Joshua Simmons is a nationally recognized appellate and trial court litigator, who has been lauded as an “exceptional,” “forceful,” and “creative” “brainiac” (Chambers), “Top Attorney” (Law360), “meticulous litigator” and “big-picture thought leader” (WTR). This “Intellectual Property Superhero” (CLS) is one of Crain’s “Notable Litigators & Trial Attorneys” and Lawdragon’s “Leading Litigators in America” for wins resulting in over $1.6 billion in combined plaintiff-side verdicts, preliminary and permanent injunctions, and complete dismissals in defense-side cases before and at trial. With a practice at the “intersection of entertainment and tech,” he has been recognized as a “Power Lawyer” (THR), “Trailblazer” (NLJ), and “Top Entertainment Attorney” (Variety) for his eye-catching media litigations — which involve film, news, publishing, social media, sports, television, theatre and video games — and as a “Leading AI & Legal Tech Advisor” (Lawdragon), “Power Player,” and “Distinguished Adviser” (Financier) for his technology practice — including artificial intelligence, computer software and services, circuitry and semiconductors, immersive technology, Internet-based systems, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, and telecommunications. He is “sought after for complex cases” and those of first impression, as well as “strategic counseling, portfolio management, and policy advice,” (WIPR) for which IAM named him a “Strategy 300 Global Leader” and Lawdragon named him a “Leading Global IP Lawyer.”
Andrew Small

Andrew Small

Andrew Small is a partner in the Real Estate Group in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Andrew has extensive experience in commercial real estate advising real estate investors, funds, finance companies, sponsors and operating companies on private equity capital raising, finance (including preferred equity and mezzanine), investment and development of commercial real estate. He also advises on the formation of joint ventures to own, operate, develop and finance global real estate. He regularly represents lenders with participations, modifications, originations and workouts of commercial real estate financings.
Chad Smith

Chad Smith

Chad M. Smith is a corporate partner in the Houston office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Chad’s practice focuses on domestic energy transactions, with an emphasis on acquisitions, divestitures and joint ventures in the upstream and midstream sectors. Chad represents clients in connection with a broad range of purchase and sale transactions, including both upstream and midstream oil and gas assets and companies. Chad’s transactional experience also includes advising clients in connection with the formation of joint ventures (both upstream and midstream), farmout and participation agreements to develop oil and gas properties, oil and gas transportation and gathering agreements, natural gas processing and fractionation agreements, crude storage and terminaling agreements and other commercial transactions concerning the development of oil and gas properties.
Renee Smith

Renee Smith

Renee Smith is a Chambers-ranked litigation partner who represents clients facing high-profile complex products liability, class action and commercial litigation. She has secured trial defense verdicts and other wins for 3M, Abbott Labs, AbbVie Inc., Baxter Healthcare Corporation, Dow Chemical, W.R. Grace, General Motors LLC, Juul Labs, Inc., Kobe Steel, Ltd. and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Renee has won jury trials in multiple federal MDLs, and other state and federal courts across the country.
Anthony Speier

Anthony Speier

Anthony Speier is a corporate partner in the Houston and Austin offices of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. His practice focuses on acquisitions, divestitures and formation of joint ventures involving assets across the energy value chain. Anthony has represented clients in connection with the purchase and sale of a broad range of energy assets, including metals critical to commercial battery production and the EV market, upstream and midstream oil and gas assets and companies, refineries, LNG facilities, processing and fractionation facilities and specialty chemicals businesses.
Katie St. Peters

Katie St. Peters

Katie St. Peters is a partner in the Investment Funds Group, where her practice focuses on advising private investment fund sponsors on all aspects of their business, including the establishment of private investment funds, fund investment activities, product and strategy expansion, co-investment programs, warehousing arrangements, alternative investment structures, fund regulatory and compliance matters, conflicts issues, investor relations matters and firm ownership and operational issues, including governance matters, succession planning and separation arrangements. Katie has advised a wide variety of private fund sponsors in connection with structuring and forming private investment funds ranging from a hundred million to tens of billions of dollars, as well as structuring and establishing separate account structures for a variety of U.S. and non-U.S institutional investors. Her experience includes advising sponsors ranging from emerging managers to leading global asset managers across a variety of investment strategies.
Andrew Stuyvenberg

Andrew Stuyvenberg

Drew Stuyvenberg is an energy regulatory partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Drew advises clients in a variety of transactional and regulatory matters involving electric power and related commodities, including matters under the jurisdiction of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the Department of Energy (DOE), state public utility commissions, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Drew has counseled clients in regional transmission organization tariff disputes, worked to secure FERC approval for mergers and acquisitions under Federal Power Act (FPA) section 203, advised on regulatory risks in natural gas and oil pipeline investments, counseled on Natural Gas Act (NGA) regulations and policies, supported electric rate proceedings under the FPA, and assisted clients in receiving natural gas and electric export authorizations. He has also provided nuclear regulatory counsel for mergers, acquisitions and international trade matters. Drew regularly provides advice regarding compliance with the FPA, the NGA, the Interstate Commerce Act, the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 2005, the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act, the Atomic Energy Act and agency implementing regulations under each statute.
Joshua Sussberg

Joshua Sussberg

Joshua Sussberg is a partner in Kirkland & Ellis’ restructuring group. Part of the largest debtor-side practice in the country, Josh has a broad range of transactional and litigation experience across numerous industries. Recent debtor/borrower side clients include J. C. Penney Company, Macy’s, Tailored Brands, California Pizza Kitchen, McDermott International, Belk, Form Technologies, HighPoint Resources, Frontera Generation, FTS International, Denbury Resources, Mood Media Corporation, AllSaints, Pier 1, Acosta, Clover Technologies, Forever 21, Barneys, Z Gallerie, Toys“R”Us, EV Energy, Cenveo, Charming Charlie, BCBG, Samson Resources, Midstates, AMF Bowling, Edison Mission Energy, and Kerzner International.
Emily Tabak

Emily Tabak

Emily Tabak is a partner in the Salt Lake City office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Emily identifies strategic solutions in environmental regulatory compliance, specializing in waste and chemicals management, contamination issues and emerging contaminants such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), multi-facility audit management and disclosures, and enforcement response. Emily has extensive experience helping clients navigate regulatory, permitting, and liability issues involving solid and hazardous waste, chemicals, site remediation, water quality, and air quality. She counsels clients managing complex audit and compliance processes, negotiates civil and criminal enforcement actions, and prepares submissions including reporting and disclosures to federal and state authorities and insurers. Emily also regularly advises clients involved in multiple industry sectors, including energy and resources, mining, oil and gas, aggregates, and electric power, focusing on liability and compliance related to changing federal and state environmental rulemaking, requirements and developments. Her experience includes regulations under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), the Clean Water Act (CWA), and other statutory schemes. Prior to joining Kirkland, Emily practiced at Holland & Hart LLP in Salt Lake City, and at K&L Gates LLP and Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP in the New York metropolitan area, advising clients on a range of environmental compliance issues, as well as assisting with litigation in a high-profile insider trading trial, bankruptcy proceedings, and regulatory investigations. Emily also served as a judicial clerk to the Honorable Robert Kirsch on The Superior Court of New Jersey.
Paul Tanaka

Paul Tanaka

Paul Tanaka leads Kirkland’s Global Environmental Practice, serving as head environmental counsel for a large number of private equity firms and public companies. Paul’s clients rely on him to identify and strategically manage environmental regulatory compliance and other environmental liabilities. He is a big-picture thinker and creative problem solver that clients count on to be both commercial and practical, and to create bespoke and efficient solutions for everything from environmental crises to more routine matters of compliance and governance and all aspects of transactions. Paul’s work has included hundreds of successfully closed deals, which have involved a wide range of commercial transactions from small venture capital investments to large multi-national acquisitions and divestitures. Paul has particular experience in the energy and infrastructure space, including transactions involving power generation, oil and gas and renewable energy. He routinely conducts and coordinates environmental due diligence assessments, retains and supervises consultants and technical experts, counsels clients on liability and risk allocation issues, drafts and negotiates contracts and agreements, assists in procurement of environmental insurance and other risk-mitigating solutions, and pursues post-closing resolution of environmental issues. The Practice maintains a worldwide network of environmental consulting and insurance and legal professionals to provide clients with all necessary resources during or following their transactions.
Nicolas Thompson

Nicolas Thompson

Nicolas (Nick) Thompson is a partner in the Government, Regulatory and Internal Investigations Practice Group in the Houston and Washington, D.C., offices of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. He has extensive experience representing clients in matters involving the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and other government agencies. Nick represents businesses in virtually every major industry, including the healthcare, energy and finance sectors. He regularly advises clients on legal and compliance issues arising under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and other corporate criminal laws, such as antitrust and securities laws. Nick conducts internal investigations around the world, including in Asia, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Australia and North America. He speaks fluent Spanish and French and often conducts investigations in those languages. As an experienced civil litigator, Nick defends clients in civil litigation and associated investigations that often run parallel with the criminal matters he handles. He is particularly skilled in civil litigation involving the False Claims Act. He maintains an active pro bono practice, focusing on advocating for school children with special needs to receive the educational assistance to which they are entitled. A graduate of Yale Law School, Nick was a Notes Editor on the Yale Law Journal and served as a law clerk to Judge Steven Colloton of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Before law school, Nick worked as a consultant at Bain & Company in the United States and France advising business leaders.
Vin Thorn

Vin Thorn

Vin Thorn is a tax partner with the Boston office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. He advises clients on a wide array of tax matters, with a focus on the tax aspects of private equity transactions; strategic M&A; spin-offs; and growth investments. Vin regularly advises several clients on an ongoing basis, including Abry Partners, Altas Partners, Clearhaven Partners, Fortive Corporation, Gemspring Capital, Genstar Capital, Greenbelt Capital Partners, L Catterton, Nexstar Media Group, TA Associates, Trilantic Capital Partners and Windjammer Capital Investors.
Joseph Tootle

Joseph Tootle

Joseph Tootle is a tax partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Joseph advises clients on the tax aspects of a wide range of matters, including mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, REITs and real estate transactions. He has a special emphasis on cross-border and international transactions. He also advises private equity clients on the tax aspects of raising closed and open-ended investment funds, including in the real estate and real estate credit space, and on GP stakes investments, liquidity solutions and continuation vehicle transactions. Joseph has advised many of the large investment fund sponsors, including Apax, Blackstone, Brookfield, Cinven, CVC, EQT, Global Infrastructure Partners, KKR, Lone Star Funds and Silver Lake. Joseph is recognized by The Legal 500 U.S. as a “Next Generation Partner.”
Diana Torres

Diana Torres

Diana Torres is an intellectual property and commercial litigation partner in Kirkland's Los Angeles and Bay Area offices. Diana focuses her practice on false advertising, unfair competition, trademark, copyright, and trade secrets matters, and has handled many high-profile matters for a wide variety of clients, including biometric information security software developers, consumer product manufacturers, fitness service providers, entertainment and media companies, and Internet service providers. Diana also advises clients on compliance and contractual issues and commercial legal strategy.
Lindsay Trapp

Lindsay Trapp

Lindsay Trapp is a partner in Kirkland’s New York office and a co-head of the Structured Capital & Insurance Solutions team. Her practice focuses on complex credit fund formation and insurance solutions for global private fund sponsors, handling fund structuring, compliance and distribution matters. She has extensive experience in rated funds and other structures for capital-efficient insurance investing; structuring funds for tax-efficient global fundraising; captive CLO equity funds with EU risk retention compliant manager originators; levered private funds utilizing captive CLOs; collateralized fund obligations (CFOs); evergreen illiquid asset funds; liquid multicredit funds; and funds of closed-end funds.
Seth Traxler

Seth Traxler

Seth Traxler co-leads Kirkland’s global Technology & IP Transactions practice. He serves as lead counsel in complex or strategic deals where technology assets or opportunities are core to the deal’s value proposition. Seth helps clients negotiate joint ventures, strategic alliances, outsourcing and service agreements, acquisitions/sales, licenses, development and collaboration agreements, and other strategic commercial contracts. He also works closely with the Kirkland Corporate/M&A Practice on the technology and IP aspects of corporate transactions. Seth’s long and successful track record has earned him a ranking for six consecutive years in the IAM Patent 1000, which noted that his “tech-intensive M&A experience is virtually second to none” and called him “a master craftsman of complex, international deals of all stripes.” He was also recognized for “Technology: Transactions” and “Patents: Licensing” in the 2018 and 2019 editions of The Legal 500 United States. He is a Recognized Practitioner in the 2018 edition of Chambers USA. Seth also helps lead Kirkland’s Data Security & Privacy Practice. His experience includes advising Boards of Directors when clients experience significant security breaches. Seth serves as a Director of the Kirkland & Ellis Foundation and serves on the Firm’s Technology Committee.
Raya Treiser

Raya Treiser

Raya Treiser is a partner in the Government, Regulatory & Internal Investigations Practice Group in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. With over a decade of public and private sector experience, Raya advises clients on navigating high-stakes government investigations, legal and reputational crises, and complex federal permitting processes. Prior to private practice, Raya served in the Obama White House and the Department of the Interior where she helped shape federal energy and climate policies. Since joining Kirkland, Raya has represented Fortune 500 companies and some of the world’s most sophisticated private equity firms and energy infrastructure developers in responding to Congressional and state Attorney General inquiries, conducting ESG and DEI risk assessments, developing strategy in response to high-profile crisis situations, and developing federal permitting strategy for large and complex infrastructure projects.
Tammy Tsoumas

Tammy Tsoumas

Tammy Tsoumas represents leading U.S. and multinational corporations in antitrust and other complex commercial litigation matters including price-fixing, monopolization, patent licensing and restraint of trade, unfair competition, wrongful death, and bankruptcy matters. She has experience in federal and state courts across the country and in complex multidistrict litigation, representing clients in diverse industries such as transportation, technology, electronics, media, manufacturing, and financial services. Tammy’s experience includes years of representing and counseling clients in high-profile litigation matters, including authoring and arguing key motions and defending critical depositions. Among her cases was one in which Kirkland & Ellis won a motion to dismiss approximately $4.5 billion in claims against approximately 430 client defendants. The dismissed claims included actions for fraudulent transfers, preferences, equitable subordination and equitable disallowance.
Ellisen Turner

Ellisen Turner

IP strategist and litigator Ellisen Turner is a partner in the Los Angeles office of Kirkland & Ellis. The former managing partner of Irell & Manella represents clients in complex patent and trade secret disputes and intellectual property transactions. He combines his business acumen with a deep understanding of IP law to support his clients’ business goals and maximize the value of their ideas and technology. Known for his sophisticated understanding of the high tech sector, and with a background in computer engineering, computer science, and biomedical engineering, he concentrates his practice on media and entertainment technology, software, telecom, semiconductor, biotechnology, and life sciences matters. Beyond representing both plaintiffs and defendants in high-stakes patent litigation, Mr. Turner helps clients develop strategies to acquire, protect, and monetize their tangible and intellectual assets. He counsels businesses on IP portfolio mining and development, licensing program development, standards setting organization activities, and issues concerning standards essential patent (SEP) negotiations and enforcement. He also advises on IP commercialization, due diligence, transactions, and bankruptcy matters. Mr. Turner earned his J.D. cum laude from the University of Michigan, and his B.S. in Computer Engineering and Computer Science magna cum laude from the University of Southern California.
Edwin U

Edwin U

Edwin U represents clients at trial and in arbitrations throughout the United States, including as lead counsel in the defense of complex commercial litigation as well as class actions and federal multidistrict litigation. Edwin has been recognized in multiple editions of The Legal 500 U.S. for Litigation. Whether conducting direct and cross-examinations at trial, arguing a case on dispositive motions, or defending a judgment on appeal, he has won commercial, antitrust, environmental, and product liability cases across the country. Edwin is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) and has served as an invited instructor at numerous NITA trial-skills programs.
Michael Urschel

Michael Urschel

Michael Urschel, a partner in the Complex Securitizations Practice Group in Kirkland’s New York office, is tasked with building and growing the Firm’s global structured finance practice. He advises sponsors, borrowers, funds, investment banks and other financial institutions on non-traditional asset financings, acquisition financings and regulatory matters across the capital structure, with a focus on securitization, structured private credit and private placements, including stand-alone and market-leading hybrid finance transactions. Over the past 15 years, Michael has designed many of the market’s prevailing structures for acquiring and financing esoteric assets, including pioneering their use in “certain funds” acquisition transactions. He has structured and led dozens of financings involving franchised concepts, digital infrastructure, real estate and leasing platforms, energy and transportation assets, media royalties, outdoor advertising receivables and other specialty lending sectors. Michael is ranked Band 1 by Chambers USA and Chambers Global and has led teams winning Law360’s Practice Group of the Year multiple times.
Rhett Van Syoc

Rhett Van Syoc

Rhett’s practice focuses on domestic and international mergers and acquisitions in the energy transition and infrastructure sectors, with a particular emphasis on private equity and complex joint ventures. Rhett’s experience covers a broad spectrum of matters, including power generation, services and manufacturing, renewables and clean energy, data centers, fiber infrastructure, midstream and transportation. He also has significant experience in the acquisition and development of infrastructure projects in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Now based out of the Firm’s New York and Houston offices, Rhett was a founding partner of Kirkland’s Houston office in 2014. He has handled matters on behalf of private equity clients such as ArcLight Capital Partners, Ares Management, Apollo Global Management, The Blackstone Group, First Reserve Corporation, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Texas Pacific Group.
Carolyn Vardi

Carolyn Vardi

Carolyn Vardi is a corporate partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Carolyn’s practice focuses on advising private equity sponsors and corporate clients on a wide range of transactions, including M&A, take-privates, joint ventures and strategic investments. Her experience spans public and private deals, bankruptcy-related matters and corporate governance. Carolyn has led major transactions across sectors such as financial services, software, healthcare, industrials, consumer products and retail. Carolyn has been consistently recognized by Chambers USA and Chambers Global as a leading lawyer in private equity. Clients state that she is “a smart lawyer and has an amazing deal sense and ability to deal with people.”
Catie Ventura

Catie Ventura

Catie Ventura is a litigation partner in Kirkland’s Washington, D.C., office whose practice focuses on antitrust and competition matters and other complex litigation. She has extensive experience in cases presenting novel questions of law and complex factual disputes. With regards to antitrust matters, Catie’s practice includes representing corporations with respect to alleged criminal and civil antitrust violations and representing clients regarding antitrust aspects of mergers and acquisitions. Many of these matters are non-public because the government-entity elected not to pursue the matter beyond the investigation stage. Catie’s complex commercial litigation practice covers business torts, mass torts and products liability matters. Catie’s experience in structuring large scale, novel settlements has led her to work with numerous companies as settlement counsel to resolve complex litigation matters.
Martin Voelker

Martin Voelker

Prior to rejoining Kirkland & Ellis LLP in November 2015, Marty was Global Head of Advisory Services within the UBS Private Funds Group, a leading global placement agent, where he oversaw a team of approximately 20 professionals responsible for advising private equity firms throughout all phases of the fundraising process. During his 15 years in the fund placement business in New York and London, Marty led the execution of a wide variety of fundraising mandates, including for private equity, infrastructure, credit and special situations managers in Asia, Europe and the United States. Marty joined the UBS Private Funds Group in 2003 and was a member of the Citigroup Private Funds Group for three years prior to that. From 1998 to 2000, Marty was a corporate associate at Kirkland & Ellis in New York.
Jeanna Wacker

Jeanna Wacker

Jeanna Wacker is an experienced lead trial lawyer and partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. She is recognized as a leader in the field of life sciences patent litigation. Jeanna has been recognized by Chambers USA for Intellectual Property: Patent in New York in 2022–2025, with reports saying that “Jeanna is an excellent attorney,” that she “really knows her stuff and is very efficient in the way she gives advice” and that she “handles really high-quality pharma and biotech matters." In addition to recognition from Chambers USA, Jeanna was recognized in The Legal 500 United States for Healthcare - Life Sciences (2023–2025) and Patent Litigation (2018), and was named a New York Super Lawyer in 2019–2024 by Super Lawyers magazine. She has also been recognized in IAM Patent 100 in 2022–2025 and was named among Lawdragon’s Leading Global IP Lawyers in 2025. In addition, Jeanna was shortlisted for litigator of the year in New York by Managing IP Americas Awards in 2025. Jeanna concentrates her practice on patent litigation for clients in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, chemical and medical device industries. She represents both plaintiffs and defendants at all stages of litigation, including trials (bench and jury), appeals and in inter partes reviews before the United States Patent and Trademark Office. In addition, Jeanna advises pharmaceutical and biotech companies on intellectual property aspects of corporate merger agreements and product acquisitions. Jeanna’s noteworthy matters have received media coverage from LMG Life Sciences (2023 LMG Life Sciences Americas Awards), New York Law Journal (2024 New York IP Litigation Department of the Year), Managing IP and Life Sciences Intellectual Property Review, among others. Her clients have included some of the largest companies in the life sciences area such as, Astellas Pharmaceuticals, Moderna, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eagle Pharmaceuticals, Hoffman La-Roche, Boehringer Ingelheim, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer, E.I. du Pont de Nemours, and Novartis Pharmaceuticals. Jeanna has established a reputation as a leading litigator in the life sciences field and is regularly invited to speak on hot topics in this area.
Min Wang

Min Wang

Min Wang is a partner in the intellectual property group in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Min’s practice focuses on intellectual property and information technology related transactions, including patent, technology, trademark and copyright licensing, intellectual property transfer, joint venture, strategic alliance, research and development, supply, contract manufacturing, and distribution agreements, software licensing, development, implementation, information technology services, source code escrow, and other information technology related agreements, outsourcing agreements, telecommunication agreements and other complex commercial agreements. In addition, Min advises clients on intellectual property and technology issues that arise in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, bankruptcies, restructuring and financing transactions. Min represents clients in a variety of industries, such as biotechnology, pharmaceutical, software, energy, automobile, manufacturing and consumer products.
Nicole Washington

Nicole Washington

Nicole Washington is a partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, where she is a key member of the Firm’s Investment Funds Group. Nicole regularly represents domestic and international sponsors on forming, marketing and operating private investment funds, including buyout, secondary, direct lending, special situations, growth, mezzanine, opportunistic, real estate, infrastructure and other private investment vehicles, as well as on structuring, regulatory and compliance issues. She also advises some of the world’s most sophisticated private fund sponsors on internal management and succession planning, strategic investments, co-investment arrangements, joint ventures, and other investment management matters. Nicole’s experience also includes representing some of the largest and most diversified asset managers, as well as numerous small and middle-market managers on the formation of private investment funds ranging from several hundred million to multibillion dollars. Additionally, Nicole has significant experience in forming and negotiating managed accounts and single investor funds. Nicole serves as co-chair of Kirkland’s Transactional Associate Review Committee, and is a member of the Committees on Billings and Collections, Diversity and Inclusion and Firmwide Recruiting. She also serves on the board of PeacePlayers International, a non-profit organization which uses basketball to unite and educate children and their communities. In 2020, Nicole was named by Law360 to the Fund Formation "Rising Stars” list, an annual ranking which recognizes outstanding legal talent under 40 years old.
Diana Watral

Diana Watral

Diana Watral is a litigation partner and trial lawyer in Kirkland’s Chicago office. Diana represents companies as both plaintiffs and defendants in a broad range of business and intellectual property disputes, with recent experience in contract, False Claims Act, trade secret, patent, sports, products liability, and complex commercial cases. Most recently, Diana served as trial counsel to Flexus Biosciences, a Bristol-Myers Squibb subsidiary, in a $1 billion trade secret jury trial that resulted in a complete defense verdict. Diana successfully defended Abbott in a $1 billion False Claim Act jury trial and second-chaired Baxter Healthcare’s successful defense of a $400 million contract dispute. She also successfully defended a TRO and injunction request seeking to prevent the Chicago Cubs from expanding Wrigley Field.
Jeremy Watson

Jeremy Watson

Jeremy Watson is a corporate partner in the Insurance Transactions & Regulatory and Financial Institutions Practice Groups. Jeremy’s practice focuses on a variety of transactional and regulatory matters involving the insurance and financial services industries. He regularly represents insurance companies, private equity firms, asset managers, insurance producers and brokers and other industry participants in connection with mergers and acquisitions, reinsurance transactions, the formation and capitalization of insurance and reinsurance companies and related ventures (including sidecars and other alternative capital vehicles) and other strategic investment transactions. Jeremy also advises clients with respect to the regulation of insurance holding company systems and reinsurance arrangements and other regulatory, capital and governance matters. In 2021, Jeremy was named by The National Law Journal to its inaugural list of “Insurance Law Trailblazers,” which profiles a select group of leading innovators in the insurance industry, and was named among the BTI Consulting Group’s “M&A Client Service All-Stars.”
Allison Wein

Allison Wein

Allison Wein is a corporate partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Allison focuses her practice on mergers and acquisitions and other significant corporate matters. Her experience spans the range of M&A activity, including significant cross-border and contested transactions and activism defense. Allison was named a “Rising Star” by Law360 in 2020, recognizing her as one of five outstanding merger and acquisition lawyers in the nation under the age of 40. Crain’s New York Business recognized Allison in its 2025 “Notable M&A Dealmakers” list, which honors those with the vision and execution powering today’s dealmaking. Lawdragon recognized Allison as one of “500 Leading Global Entertainment, Sports & Media Lawyers” in 2025. In 2019, she was named an M&A “Rising Star” by The Deal in The Dealmaker Quarterly. Allison has also been recognized for her work in mergers and acquisitions by IFLR1000 and Lawdragon and for her transactional work in the technology industry and the media and entertainment industry by The Legal 500 United States and The Hollywood Reporter.
Ross Weisman

Ross Weisman

Ross Weisman is a retired partner in the Intellectual Property Practice Group in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. He was also the head of the advertising, marketing and promotions group at Kirkland, which was consistently recognized by Chambers USA as a leading practice group for Advertising: Litigation. Ross counseled a variety of clients in virtually all aspects of advertising and promotions law, including: Reviewed advertising and marketing copy for advertisers, promotion houses and advertising agencies; Reviewed promotional materials (including, without limitation, rebates, coupons and other pricing incentives); Counseled advertisers with respect to substantiation for claims made in advertisements; Drafted and negotiated advertising, public relations and media agreements; Advised clients with respect to rights of publicity, false endorsement and unfair competition issues in advertisements; Drafted various release forms for national advertisers, including, without limitation, releases to use names, photos, testimonials, property or intangible property in advertisements; and Assisted clients with Federal Trade Commission and State Attorney General inquiries. Ross also defended and challenged advertising claims in federal court under 43(a) of the Lanham Act (and worked with the experts who conducted the consumer perception surveys so critical to these cases), as well as before the National Advertising Division (NAD) and National Advertising Review Board (NARB) of the BBB National Programs, Inc. Ross was named a “Hall of Fame” attorney for Advertising and Marketing Litigation in the 2023, 2024 and 2025 editions of The Legal 500 United States. From 2015–2025, Ross was recognized as a leading lawyer in Chambers USA, America's Leading Lawyers for Business for his Advertising Litigation work. Indeed, Chambers USA described Ross as “a superb NAD practitioner,” with sources adding, “he is very smart and he has a lot of experience.” Another source noted, “Besides his depth of experience, he has such strong and positive relationships with NAD attorneys that you get the benefits of that when working in what can be a very difficult system."
Michael Weisser

Michael Weisser

Michael Weisser is a member of the Firm’s Executive Committee and a partner in the M&A/Private Equity Practice Group. Michael represents private equity sponsors, pension plans and their portfolio companies in connection with acquisitions, dispositions, financings, restructurings and general corporate matters. He has extensive experience with leveraged buyouts, going-private transactions and minority investments, and frequently counsels clients on a variety of securities law, corporate governance and strategic matters. Michael regularly represents Altas Partners, American Securities, BPEA EQT, Brightstar Capital, CDPQ, Claure Capital, The Jordan Company, Kohlberg, Monomoy, Partners Group, Patient Square, Providence Equity Partners, Raine, TPG and Wendel and their portfolio companies. Michael has been consistently recognized by Chambers USA and Chambers Global in the field of private equity and was ranked Band 1 for Private Equity: Buyouts in the 2020–2022 and 2024–2025 editions of Chambers USA. According to Chambers Global, “‘he is noted for his astute advice to private equity firms and their portfolio companies on significant acquisitions. Clients comment that ‘he is an exceptionally talented lawyer and he has very commercial judgement,’ appreciating that ‘he's able to explain whatever's going on in the legal, technical side in very plain business terms.’" Interviewees in Chambers USA describe him as an “exceptional lawyer, and our experience working with him has been overwhelmingly positive. We’ve appreciated his expertise, guidance and partnership, and he is differentiated from other lawyers we work with by his strong commercial judgment and business-mindedness." He has also been recognized by Legal 500 U.S., IFLR1000, New York Super Lawyers and Practical Law Company. Michael was named “Dealmaker of the Week” by The Am Law Daily in June 2010 and was selected in 2011 by Investment Dealers’ Digest for its annual “40 Under 40” list of the top up-and-coming professionals in the finance industry. In addition, Michael has served on Law360's Private Equity Editorial Board, has taught at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and New York University School of Law, and frequently writes articles for various publications on cutting-edge legal developments, including an article in The New York Times on private equity deal terms.
Rory Wellever

Rory Wellever

Rory Wellever is a partner in the Technology & IP Transactions Practice Group in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. He practices at the intersection of intellectual property, media, technology, and commercial transactions. He advises clients in various types of transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, outsourcing, business-to-business and business-to-consumer licensing, joint development, and data privacy. With a background in the entertainment industry, Rory also counsels clients in matters involving new and emerging media, entertainment and publishing matters, including music, film, television, literature, marketing and advertising. Rory holds a Certified Information Privacy Professional/United States (CIPP/US) credential given by the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP). He advises clients regarding the collection, use, transfer and monetization of data, including in online, internet of things (IoT) and cross-border arrangements.
David Wheat

David Wheat

David Wheat focuses his practice on mergers, acquisitions and divestitures involving large public and private corporations and partnerships. He also handles bankruptcy, workout and restructuring tax matters. He has over 30 years of experience in these areas and has worked in the private equity industry since the late 1980’s. Over that time, he has represented a range of clients from Chevron Corporation to KKR. David has served as Chair of the Tax Section of the State Bar of Texas and the Chair of the Tax Section of the Dallas Bar Association. He has been actively involved in the American Bar Association’s Tax Section, serving as Chair of the Corporate Tax Committee, Council Director and currently as Vice-Chair of Administration. David has planned and participated in some of the leading tax seminars in the country. He has served as President of the Southern Federal Tax Institute and as long time officer and moderator of the Texas Federal Tax Institute. He is also a frequent speaker at PLI, TEI, ABA, NAPAC and other leading tax seminars. David has been honored as a Tier One tax lawyer in Chambers, a “Hall of Fame” lawyer in The Legal 500 U.S., a Top 100 Texas Super Lawyer and Dallas Tax Lawyer of the Year. He is a fellow in the American College of Tax Counsel. He has been lead tax counsel on numerous large transactions, including recently KKR’s $4.4 billion take private of Atlantic Aviation and Noble Corporation’s $3.4 billion merger with Maersk Drilling. David has obtained ground breaking IRS rulings, including three separate rulings in the seminal bankruptcy of Energy Future Holdings.
Amber Whipkey

Amber Whipkey

Amber Whipkey is a partner in the Litigation Practice Group in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Amber's practice focuses on representing clients, both corporate and individual, in matters related to a broad range of enforcement investigations including those conducted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), among others. In addition, Amber's extensive experience with large-scale litigation and e-discovery best practices enables her to help clients better prepare for and respond to discovery requests in various stages of litigation and investigations.
Jason Wilcox

Jason Wilcox

Jason Wilcox is an intellectual property partner in Kirkland's Washington, D.C., office. He litigates complex intellectual property disputes and commercial cases at the trial and appellate levels. Jason has handled complex appeals on a broad array of subject matters, from patent infringement and constitutional issues of first impression to multi-million dollar contract disputes and bankruptcy matters. In addition to his appellate practice, Jason maintains an active litigation practice representing clients in all aspects of patent and other technology disputes before federal district courts. He has resolved cases with motions practice, represented clients at trials and hearings, and argued cases before multiple courts of appeals. Before joining Kirkland, Jason served as a law clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia of the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Dennis Williams

Dennis Williams

Dennis Williams is a corporate partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Dennis’ focus is on healthcare entities and related companies. He is regularly engaged in structural, transactional, regulatory and enforcement matters on behalf of private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies. He advises clients on a broad range of healthcare-related issues including federal and multi-state regulatory matters, structuring, Stark, Anti-Kickback Statutes, False Claims Act, state anti-referral laws, fraud and related regulatory issues. Dennis is experienced in federal and state healthcare regulatory and licensure, enrolment and reimbursement matters. Dennis is frequently called upon as special regulatory counsel in connection with major acquisitions and mergers of healthcare service platforms undertaken by private equity and strategic acquirers. He engages and provides legal counsel to private equity funds, venture capital, and public companies. He likewise consults for: hospitals, physician group practices, ambulatory surgery centers, urgent care centers, pharmacies, home healthcare agencies, revenue cycle management companies, medical device companies, telemedicine, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, hospice care, payors, home health, ambulatory facilities, physicians, dentists, and other healthcare providers and entities. These engagements have included mergers and acquisitions of healthcare entities, structural, compliance, contractual, corporate, regulatory, employment-related, real estate and risk management legal issues in healthcare. He has developed and implemented HIPAA policies and compliance programs for various sized entities. He began his professional career in health care as a registered critical care nurse at New York Presbyterian, Weill Cornell Medical Center in the Burn Intensive Care Unit. Additionally, Dennis actively participates in pro bono activities serving as legal counsel to multiple not-for-profit organizations. Dennis was recognized in the 2020–2022 editions of Chambers USA for his transactional work in Healthcare, where clients commented, "A great lawyer, who always adds a dose of practicality to his advice. I would highly recommend him for any complex healthcare regulatory matters." "Knowledgeable in both the healthcare regulatory and M&A space and provides a balanced approach to business transactions." "He has a very detailed command of the subject matter and is extremely pragmatic as relates to healthcare regulatory risk."
Michael Williams

Michael Williams

Mike Williams is a trial lawyer and appellate advocate who represents individuals, businesses, and governments in complex, high-stakes litigation. Since joining Kirkland & Ellis after a clerkship on the Supreme Court, Mike has led the representation of clients across a broad array of matters, including administrative law, antitrust, banking, constitutional law, copyrights, civil rights, environmental law, mergers and acquisitions, and products liability. Mike is one of the rare litigators who argues cases to juries, judges, and courts of appeals. Mike’s appellate practice includes a special focus on representing United States territories and territorial residents in landmark litigation concerning their relationship with the United States. Mike’s pro bono practice includes the successful representation of death-row prisoners in actual-innocence and intellectual-disability cases in federal and state courts. Mike teaches trial advocacy at Georgetown University Law Center and regularly presents on trial skills for bar associations.
Austin Witt

Austin Witt

Austin Witt is a debt finance partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Austin represents borrowers, sponsors, direct lenders, distressed investors and creditors in a wide range of restructurings, liability management matters, direct lending transactions, rescue financings, DIP financings, exit financings and other high-yield financing transactions. He is particularly experienced in advising clients in credit opportunities and special situations transactions, and he has worked on some of the largest and most sophisticated distressed transactions in history.
Daniel Wolf

Daniel Wolf

With over 30 years of experience, Daniel Wolf focuses on mergers and acquisitions where he represents public and private companies, as well as private equity firms, in a variety of domestic and international transactions. His transactional experience spans the range of M&A activity including many significant cross-border and contested transactions. He also counsels public company clients on governance, activism defense, finance, securities and other general corporate matters. Over the past eight years alone, Daniel has advised on announced M&A transactions with an aggregate value of well over $500 billion. In 2021, Daniel was recognized by International Financial Law Review (IFLR) as the U.S. Lawyer of the Year for M&A. He was named “Dealmaker of the Year” by The American Lawyer in 2020 and by the annual Deal Awards in 2019. His work in 2023 earned him the distinction of being ranked #1 on MergerLinks’ list of the “Top Private Equity Lawyers in North America”, and his work in 2019 also earned him the distinction of being named #1 on MergerLinks’ list of the “Top M&A Lawyers in North America.” In the last 12 consecutive years, Chambers and Partners has listed Daniel as a top M&A attorney in Chambers USA, and he is currently ranked in Band 1 for M&A. According to Chambers, one source noted him as an “exceptional lawyer” and “one of the smartest guys I have ever met.” In addition to his M&A ranking, Chambers also lists Daniel as one of the leading shareholder activism and takeover defense attorneys in the U.S. In 2020, Daniel was inducted into the “Hall of Fame” by The Legal 500 U.S. for M&A – Large Deals ($1 billion+). Daniel has been recognized by Legal Benchmarking from 2021–2024 as one of the top life sciences M&A lawyers in the U.S. and was honored as a Leading Life Sciences Lawyer (Mergers & Acquisitions) by Legal Media Group, Life Sciences for 2021–2023. He is also recognized in Who’s Who Legal: M&A and Governance, was named an MVP by Law360, has been listed as a New York Super Lawyer by Super Lawyers magazine in 2013–2023 and is endorsed by PLC’s Mergers and Acquisitions multi-jurisdictional guide.
Andrew Wright

Andrew Wright

Andrew is a leading member of the corporate practice at Kirkland & Ellis and is internationally recognized as one of the world’s leading attorneys in the field of private investment funds. Clients turn to him for counsel when facing their most novel, complex and high-stakes firm-level decisions related to their funds and management companies, including business strategy, legal and regulatory risk assessment, new product development and growth, high-stakes investor relations issues and other extraordinary business-related, fundraising and operational matters.
Geoffrey Wyatt

Geoffrey Wyatt

Geoffrey Wyatt is a litigation partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Geoff represents clients in product liability, class action, and False Claims Act litigation, with extensive experience at both the trial and appellate levels. He defends companies as part of a team that focuses on global litigation strategy, trial, and law and motions practice in complex proceedings in federal and state courts. He has represented an array of companies in proceedings involving medical, industrial and consumer products. Geoff’s experience spans a range of different cases. He has extensive litigation experience in state and federal courts, including courts of appeals and the United States Supreme Court. Geoff has been successful in securing appellate victories in several cases for his clients, including at the interlocutory stage, often establishing new precedents that bear favorably on related cases in ongoing proceedings. Geoff also has extensive experience handling expert motion issues. He has developed strategies for defeating highly complex but speculative and unscientific theories and disrupting mass proceedings. He also has worked with defense experts to develop reports and prepare for depositions in order to implement those strategies, taking a lead role in motion practice concerning the admissibility of expert testimony. Geoff has participated in the day-to-day management of multidistrict proceedings encompassing tens of thousands of cases. He has represented clients in several bellwether mass tort personal injury trials. He has also defended against several civil enforcement proceedings brought by various governments under consumer-protection and Medicaid-fraud laws, among others. Geoff publishes frequently on matters relevant to his practice, including on issues relating to multidistrict litigation and class action procedure, among other things. He has been named as a leading lawyer in Chambers USA since 2021. In 2013, he received the Burton Award for Legal Achievement, which recognizes excellence in legal scholarship.
Jack Yamin

Jack Yamin

Jack Yamin is a corporate partner in the Insurance Transactions & Regulatory and Financial Institutions Practice Groups. Jack focuses his practice on corporate, securities and regulatory matters in the insurance, reinsurance and financial services industries. He regularly represents public and private corporate clients, private equity sponsors and other alternative asset managers in insurance industry transactions in the United States and globally, including in the acquisition and divesture of insurance businesses through reinsurance and other alternative transaction structures, and in the formation, capitalization and financing of insurance companies and related ventures. Jack has advised on many of the most significant insurance industry transactions over the last decade.
Sara Zablotney

Sara Zablotney

Sara Zablotney is a tax partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Her practice is broad-based and encompasses all manner of complex transactions, focusing on the tax aspects of mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures and spin-offs, both domestic and cross-border. She also advises clients on the tax aspects of securities issuances, bankruptcy and restructuring. Chambers USA has praised her as “extraordinary with clients,” “practical, quick on her feet and proactive” and “extremely knowledgeable with good judgment.” Sara has been recognized by Chambers USA for Tax [NY] from 2017–2025, as a “Rising Star” and “MVP” by Law360 for Tax Law in 2014 and 2017, respectively, is recommended by The Legal 500 U.S., and has been listed as a “Bankruptcy Tax Specialist in the Nation’s Major Law Firms” as a senior practitioner by Turnarounds & Workouts. Sara serves as Chair of Kirkland’s Audit Committee and Co-Chair of Kirkland’s Firmwide Finance Committee; she is a member of Kirkland’s Income Partner Review Committee and Operations Committee.
Daniel Zach

Daniel Zach

Daniel Zach is an antitrust and competition partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. He is a former Assistant Director of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) with extensive experience handling high‑profile and cutting‑edge merger investigations and litigations. Dan focuses his practice on providing comprehensive antitrust advice and counseling to help clients navigate the evolving antitrust regulatory environment, including advising on antitrust regulatory reviews of proposed mergers and litigating court challenges filed by U.S. antitrust enforcers. Over the course of his career, Dan has played a key role in numerous trials, serving as the first‑chair litigator in important merger cases in federal and administrative courts. He has extensive courtroom experience and has successfully developed and implemented strategies to win cases involving difficult antitrust issues, including innovation competition, bundling, urban hospital competition, high‑tech products, “fix‑it‑first” strategies and failing firm defenses. Dan has handled matters involving complex antitrust issues that resulted in FTC consent orders. His experience extends to working with foreign antitrust regulators, including those in the European Union (EU), as well as state antitrust enforcers. As Assistant Director of the FTC’s Mergers I Division, Dan oversaw the review of mergers in industries including pharmaceuticals, life sciences, medical devices, defense and technology, and led major litigation cases. Among other major matters, Dan brought the landmark Illumina/Grail case that resulted in the first successful court challenge of a vertical merger in several decades. Dan also engaged with Commissioners, Bureau of Competition and Bureau of Economics leadership, Congress, foreign and domestic antitrust enforcers and others on important issues related to the division’s work. From 2012 to 2020, Dan served as the Deputy Assistant Director of the Mergers I Division. In that role, he supervised merger reviews, related enforcement actions, and led litigation matters. Dan led groundbreaking cases involving monopolist acquisitions of nascent competitors, and he litigated the first potential competition case in more than 30 years. He also represented the division in a range of initiatives, including developing vertical merger guidelines, creating agency best practices for investigations and litigations, and presenting to other U.S. and foreign antitrust authorities and the public on various antitrust subject matters. From 2006 to 2012, Dan served as Counsel to the Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition and a staff attorney in the Mergers III Division leading investigations in the energy industry. In private practice, Dan has handled merger investigations involving Second Requests issued by U.S. antitrust agencies and represented clients facing FTC and Department of Justice (DOJ) investigations into various non-merger competition issues. He has also played leading roles defeating recent merger challenges brought by the FTC and DOJ.
Elie Zolty

Elie Zolty

Elie Zolty is a tax partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Elie focuses his practice on the tax aspects of private equity funds, credit funds, real estate funds and hedge fund formation and investments, real estate investment trusts (REITs) and real estate joint ventures. In addition, Elie has significant experience in structuring GP-led secondary transactions, continuation funds and GP stakes transactions. Elie represents real estate sponsors in connection with operations, restructurings and workouts. He also advises pension, sovereign and endowment investors in respect to their private equity and real estate investments. A published author, Elie contributed to “United States Fundraising” in The Private Equity Review, published by Law Business Research.
Andrew Zutz

Andrew Zutz

Andrew Zutz is an investment funds partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Andrew focuses his practice on the investment management industry, primarily representing registered investment companies and their investment advisers and boards of directors with respect to a wide variety of regulatory, compliance, securities law, governance and fiduciary matters. Andrew Zutz is an investment funds partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Andrew focuses his practice on the investment management industry, primarily representing registered investment companies and their investment advisers and boards of directors with respect to a wide variety of regulatory, compliance, securities law, governance and fiduciary matters. The clients with whom Andrew works include all types of registered funds, including traditional open-end mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, money market funds, sub-advised funds and closed-end funds (including interval funds and tender offer funds). As regular outside counsel, Andrew advises registered funds on various aspects of the Investment Company Act of 1940, the Securities Act of 1933, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and other applicable federal securities laws during all stages of fund operation, including product development and fund formation matters and on-going SEC regulatory, compliance and registration requirements. Andrew also counsels fund independent directors on oversight matters, including with respect to their fiduciary and oversight responsibilities, and he regularly advises investment advisers on various aspects of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 in connection with a broad range of regulatory and transactional matters.