Kirkland & Ellis LLP

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.

Claremont McKenna College, B.A., Government, 1997. University of Hawai'i School of Law, J.D., 2000.