Kirkland & Ellis LLP

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.

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.

Abby Cotterill is Of Counsel in Kirkland & Ellis LLP’s International Trade and National Security Practice Group in the Washington, D.C., office. Abby regularly provides legal advice to companies, financial institutions, and private equity sponsors on the regulatory and other risks of operating or investing across international borders. Abby focuses her practice on international trade and anticorruption compliance and investigations. She has broad experience on matters involving the economic sanctions administered by the U.S. Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC); the export controls administered under the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) of the U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations(ITAR) of the U.S. Department of State Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC); and anticorruption compliance counseling in matters involving the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act(FCPA). Abby routinely advises clients on economic sanctions, export controls, and anticorruption risk assessments, designs and tests international trade and anticorruption compliance programs, conducts third party due diligence, performs internal compliance audits and investigations, and represents clients in front of OFAC, BIS, DDTC, and the U.S. Department of Justice. Her experience extends across industry sectors (e.g., energy, technology, industrials, airline, and finance) and geographies (e.g., Asia, Latin America, and Africa). She is an active member of the Export Controls and Economic Sanctions Committee of the American Bar Association’s Section of International Law.

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 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.

Adam Kool is a tax partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Adam has a broad-based practice, and handles a wide range of complex transactions, focusing on the tax aspects of mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures and spin-offs, both domestic and cross-border. Adam also advises clients on the tax aspects of securities issuances, real estate investments, bankruptcy and restructuring, and investment fund formation.

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.

Adam Alper is in Kirkland’s intellectual property litigation group and handles significant disputes with respect to both asserting and defending intellectual property rights in cases involving patent, trade secret, copyright and antitrust claims, with a focus on large competitor v. competitor cases. Since 2018, Adam has secured over $2.1 billion in damages awards and settlements on behalf of his clients in IP litigations involving multi-national entities in the semiconductor, telecommunications, computer hardware and high-tech industries. Last year, Adam was named a Trials MVP of the Year by Law360, and has been recognized as a “Top Trade Secrets Lawyer” and a “Top IP Lawyer” by the Daily Journal.

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.

Akshay Deoras is an intellectual property litigation partner in Kirkland’s Bay Area office focusing on patent infringement and trade secret litigation in federal courts and the US International Trade Commission. Akshay’s practice involves a wide range of technologies, including telecommunications, computer networking, computer graphics, computer security, content protection, semiconductor technology, mobile devices, and pharmaceuticals.

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.

Alex Rose is a corporate partner in the Dallas office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Alex’s practice concentrates on the representation of both public and private companies and private equity funds in connection with complex transactions such as mergers, acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, going private transactions, joint ventures, tender offers, divestitures, private financings, recapitalizations, debt and equity security investments, fund formation and other general corporate matters. Alex has broad experience counseling clients in a variety of industries, including infrastructure, energy, manufacturing, consumer products, retail, healthcare, real estate, transportation, technology, financial services and telecommunications.

During his more than 25 years of practice, Alex Pilmer has litigated a broad range of complex cases, trying more than a dozen to verdict. His substantial experience includes complex commercial litigation, bankruptcy litigation, as well securities and shareholder disputes involving allegations of financial fraud, mortgage-origination and securitization, and shareholder rights. He has also represented clients as first chair in patent litigations in District Courts across the country, and in matters before the ITC. A candid and aggressive advocate for his clients, Alex was recognized by The Legal 500 U.S. for his work in Financial Services: Litigation. Alex is a regular instructor and judge of the Kirkland Institute for Trial Advocacy (KITA), where he teaches techniques to make the best use of depositions, cross-examine witnesses effectively, and deliver powerful closing arguments.

As partner in Kirkland’s Environmental Transactions group and leader of its ESG & Impact practice, Alex counsels clients seeking to navigate complex and evolving Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investor demands, regulatory considerations, and changing market dynamics. For example, Alex serves as lead environmental and ESG counsel to numerous private equity, banking and corporate clients engaging in transactions or projects focused on energy and infrastructure, including those developing and deploying emerging technologies, such as battery storage, solar energy generation, carbon capture and sequestration, energy efficiency services, and other ‘green technologies.’ These transactions require creative due diligence and risk mitigation solutions to manage evolving regulatory risks, such as fire safety in the context of battery storage, or permitting and community relations issues in the context of carbon capture. In addition to transactions, she counsels clients in the context of fundraising for climate mitigation or adaptation-focused funds, as well as those navigating ESG considerations in connection with initial public offerings or taking companies public through SPACs. Drawing on her experience negotiating hundreds of transactions, she delivers commercial and practical advice, tailored to the specific needs and strategic objectives of the client.

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 also advises clients regarding legal compliance of qualified and non-qualified defined benefit and defined contribution plans and employee welfare benefit plans.

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 service, grid expansion, carbon credit trading platforms and electric vehicles) and financing greenfield developments (e.g., various energy-related projects, carbon black processing and semiconductor manufacturing).

Allison Buchner is a litigation and intellectual property partner whose practice includes unfair competition, false advertising, trademark, copyright, trade secrets and patent matters before federal and state courts nationwide. Allison has represented clients in litigation brought by consumers, competitors, and regulators. She has provided advice regarding intellectual property and advertising best practices to companies in a variety of industries, including computer hardware and software, 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. Allison also served as the General Counsel for Dollar Shave Club, where she was responsible for managing the company’s legal, regulatory and compliance functions across all substantive areas. During that time, she helped lead the company through its acquisition by Unilever. She brings her experience as a General Counsel to her law firm practice, offering pragmatic, strategic, and business-minded approaches to legal issues and finding creative solutions to balance the need for compliance and risk management against her clients’ business goals. In 2016, Allison was included in the Los Angeles Business Journal as a “Rising Star” in the in-house counsel category and she was nominated again in 2018 as a “Leader in the Law” amongst in-house lawyers. In 2018, she was appointed by the Mayor as a Commissioner for the City of Los Angeles’s Innovation and Performance Commission. Finally, Allison serves on the Boards of Directors for two non-profit organizations: the Disability Rights Legal Center and WishForward.

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.

Counsel

Andrea Weintraub is a debt finance partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Prior to joining Kirkland’s debt finance group, Andrea focused her practice on restructuring.

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.”

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 provide practical, 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. In the past year alone, she has successfully represented more than 100 clients through transaction-related investigations, including high-profile Second Requests. 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.”

Andrew L. Wright, P.C. is internationally recognized as one of the world’s leading attorneys in the field of private investment funds. With more than two decades of experience counseling many of the industry’s largest and most prominent fund sponsors, as well as numerous boutique managers, Andrew has advised on hundreds of billions of dollars of private fund formations across a wide variety of strategies, including private equity, growth equity and leveraged buyout funds, funds focused on industry sectors such as technology, healthcare, consumer/retail, the financial sector and others, debt and credit funds, energy and infrastructure funds, emerging markets and other geographically-oriented funds, "hard asset" funds, co-investment funds, public equities and hedge funds, venture capital funds, feeder funds and fund-of-funds, and other private investment fund strategies. As the investment funds market has evolved, clients have routinely turned to Andrew to identify creative solutions and execute pioneering transactions such as: fund tender offers, general partner (GP)-led secondary sales, including both single-asset sales and “strip sales”, other cross-fund transactions, stapled secondaries, investment warehousing and other complex fund-related structures. Andrew also assists GPs in a broad range of internal firm as well as fund operational and regulatory matters.

Partner focusing on mergers and acquisitions, corporate and securities law, and corporate governance, with a focus on the energy and infrastructure sectors. Represents many of the largest private equity sponsors, such as Blackstone, KKR, EIG and GSO and many of the leading energy companies. Has worked on many of the largest transactions in the sector.

Andrew Kassof is one of the leaders of Kirkland’s litigation practice and a member of the Firm’s Global Management Executive Committee. Andrew recently co-led and tried two billion dollar cases to successful verdicts — one on the plaintiff side in federal court in NY, and the other for the defense in federal court in Texas; has tried many additional cases to successful verdicts in state courts, federal courts, and arbitration; and represents multiple corporate clients from different industries in various complex commercial disputes, False Claims Act and class actions in state and federal courts in nearly every state in the country. In the past year, Andrew has secured awards for plaintiffs and dismissals for defendants in commercial cases seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Texas, Massachusetts, Delaware and California. In the False Claims Act space, Andrew has litigated and obtained dismissals and judgments in Massachusetts, Texas, Florida, New Jersey, Illinois and California. Andrew also leads Kirkland’s alternative fee program for the litigation group and often handles both plaintiff and defense-side cases on flat fee or contingency fee structures for multiple firm clients. In the sports area, Andrew has successfully represented various sports teams, including the Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Angels, the United States Soccer Federation, sports leagues, and players in the NBA and NFL. Law360 recently named Andrew one of five “Sports MVPs” in its national “MVPs of the Year” list.

Andy Langan has broad experience as litigation and trial counsel in a variety of commercial, antitrust, and products liability cases including class actions. He has been principal counsel to major corporate clients in high-stakes class actions alleging violations of the antitrust laws, as well as class actions alleging products liability, mass tort and breach of warranty. Andy has also been principal counsel in high-profile merger investigations and related litigation. He has tried, as lead counsel, seven jury trials, and has been involved in numerous other contested proceedings and appeals.

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.

Andrew R. Running has extensive experience in environmental, insurance, toxic tort and general commercial litigation and arbitration. He has secured coverage victories for numerous clients in environmental contamination, product liability and toxic tort cases. Andrew has tried numerous environmental lawsuits involving claims of property damage and alleged regulatory violations, as well as litigation over the allocation of responsibility for the cleanup of hazardous waste sites. He has successfully defended product liability actions involving allegations of hazardous substance contamination. His arbitration experience includes the trial of cases involving commercial breach of contract claims, disputes between international joint venture partners in the telecommunications and automobile manufacturing fields, non-compete clause disputes, biotechnology licensing disputes and reinsurance and insurance fraud claims.

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.

Drew Stuyvenberg is an energy regulatory associate in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Drew advises energy and financial industry clients in a variety of regulatory and transactional 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), the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. 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 Atomic Energy Act and agency implementing regulations under each statute.

Andy McGaan is a nationally recognized trial lawyer: Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers; named one of “the nation’s best litigators,” National Law Journal Special Report, "Winning: Successful Litigators, Powerful Strategies” (2011); American Lawyer, "Litigator of the Week" for defense verdict in City of St. Louis v. American Tobacco (5/5/11); Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business nationwide ("fantastic to work with"; "tenacity in the courtroom," the "whole package”); Benchmark Litigation Guide to America's Leading Litigation Firms & Attorneys ("Bankruptcy star Andrew McGaan…'belongs on any bankruptcy litigator list'"); The Legal 500 “Hall of Fame” (2017); Law360 "Product Liability MVP" (2011); defense verdict in Mash v. Brown & Williamson profiled in Crain's Chicago Business among most prominent of 2004.

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.

Andy’s practice focuses on leveraged financings and investments in the energy industry. He represents leading private equity sponsors, public and private corporate borrowers and alternative capital providers, as well as debtors and creditors in the restructuring of distressed companies. Andy’s experience consists of a wide variety of complex financings, including acquisition financings, asset- and reserve-based financings and syndicated facilities.

Anna leads Kirkland’s litigation practice in Houston, and has played a leading role in recent hallmark cases shaping the energy industry. As a trial lawyer, she has significant first-chair experience in business and environmental disputes representing leading oil, gas, power and renewable companies, midstream companies and technology companies, as well as private-equity portfolio companies in a variety of industries. Anna has successfully represented both plaintiffs and defendants in state and federal courts and arbitrations throughout the United States. She also regularly represents both debtors and creditors in restructuring-related litigation.

Anne Kim is a partner in the Tax Department. Anne’s practice focuses on advising public and private companies in both taxable and tax-free mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, cross-border transactions, formation of joint ventures and debt restructurings. She also advises clients on the tax aspects of capital markets transactions, bankruptcy and fund restructurings and recapitalizations.

Anthony’s practice focuses on corporate mergers & acquisitions and formation of joint ventures involving assets across the energy value chain, including traditional, renewable and alternative energy sources.

Anup Sathy is a nationally recognized practitioner in matters relating to corporate restructurings, workouts and Chapter 11 reorganizations. He has substantial experience representing and advising companies, buyers, boards, investors and lenders in all aspects of distressed and insolvency situations. Anup has worked on some of the most complex restructuring matters in the country, including Seadrill, iHeartMedia, General Growth Properties, Conseco, Chiquita Brands and Zenith Electronics. He has represented many distressed investors, including Centerbridge, Blackstone, Ares and Davidson Kempner.

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.

Asheesh is co-head of Kirkland & Ellis’ government enforcement defense and internal investigations group. He focuses on securities enforcement matters, including internal and government investigations and enforcement actions involving allegations that may implicate myriad anti-corruption laws, financial statement and disclosure issues, insider trading and other securities enforcement issues. Asheesh is also a member of the Firm’s Executive Committee.

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.

Atif Khawaja litigates bet-the-company commercial disputes. He has successfully represented clients in major disputes, including antitrust, breach of contract and fiduciary duty, fraud, misrepresentation, patent infringement, trade secret theft, and unfair competition. His matters routinely garner press and public attention, and Atif is viewed as a trusted strategic business advisor as well as a top courtroom litigator. While based in New York, Atif has litigated in courts and arbitral forums across the country, representing prominent individuals and businesses across the globe. He is routinely ranked among top U.S. litigators, and his litigation results have been profiled throughout the press. A leader in his field, Atif publishes on a variety of legal topics, serves on the board of the Legal Aid Society, and oversees diversity and inclusion as well as pro bono efforts at Kirkland & Ellis.

Aulden Burcher-DuPont is a partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. His practice in internal and government investigations and complex commercial litigation focuses on electronic discovery strategy and data management and protection.

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.

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).

Benjamin Adelson is a corporate partner in the Dallas office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. He has corporate and transactional experience with an emphasis on advising private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies in a wide variety of transactions, including acquisitions and investments, divestitures, joint ventures and other corporate matters.

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.

Bob Allen is a partner in Kirkland & Ellis LLP’s Litigation and Government, Regulatory & Internal Investigations practice groups. Bob’s practice focuses on representing corporations and individuals in complex commercial litigation, as well as in criminal and regulatory investigations. Prior to rejoining 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 matters involving insider trading, market manipulation, bribery, and accounting fraud, ultimately charging some of the nation’s highest-profile cases. Bob also worked with the SEC, CFTC, PCAOB, and other domestic and foreign regulators in conducting investigations. During his tenure in the Southern District of New York, Bob tried seven cases to a verdict, receiving convictions in every instance, and successfully argued multiple appeals before the Second Circuit. Bob has been recognized in Benchmark Litigation’s “40 & Under Hot List,” The Legal 500 U.S., and by Law360 as a “Rising Star” for his work defending financial institutions. 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 graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was President of the Harvard Law Review.

Bradley M. Friedman is a transactional partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. His practice primarily focuses on mergers and acquisitions involving asset managers and other financial services firms, as well as sales of GP interests.

Brad Weidenhammer represents clients in federal and state trial and appellate courts and arbitrations throughout the United States. Brad represents clients on the plaintiff and defense side in a variety of practice areas, including complex commercial disputes, environmental and toxic torts, products liability, and consumer fraud.

Brandon Brown is a trial lawyer, specializing 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.” Super Lawyers also lists Brandon as a “Rising Star” and Benchmark Litigation lists Brandon as a “Future Star.”

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.

Brian Greene is a debt finance partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Brian’s practice focuses on the representation of lenders, private equity funds, institutional investors, and multilateral and bilateral agencies in domestic and international project finance, energy and infrastructure projects, particularly in the United States and Latin America.

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.

Brian Schartz’s practice involves representing debtors (including portfolio, privately-held and public companies), distressed investors in acquisitions, out-of-court restructurings and Chapter 11 cases. He also advises boards of directors and senior management of financially troubled companies regarding fiduciary duties and corporate governance.

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.

Brian Benczkowski is a partner in Kirkland’s Washington, D.C., office. He is a member of the Firm’s Government, Regulatory & Internal Investigations Practice Group. Brian has deep and diverse government enforcement and investigations experience, bolstered by his service in multiple leadership positions at the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and on Capitol Hill. He recently returned to the firm after serving for two years as the Senate-confirmed Assistant Attorney General for DOJ’s Criminal Division, his sixth senior management position at the Justice Department.

Brooks’s practice focuses on public and private capital markets transactions, SEC disclosure and compliance and general corporate governance matters. He regularly advises companies and their underwriters in the initial public offering process, and he has particular experience with companies seeking complicated tax structures, such as MLPs, Up-Cs and REITs. Brooks also provides oil and gas companies with corporate and securities advice in connection with in and out of court restructurings.

Brooksany represents clients in transactional and regulatory matters in energy and infrastructure and in energy commodity markets. She has worked on cases before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, state public utility commissions including the Public Utility Commission of Texas, the Department of Energy, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and federal and state courts. Brooksany works with a range of energy industry clients, including energy trading companies, renewable and conventional electric generation and transmission owners, energy storage developers, natural gas and oil pipeline companies and public utilities. Brooksany also represents major financial investors in the energy industry. Brooksany’s recent experience includes representing clients acquiring or investing in large renewables and energy storage portfolios; securing FERC approval for corporate reorganizations or acquisitions under the Federal Power Act section 203; PURPA, EWG and QF advice; litigating various ISO/RTO tariff proceedings, complaints, rate proceedings and rulemakings; and advising clients acquiring or releasing natural gas transportation and storage services and structuring asset management agreements. She also has represented clients in FERC and NERC audits, assisted in internal investigations and developed regulatory compliance programs.

Tax partner with extensive experience advising fund sponsors and investors (both offshore and domestic). Concentrates in the organization and structuring of real estate, infrastructure and other alternative-asset investment funds. Significant experience representing offshore investors in the U.S. property and infrastructure markets. Maintains a broad tax planning practice representing REITs and other investors in real estate.

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.

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.

Partner Carla A.R. Hine focuses her practice on antitrust and consumer protection regulatory matters. She has experience in a variety of industries, including health care, private equity, consumer products, pharmaceuticals, construction materials, defense, energy commodities, gasoline, oil and related exploration products and services, metal products and sports teams. Carla counsels clients on mergers and acquisitions, collaborations and compliance with the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act and international merger notification regimes. She defends transactions before US antitrust agencies and international competition authorities. Carla has significant experience in government investigations before the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ), as well as experience with administrative, so-called Part III litigation before the FTC, and in government investigations and antitrust litigation.

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.

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.

Chad Morriss is a litigation partner with more than 25 years of trial experience. His practice focuses on defending pharmaceutical and life science companies in their product liability lawsuits. This has included managing sales and marketing issues on a national level. Chad has tried cases in a wide range of areas including life sciences, malpractice, construction, fraud and personal injury representing various product manufacturers, professionals and businesses. He has been recognized by his peers and various legal publications including the American Board of Trial Advocates, The Legal 500 U.S., Best Lawyers and Super Lawyers.

Chris’ practice focuses on the development, acquisitions, divestitures of energy and infrastructure related projects and assets. Chris represents clients in connection with a broad range of assets, including in the upstream, midstream, downstream and renewable sectors. Chris’ transactional experience also includes advising clients in connection with the formation of joint ventures and complex energy projects, DrillCo arrangements, farmout and participation agreements to develop real property assets, transportation, supply, offtake and gathering agreements and other commercial transactions concerning the development of real assets.

Christa Cottrell represents clients in high-profile commercial and class action litigation, with an emphasis on antitrust, employment and commercial contract disputes. Christa has broad experience in all aspects of litigation and has served as trial counsel in a number of high-profile cases. In the antitrust area, she regularly litigates conspiracy and monopolization cases arising in both commercial and class action contexts.

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.

Christian practices in the area of environmental law, primarily in the context of corporate mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures.  He has represented numerous clients, including private corporations, private equity firms, local governments, and trade associations on a full range of environmental regulatory compliance and remediation matters, enforcement actions, administrative proceedings and civil litigation.

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. Christian has been named as a leading lawyer in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, Chambers Global: The World's Leading Business Lawyers, IFLR1000, and The Legal 500 U.S. and as one of “500 Leading Dealmakers in America” by Lawdragon. Additionally, in 2022 he was named a “New York Super Lawyer” by Super Lawyers Magazine and a Capital Markets MVP by Law360. Christian has been sought out for his views on the market by, among others, The New York Times, The Financial Times, Law360, and Nasdaq Trade Talks.

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.

Chris Hartmann is a partner in the Real Estate Practice Group in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Chris was named a “Rising Star” in 2016 by Law360 and has extensive experience representing clients in all aspects of complex commercial real estate transactions, including acquisitions (note and asset), dispositions, joint ventures and financings. Chris regularly represents lenders (including funds, life companies, finance companies and real estate investors) and borrowers (including sponsors, real estate investors, funds, advisors and operating companies) in all types of commercial real estate based financing transactions (including first mortgage, construction, mezzanine, participation and preferred equity financing) for all types of asset classes (including multifamily, office, industrial, retail, single tenant, condominium, ground lease and hotel assets).

Partner

Chris Thomas is a corporate attorney in Kirkland’s Chicago office. His practice primarily involves advising private equity firms and public and private companies in connection with structuring and negotiating complex business transactions, including domestic and international mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations and other general corporate matters. Chris has handled matters on behalf of Bain Capital, GTCR, KKR and Thomas H. Lee Partners.

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.

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.

Christopher focuses his practice on leveraged acquisitions, recapitalizations, divestitures, growth equity investments, take private acquisitions and other complex buyout and special situations transactions. He has been responsible for leading a wide variety of these transactions, ranging in size from a few million dollars to several billion dollars, for a number of private equity clients, including Oaktree Capital Management, Clearlake Capital, GTCR, CHS Capital, MTS Health Partners and Nautic Partners.

Christopher concentrates his practice in financing transactions with an emphasis on acquisitions and highly leveraged financings. He represents borrowers and lenders in structuring secured and unsecured lending transactions, LBO and acquisition financings, first and second lien financings, subordinated debt transactions, mezzanine and other private issuances and DIP financings. Clients include financial sponsors Bain Capital, Centerbridge Partners, GTCR, Parthenon Capital, Summit Partners, Vestar Capital, Welsh Carson, Greenbriar Equity Partners, Centerview Partners, and portfolio companies and major corporations, including Molson Coors, Micro Focus, Infor, Simply Good Foods and Rivers Casinos.

Chris Greco represents debtors, creditors, equity holders, sponsors, boards of directors and investors in all aspects of corporate restructuring transactions (in and out of court) across a variety of different industries. Chris has advised clients in some of the most complex and contentious bankruptcy proceedings in recent years. Representative matters include McDermott International, Acosta, BJ Services, Mood Media, Alltech, RGIS, Premiere Global Services, Destination Maternity, Exco Resources, Ultra Petroleum Corp., Answers Corporation, Things Remembered, Hovensa, Cengage Learning, Caesars, Revel, Kerzner, ION Media Networks, Muzak and WR Grace.

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.

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.

Christopher Kirkham represents private equity sponsors, commercial borrowers and financial institutions in secured and unsecured senior and mezzanine debt financing transactions and related workouts and restructurings. He has particular experience in leveraged acquisition transactions and cross-border financings, as well as structuring distressed acquisition financings and negotiating credit facilities for investment funds. Christopher has represented buyers, targets and financial advisers in both private and public M&A transactions.

Chris Wu is a transactional partner in the Los Angeles office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. He has a diverse corporate practice that focuses on mergers and acquisitions, with an emphasis on private equity transactions. Chris also has extensive experience in representing issuers and investment banks in public and private securities offerings and counsels clients on matters of corporate governance, securities law and compliance.

Chris Odell is a tax partner in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. His practice focuses on the tax aspects of planning and structuring business transactions, including mergers and acquisitions and joint ventures, as well as investment fund formation and structuring.

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.

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.

Ciara Foster is a restructuring partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP.

Claudia Ray represents clients across a broad range of industries, including technology, consumer products, insurance and financial services, advertising and marketing, transportation, manufacturing, entertainment/media, and fashion/apparel. Representative matters have involved such well-known properties as the Obama “Hope” poster, Harry Potter, Chuck Taylor All-Stars, Colgate Total, Burberry’s plaid, and Travelers’ red umbrella, as well as such diverse subject matter as online content distribution platforms, SaaS products, steak houses, investment funds, Broadway shows, and alcoholic beverages. Claudia regularly appears before federal and state trial and appellate courts, in domestic and international arbitrations, and in proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, the Copyright Royalty Board, the International Trade Commission, and other similar bodies. She also advises clients on their overall IP protection and enforcement strategies, including pre-litigation counseling and IP clearance and prosecution, as well as advising on IP issues in the transactional context and negotiating and drafting IP-related agreements. In Chambers USA, clients call her “business-savvy,” a “leading authority throughout the country and beyond," and an “outstanding courtroom performer.” She was honored in Managing Intellectual Property’s most recent edition of IP Stars - Top 250 Women in IP.

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.

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.

Cy’s practice focuses on complex transactions including mergers and acquisitions, divestitures and private equity, with a particular focus on the energy and infrastructure sectors. He has counseled private equity investors, their portfolio companies, and other public and private companies in connection with mergers, acquisitions, dispositions, complex joint ventures and offerings of equity and debt securities.

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.

Partner

Damon is a partner in Kirkland’s corporate group whose practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts and equity financings. He also counsels clients with respect to executive compensation and other corporate matters. He’s served as lead counsel in transactions involving a variety of industries, including manufacturing, technology, apparel, consumer products, business services, health care, construction, food and beverage, restaurants, sports, entertainment, media and gaming. A significant portion of Damon’s practice involves the representation of private equity funds and their portfolio companies.

Daniel focuses on mergers and acquisitions, representing public and private companies and 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, as well as representing boards of directors in activism defense and governance matters. Clients he has represented include Bristol-Myers Squibb, Blackstone Group, Vista Equity Partners, Celanese, Fortive, Avis Budget, Teva Pharmaceutical, GrubHub, Ventas, Akzo Nobel and GSK.

Daniel Lavon-Krein, a senior partner in Kirkland’s Investment Funds Group, has championed countless large global private equity fund formations ranging from $1 billion to $16.5 billion and is recognized as a leader and pioneer in advising private equity sponsors and buyers on complex strategic minority investments in existing firms. In the past 18 months alone, Daniel has worked on over 30 transactions in this rapidly evolving market, including some of the largest transactions completed to date. In connection with these transactions and fund formation matters, he frequently advises sponsors on internal firm restructurings, succession planning and other major strategic issues.

Dan serves as lead trial counsel for clients on energy, financial and technology disputes, as well as counseling on corporate governance. Clients seek him out for his ability to present complex issues in a straight-forward manner and craft creative business solutions to successfully resolve energy and business disputes. Dan has a deep understanding of the energy industry and applies that to secure swift resolution - through trial, arbitration or settlement. Dan has a proven track record of preparing and winning complex cases in the energy sector before trial courts and arbitration panels across the country, including Ohio, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Texas and North Dakota. In his plaintiff-side litigation practice, Dan has secured several substantial recoveries in commercial matters over $150 million, including a recent cash recovery of over $250 million. In addition to his trial practice, Dan has won victories for oil and gas operators in the Third and Sixth Circuits, as well as the Ohio Supreme Court.

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. In particular, Dan has extensive experience in structuring and negotiating carve-out and business separation transactions.In addition, Dan’s practice includes negotiating other complex commercial transactions such as joint ventures and strategic alliances, outsourcing (BPO and ITO), pharmaceutical drug development and manufacturing, telecommunications, software development and implementation, and licensing (software, SaaS, technology, patent, and brand licenses). His practice also includes advising on intellectual property and technology issues in restructuring and debt finance transactions.

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.

Daniel Chaudoin is a partner in the Government, Regulatory & Internal Investigations Practice Group in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Daniel’s practice focuses on representing financial institutions in connection with investigations regarding the federal securities laws, as well as consumer protection laws and unfair and deceptive trade practices. He regularly appears before the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), FINRA, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Daniel Kearney is a government, regulatory & internal investigations partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Daniel’s practice focuses on enforcement and regulatory matters for financial institutions, as well as government regulatory litigation and policy counseling. He has handled a variety of enforcement actions and other regulatory matters before the Federal Reserve Board, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Justice. In addition, he has litigated cases in the federal district courts, courts of appeals, and the Supreme Court of the United States, including cases involving consumer protection matters, the Administrative Procedure Act, and Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Daniel’s counseling practice encompasses banking regulation, consumer protection regulation, administrative law, and constitutional issues.

Partner

Partner

Dan Laytin represents clients in high-profile commercial, antitrust and class action litigation in federal and state courts throughout the United States. In the antitrust area, he regularly litigates conspiracy and monopolization cases arising in both commercial and class action contexts, and counsels clients on distribution, pricing and competitor collaboration issues.

David Fox was a member of Kirkland’s Global Executive Management Committee until 2019 and played a pivotal role in the leadership, culture and success of the Firm, and oversaw Kirkland’s New York office and its tremendous growth. David also established an elite M&A platform at Kirkland that is now recognized as a leading practice playing a major role on many of the market’s most significant transactions. Prior to joining Kirkland, David spent 25 years with Skadden Arps where he was a senior partner and a member of the firm’s top governing committee. Over the course of his legal career David advised boards of directors and senior executives on their most important transactional and crisis management situations, leading on hundreds of deals across a range of industries and geographies with an aggregate value exceeding $500 billion. David has been the recipient of numerous industry recognitions, including The Deal’s inaugural “M&A Lifetime Achievement” award, and has been consistently ranked among the top tier for M&A and corporate governance counsel. David is a member of the board of directors of several public and private companies and non-profit organizations including the Park Avenue Armory, which is dedicated to giving one of America’s historic architectural treasures new life as a center for performing and visual arts. He is an advisory member of the board of New Alternatives for Children, which provides crucial support to families caring for medically fragile children. In addition, David is on the executive committee of the board of governors and an honorary fellow of the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.

David Curtiss is a corporate partner in the New York office. His practice concentrates in the Capital Markets Practice Group where he regularly represents sponsors, companies and underwriters in equity and debt offerings, including initial public offerings, high yield and investment grade debt offerings, leveraged acquisition financing and PIPE investments.

David’s practice focuses on corporate tax, mergers and acquisition tax, workouts and restructuring, transactions involving partnerships and LLCs, and tax controversies. He provides clients with transactional planning and advice, document preparation, and preparation of tax opinions on federal and state tax implications of business transactions.

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.

Trial lawyer. Complex commercial and class action litigation, with emphasis on antitrust, energy and bankruptcy. Lead trial counsel in multidistrict antitrust, energy and other complex cases, representing clients in all facets of energy litigation, including exploration, production and marketing. Lead trial counsel in corporate restructurings involving fraudulent conveyance, business valuation, plan confirmation and related issues.

David’s practice focuses on acquisitions, divestitures and the formation of joint ventures involving energy assets, including upstream, midstream and renewable assets. David also 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.

Mr. Lenzi is a corporate partner in Kirkland’s New York office, specializing in 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.

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 and 2018 guides to leading U.S. law firms for business. David is the former Chair of the Transactions Involving IP Rights Committee of the ABA.

David Kung's practice concentrates on the tax aspects of complex business transactions, including domestic and cross-border mergers, acquisitions, buyouts, recapitalizations, debt and equity restructurings, and executive compensation. He has also been involved in numerous bankruptcy restructurings and workouts and has represented clients in tax controversies before the IRS.

David concentrates his practice in all aspects of complex corporate restructuring and insolvency, both in and out-of-court, in U.S. domestic and cross-border matters. He primarily advises reorganizing companies, boards and management, but also has significant experience representing investment funds, purchasers and others in restructuring transactions. David has extensive industry experience in power, E&P, aviation, gaming and financial services.

David represents private equity sponsors, hedge funds, public companies and capital sources in complex financing transactions, including liability management exercises, leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations, restructurings and other special situation transactions. Dave has significant experience with a variety of transaction structures, including senior secured financings, debtor-in-possession and exit financings, split collateral structures, first- and second-lien financings, asset-based loans, senior unsecured financings, subordinated financings and unitranche financings. Dave has handled transactions in a range of industries, including retail, software, gaming, healthcare, media, restaurant, energy and real estate.

Nathan Mammen’s practice focuses on intellectual property trial and appellate litigation. He frequently represents clients and leads teams in “bet-the-company” complex intellectual property matters. He has experience in diverse technologies such as medical devices, radio-frequency identification, wireless communication, semiconductors, bio-technology and pharmaceuticals, and mechanical devices. Nathan is often sought for creative thinking and clear briefing. He has successfully represented clients in numerous proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, district courts, and the International Trade Commission, and international arbitrations. He also has extensive appellate experience and frequently represents clients in appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. He is an experienced oral advocate who has argued before various state and federal appellate courts. Nathan is frequently consulted about matters before the PTAB and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. He worked as a patent examiner before and during law school. Nathan is passionate about giving back through pro bono service, and he frequently represents his fellow veterans seeking benefits, including regularly handling appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and bringing attention to systemic legal issues affecting veterans. Prior to joining Kirkland, Nathan was a law clerk to Chief Judge Karen J. Williams, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Nathan is a veteran of the U.S. Army. He served as appellate counsel in dozens of military criminal cases. In 2012-2013, Nathan volunteered for active duty in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and served as a military prosecutor in Kuwait.

As a tax partner in the New York office, David Grenker works on the structuring of domestic and international mergers and acquisitions and the formation of domestic and offshore private equity funds and investments. He also advises on restructurings and public and private debt issuances and has represented clients in contract arbitrations. David has done research and editing work for Kirkland publications.

David Perechocky is a corporate partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. His practice primarily focuses on public and private company mergers and acquisitions, activist defense and corporate and securities law matters. David has considerable experience working with public and private REITs and other real estate companies.

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.

David Foster is a partner in the Tax 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 international tax and transfer pricing, TEFRA and BBA partnership audit and litigation procedures, taxation of financial products, estate and gift taxes, deferred compensation, voluntary disclosures and criminal tax. A former Supreme Court clerk, David has prepared briefs and argued before many of the federal courts of appeals. Prior to joining Kirkland, he obtained a rare taxpayer victory striking down a Treasury Regulation in Hewitt v. Commissioner, 21 F.4th 1336 (11th Cir. 2021). He also represented five former IRS commissioners in a D.C. Circuit amicus brief in Loving v. IRS in support of licensing standards for tax return preparers, as well as the American College of Tax Counsel in amicus briefs in the Tax Court and the Supreme Court. David lectures regularly to in-house tax departments and professional associations. He is a fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel and the American Bar Foundation. He also served as chair of the D.C. Bar’s Tax Audits and Litigation Committee and as co-chair of the ABA Tax Section’s Privileges Subcommittee of the Civil and Criminal Tax Penalties Committee. David has repeatedly been ranked in Chambers USA, Chambers High Net Worth, The Best Lawyers in America and The Legal 500 United States, and was previously recognized as one of Washington, D.C.’s Trending 40 Lawyers Under 40 by Legal Bisnow. He has also been included in Washingtonian’s Top Lawyers list since 2018.

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.

David A. Klein is a litigation partner in the Los Angeles office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. With over a decade of experience as a litigator, David represents corporations, private equity clients, and individuals in complex commercial litigation, arbitration, mediation, investigations, as well as government and regulatory proceedings. David has extensive experience counseling clients in high-stakes and high-profile matters in federal and state courts, including disputes involving acquisitions, debt finance, shareholders, entertainment, unfair competition, and intellectual property. After arguing major motions and taking key depositions, David has obtained numerous dismissals for defendants and significant recoveries for plaintiffs.

Dean Shulman represents clients on a wide range of domestic and international tax matters, including mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, tax-free spin-offs, leveraged buyouts and IPOs. Dean has extensive experience advising on and structuring complex transactions for numerous private equity clients, including Blackstone, KKR, Silver Lake Partners and Carlyle. He also regularly represents high-profile public companies such as Bristol-Myers Squibb, Glaxo Smith Kline, Wyndham, Huntsman, Danaher and Spectrum Brands.

Corporate partner Dennis Myers is a senior member of the Capital Markets Group and focuses his practice on representing both public and private companies, including portfolio companies of private equity funds, and investment banks in a wide variety of capital markets transactions involving the sale of securities. Dennis has significant experience in the following types of transactions: (i) public equity offerings, including initial public offerings; (ii) high-yield debt offerings in connection with leveraged buy-outs and/or significant acquisitions by portfolio companies of private equity clients; and (iii) other securities-related transactions, including private placements of a wide variety of securities and exchange offers and related transactions in connection with out-of-court restructurings. Dennis also provides on-going corporate counseling to publicly traded companies and their private equity sponsors regarding corporate governance matters, Section 13 and 16 reporting obligations, preparation of annual disclosure documents, stock option and other incentive plans, insider trading and corporate compliance policies, general disclosure obligations and matters relating to the public sale of restricted securities.

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."

Devora Allon is a litigation partner in Kirkland’s New York office. She has a broad practice with a particular focus on antitrust, M&A, product liability and other commercial disputes. Devora has significant trial experience, securing five trial wins since 2015; three in 2018 alone. Her clients have included Bain Capital, Vista Equity Partners, Teva, Sun Pharma, Starwood Capital Group and the State of Georgia.

Diana Torres is an intellectual property and commercial litigation partner in Kirkland's Los Angeles and Palo Alto 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 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.

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.

Dilen Kumar is a corporate partner in the Dallas office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Dilen's practice focuses on representing private equity firms and public and private companies in connection with mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, carve-outs and investment transactions. His experience also includes representing clients in connection with general corporate governance matters and securities regulation compliance. He has worked with clients in the energy, food and beverage, healthcare, technology, industrial, transportation, infrastructure and consumer goods spaces. Dilen serves as a Pro Bono Coordinator for the Dallas office and serves on the firm-wide Pro Bono Management Committee and Diversity and Inclusion Committee. Dilen has been recognized in various publications for his work, including Texas Lawyer and D Magazine. He is involved in numerous charitable and civic organizations in the Dallas area and is a 2018 graduate of Leadership Dallas. He currently serves as Co-Chair of the state-wide Steering Committee for the Texas Minority Counsel Program, an affiliate of the State Bar of Texas that seeks to increase opportunities for minority, women and LGBTQ+ lawyers in Texas. Prior to his law firm career, Dilen served in the Obama Administration as an Assistant Counsel in the White House Counsel’s Office.

Diva Hollis is an intellectual property litigation partner and registered patent attorney in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Her practice focuses on patent infringement litigation, trade secret litigation, and other intellectual property matters involving a wide variety of technologies, including hardware, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices in both federal appellate and district courts and before the U.S. International Trade Commission.

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.

Doug Bacon is a partner in the Houston office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. His practice focuses on merger and acquisition transactions including extensive experience advising private equity firms and other financial investors on significant investments, joint ventures, stockholder arrangements and liquidity events. He also advises public and private corporations on complex M&A transactions, including numerous large divisional carve-out acquisitions and sales.

Doug Gessner is a partner in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, where he concentrates on representing private equity and venture capital sponsors in all aspects of private equity and venture capital investment activity, including leveraged buyouts of public and private companies, recapitalisations of private companies, growth equity investments in public and private companies, start-up investments, and formation of private equity funds.

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.

Doug Smith has litigated cases at both the trial and appellate stage in state and federal courts throughout the country, including commercial, mass tort, product liability, securities, bankruptcy, environmental, and intellectual property cases. He has significant experience in complex litigation, including multidistrict litigation and class action proceedings, and has served as trial counsel in cases involving a wide variety of subject matters. He is a member of the American Law Institute and has published on diverse legal topics.

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.

Dustin Womack is a litigation associate in the Houston office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. His practice focuses primarily on complex commercial litigation.

Partner

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.

Serves on Kirkland’s Executive Committee. Represents debtors, creditors and distressed or special situation investors in bankruptcy cases, out-of-court restructurings and acquisitions. Company-side representations include Intelsat, Ascena Retail Group, Gulfport Energy Corporation, Hornbeck Offshore Services, Mood Media Corporation, PetSmart, Acosta, Barneys, Toys "R" Us, Westmoreland Coal, Energy Future Holdings, PES Holdings, Ameriforge Group, Sequa Corporation, Midstates Petroleum, Magnum Hunter Resources, Penn Virginia, MSR Resorts, Sbarro, Horizon Lines, Majestic Star, Calpine, NRG Energy, Muzak and Leiner. Represented ad hoc committees in restructurings of Bonanza Creek, Ocean Rig UDW, Capmark, Lyondell, AbitibiBowater and Mirant. Regularly represents private equity and hedge funds in acquisitions of distressed companies.

Edward J. Lee is a corporate partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Ed’s practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and shareholder activism defense. Ed is recognized as one of the 500 leading lawyers in America by Lawdragon. Ed has been recognized as a leading lawyer and as “highly regarded” within the M&A practice by IFLR1000, and as a “Rising Star” in Corporate/M&A by Expert Guides. Recently, Ed was one of six M&A lawyers recognized by Law360 as a Rising Star under 40. Ed has deep 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. Since 2019, Ed has advised on M&A transactions valued at over $300 billion. Ed has also advised numerous boards of directors and senior management teams in connection with unsolicited takeover proposals, as well as in response to shareholder activism campaigns and other contested situations involving, among others, Elliott Management, Jana Partners, Sachem Head, Third Point, Pershing Square, Relational Investors, and Starboard Value. He has advised a broad range of public and private clients across industries, including software and technology (including early stage, pre-revenue technology companies), aerospace & defense, media and telecom, industrial, chemicals, health care and pharmaceuticals, gaming, consumer goods and retail, energy, real estate and financial institutions. Ed is a frequent speaker on M&A and shareholder activism, including co-chairing PLI’s Shareholder Activism conference in 2018–2020.

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.

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.

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.

Elyse Dorsey is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Elyse's practice encompasses a wide array of antitrust and competition matters across the globe. She is uniquely situated to advise clients in domestic and international competition matters, given her combination of government and private practice experience. Elyse has a focus in cutting edge competition issues, as well as privacy, data security, and consumer protection matters. She has represented clients across levels of government, from state agencies to the U.S. Supreme Court. Prior to joining Kirkland, Elyse served as Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division. Her work at the Antitrust Division covered a spectrum of legal and policy matters, including IP and technology issues, the Division's appellate and amicus brief programs, and its international and competition policy efforts. Elyse joined the Division from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, where she served as Attorney Advisor to Commissioner Noah Joshua Phillips. While at the Commission, she advised on key cases, matters, and policies affecting industries across the economy--from digital and tech to pharmaceuticals and hospitals and more. Elyse is a recognized thought leader in the antitrust and competition communities. She has been a frequent nominee and recipient of antitrust writing awards for her scholarship in this space. She has also served as an adjunct professor at George Mason University's Scalia Law School for several years, helping to launch their Antitrust LL.M. program; and she previously served as a visiting scholar at the University of Virginia.

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.

Emily Nicklin has been lead trial counsel in both jury and bench trials, as well as arbitrations, in various state and federal venues including Arkansas, California, Delaware, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Wisconsin and Washington, D.C. Her practice includes cases (both individual and class actions) concerning professional liability for accountants and consultants, securities and common law fraud, contract, tort (including product liability and personal injury), employment discrimination, constitutional law and municipal law.

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.

Eric Schiele is a corporate partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, and serves as a member of the Firm's Executive Committee. His practice encompasses M&A and public company board and special committee advisory work, including hostile takeover and hedge fund activism defense. Over the course of his career, Eric has advised on announced M&A transactions with an aggregate value of approximately $1 trillion. Corporate clients that Eric has represented include, among others, AbbVie, Amcor, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Bristol Myers Squibb, Disney, DreamWorks Animation, GlaxoSmithKline, H.J. Heinz, Honeywell, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Northrop Grumman, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, Taubman Centers, The Washington Post Company, Time Warner, Toll Brothers, Wynn Resorts, Xerox, Yahoo! and Zale Corporation. He also has extensive experience in hedge fund activism defense, including against, among others, Carl Icahn, Elliot Management, Greenlight Capital, Relational, Starboard Value and Trian.

Erica focuses her practice on internal investigations and defense of companies and individuals accused by the government of involvement in securities law violations, white collar crime and other major business litigation disputes and crises.

Erica Berthou is a senior partner in Kirkland’s Investment Funds Group. Erica has counseled investment fund sponsors on hundreds of billions of dollars of private fund formations, separately managed accounts and joint ventures across a variety of strategies, including credit, debt, energy, infrastructure and real estate, worldwide. Erica has advised both sponsors and institutional buyers in connection with strategic investments in private investment firms. Erica regularly gives strategic advice to senior management of private equity firms on matters of strategic firm importance, including internal restructurings and succession planning arrangements. Representative clients include Antin, Astorg, Blackstone, Bridgepoint, Carlyle, EQT, FFL, Glendon, GreyLion Capital, Hunter Point Capital, I Squared, KPS, Oaktree and TPG.

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.

Partner

Gene is an accomplished trial lawyer who represents clients—including AOL, BASF, Hitachi, Honeywell, Huntsman, Raytheon, SIPC, Siemens and Wyndham Worldwide—on a variety of commercial litigation, environmental and technology disputes matters before judges, juries and arbitration panels across the country. He also advises boards and management on risk and compliance issues. Gene has served in a variety of management roles at the Firm, including Diversity, Recruiting, Finance and Kirkland’s Global Executive Management Committee.

Eunu Chun is a partner in Kirkland’s Private Equity group and covers a wide range of transactions, including primarily leveraged buyout transactions, recapitalizations, mergers and venture capital/growth equity investments. He has extensive previous experience as general and limited partner counsel in the formation of private equity funds. Representative clients include Bain Capital, Warburg Pincus, L Catterton Partners, and numerous portfolio companies of various sizes and industries.

Francesco Penati concentrates his practice in the areas of financing transactions (both secured and unsecured) with an emphasis on acquisitions and highly leveraged financings, workouts and restructurings, the representation of providers of mezzanine financing, and general corporate law. Francesco’s financing transaction experience includes negotiation, structuring and documentation of secured and unsecured lending transactions. Francesco has also worked on LBO and acquisition financings that included permanent and bridge facilities. His experience also includes subordinated debt transactions in public, mezzanine and other private issuances as well as interest rate and currency protection agreements and other hedging agreements.

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

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.

Garret Leach is a nationally recognized first chair trial lawyer who focuses on patent, trademark and other intellectual property litigation. He is a registered patent attorney and has successfully led litigation teams in district courts throughout the country as well as at the International Trade Commission. He has also argued for his clients before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

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.

Gerald Nowak is a partner in the Firm’s Chicago office. He joined Kirkland in 1993 and became a partner in 1999. Gerald has a broad transactional practice focused on representing public companies and private equity funds. In 2014, he was selected to The International Who's Who of Mergers & Acquisition Lawyers. He has been identified as a “SuperLawyer” in Law & Politics Magazine’s annual review and has been identified as a top high yield debt practitioner in The Legal 500’s annual review of Corporate & Finance attorneys.

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.

Gregg LoCascio is a leader of Kirkland & Ellis’ intellectual property practice and a member of the Firm’s Executive Committee. He has over twenty-five years of experience as a trusted counselor and courtroom litigator on complex intellectual property and technology issues. In addition to a record of jury trial wins in Federal and State Courts, he has also successfully appeared before the International Trade Commission, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and the United States Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

Gregg Kirchhoefer is a partner of Kirkland & Ellis where he founded the Technology and IP Transactions and Outsourcing practice groups. His practice focuses on technology and IP matters, with particular emphases on agreements and counseling related to outsourcing (ITO, BPO, and other) agreements, IT agreements (ERP and software licenses and services agreements), strategic alliance agreements, IP and technology licenses, “As-A-Service” agreements, supply chain and distribution agreements, contract manufacturing agreements, and M&A agreements. His experience in outsourcing spans almost 40, years and, in that time, he has handled some of the largest, most comprehensive outsourcings in history. Gregg represents both customers and service providers in these type of matters. He is a Certified Outsourcing Professional and is an inductee in the IAOP Outsourcing Leadership Hall of Fame, has a Martindale-Hubbell AV rating, and has received numerous top tier rankings.

Greg Arovas' practice focuses on patent, trade secret, unfair competition and related litigation in the state and federal courts as well as the International Trade Commission. His experience includes representing clients ranging from Fortune 100 companies to smaller rapidly growing technology companies in disputes involving integrated circuits, wireless communications, telecommunications equipment, microprocessors, personal computers, optics, industrial control systems, semiconductor processing technology, aerospace equipment, software, medical products and financial products.

Greg’s practice focuses primarily on domestic and international transactional tax matters. In the domestic area, Greg has advised clients on a wide variety of transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, spin-offs, IPOs, joint ventures, debt restructurings, bankruptcy and general tax planning. He also regularly advises clients on tax aspects of complex cross-border transactions.

Hamed Meshki is a partner in Kirkland’s Los Angeles corporate group whose practice focuses on highly structured and complex business transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, restructurings, recapitalizations and financings. Hamed has handled transactions in a wide variety of industries, including broadcast media, apparel, sports and entertainment, manufacturing, technology, energy, consumer products, shipping, gaming and lodging, publishing and health care. A significant portion of his practice involves the representation of private equity firms and their portfolio companies.

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.

Helena Kiepura is an intellectual property litigation partner in Kirkland’s Washington, D.C. office. She has significant experience in complex patent litigation matters, and particularly in Section 337 investigations before the United States International Trade Commission. She also represents clients in U.S. district courts, in state court antitrust disputes arising out of the settlement of Hatch-Waxman cases, and in inter partes review proceedings before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Helena’s strong technical background includes a degree in the life sciences and litigation experience in a broad range of technologies, including mobile device hardware and software, pharmaceuticals, thin-film coating, mechanical devices, elastomers and thermoplastics, vehicular motors, hydraulic fracturing, radio frequency identification, magnetic tapes, website development software, semiconductors, flash memory, and cloud computing. Helena also maintains an active pro bono practice, focusing particularly on issues affecting our nation’s veterans. She regularly represents veterans seeking disability benefits for in-service injuries and illnesses, volunteers at legal aid clinics aimed specifically at veterans, and conducts trainings for other attorneys regarding legal issues affecting veterans.

Kirkland partner Henry DePippo spent six years with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, where as Senior Trial Counsel, he was one of the lead prosecutors responsible for the investigation and successful prosecution of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. He also served as the Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division, responsible for authorizing prosecutions, advising law enforcement agencies and supervising prosecutors. Henry concentrates his practice in the areas of white collar criminal defense, internal investigations and False Claims Act litigation. He has defended corporations and corporate executives in government investigations and other criminal and regulatory proceedings in connection with allegations of healthcare fraud, securities fraud, violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and export control laws, and matters relating to antitrust, government contracts, public corruption and criminal environmental enforcement.

Ian 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.

Ivan Schlager is an international trade and national security partner 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, 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.

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.

Jim Hurst is a trial lawyer who serves on Kirkland’s Executive Committee. He’s been trying cases for 30 years, including patent, products liability, trade secret, antitrust, fraud, and contract cases. He's also argued dozens of appeals including before the U.S. Supreme Court. He’s was named Benchmark’s “Trial Lawyer of the Year” in 2018, and is one of only three lawyers honored twice in The American Lawyer’s biannual "Litigator of the Year” contest—the first for eight straight trial wins and the second for six straight trial wins. His trial wins are regularly reported in the press, including a 2019 American Lawyer articled entitled “Kirkland’s Hurst Wins, And Then He Wins Some More--How Does He Do It?”

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.

James Gillespie is a litigation partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis. He joined Kirkland in 1991 and has been a partner since 1994. James has acted as lead trial and appellate counsel in a wide variety of complex commercial and class action litigation matters. The subject matter of these cases has included corporate governance & shareholder litigation, consumer class actions, insurance coverage disputes, ERISA, RICO, antitrust, and securities.

James N. Nowacki is Of Counsel to the Litigation Practice Group in Kirkland's Chicago office, engaged in a national practice of commercial litigation and construction law. He concentrates his practice in construction litigation for architects, engineers, contractors and owners for complex industrial, transportation, office building and manufacturing projects. Jim's focus also includes professional liability defense of attorneys and others in professional practice. He tries jury, bench and arbitration cases involving complex construction disputes, technology and scientific issues. Jim's practice spans the federal and state courts across the country with work extending as well to Europe, Asia and the Middle East. A critical focus is claims management geared to keeping clients out of litigation through contract drafting assistance, advice and troubleshooting on project problems on a host of different client issues. Jim has been chosen by his peers as a top commercial litigator and construction law attorney nationally as well as in Illinois, and in 1994 he received the President's Award from the American Institute of Architects.

James S. Rowe is a partner in the corporate transactional group with more than 25 years of experience in corporate finance transactions, mergers and acquisitions, and the representation of public and private companies in a wide array of corporate and securities matters. Jim represents a broad range of clients, with a principal focus on representing private equity funds and their portfolio companies in capital markets transactions, including IPOs and public and private offerings of high yield and investment grade debt, and in mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, including leveraged buyouts and "going private" transactions. Jim has considerable experience in advising both seasoned and newly public companies on securities and corporate governance matters and routinely advises directors and officers on fiduciary responsibilities and disclosure obligations.

James McConnell is an intellectual property partner in Kirkland's New York office. James focuses his practice on patent infringement litigation in federal courts and the International Trade Commission. He has represented clients in a variety of industries including pharmaceutical and life science, computer hardware and software, smartphones, and wireless communications. James has worked on issues in all phases of litigation, including pre-suit analysis and strategy, discovery and depositions, Markman, summary judgment, trial, post-trial, and ITC enforcement.

James H.M. Sprayregen is the founder of Kirkland’s worldwide Restructuring Group, building the group from inception in 1990 to become the premier restructuring group in the world, and the only such group ranked Tier 1 in every major world region. He served on Kirkland’s Executive Committee for many years. Described as “one of the United States’ most sought-after bankruptcy attorneys,” Mr. Sprayregen has led some of the most complex Chapter 11 filings. He has extensive experience representing international debtors and other stakeholders in complex restructurings. Clients include Energy Future Holdings, Caesars, Avaya, Toys “R” Us, iHeartMedia, Seadrill, General Growth, Japan Airlines, United Airlines and Reader’s Digest. Mr. Sprayregen has received numerous accolades, including being inducted into the Turnaround Management Association’s Hall of Fame, named one of “The Decade’s Most Influential Lawyers” by the National Law Journal and recognized as “Global Insolvency Lawyer of the Year” by Who’s Who Legal Awards, receiving more votes from clients and peers than any other individual worldwide.

James Mutchnik represents corporate and individual clients in antitrust, white-collar crime and commercial litigation in federal and state courts throughout the United States and before a variety of federal and state investigative agencies. In the antitrust area, he litigates various matters, from alleged price fixing to price discrimination, and represents clients in dealing with antitrust aspects of mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures. He counsels a wide range of small and large companies in diverse industries on pricing, marketing, distribution and dealer termination issues.

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.

Jared Rusman’s practice spans all aspects of corporate and partnership tax matters, with a particular emphasis on the tax aspects of domestic and cross-border mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, restructurings, divestitures, spin-offs and split-offs for public and private companies.

Partner

Jason represents top-tier private equity funds and corporate borrowers in connection with complex secured and unsecured financing transactions for U.S. and cross-border transactions, including major leveraged buy-outs and recapitalizations, bank/bridge commitments, first and second lien financings, unitranche financings, mezzanine financings, subordinated loans and ABL facilities. He also has extensive experience representing debtors in restructurings and borrowers in complex liability management transactions.

Jason Serlenga is a debt finance partner in the Boston office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Jason advises private equity sponsors, their portfolio companies and other borrowers in a wide range of complex large cap and middle market financing transactions, including syndicated credit facilities, ABL facilities, mezzanine and subordinated financings, and high yield debt offerings.

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.

Jason Monfort is an investment funds partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Jason represents mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, independent directors/trustees of mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, 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.

Jay focuses on syndicated and direct lender senior secured and bridge loan financings, primarily in the leveraged acquisition finance area. His experience also includes significant high-yield, corporate finance and restructuring engagements. Representative clients include financial sponsors such as Apax Partners, Blackstone, Cerberus, Advent, Partners Group and 3G Capital, as well as large financial institutions and a multitude of private equity portfolio companies and corporate borrowers, including Restaurant Brands International, Marriott Vacations Worldwide, Equinox Holdings and Kraft/Heinz.

Partner

Jay Emerick is an intellectual property partner in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Jay focuses his practice on patent infringement cases in district court, the International Trade Commission, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, and on appeal at the Federal Circuit. Jay’s cases have involved pharmaceuticals, mechanical devices such as heart valves, electric motors, heat exchangers, and beer dispensers, and software for communications and financial transactions.

Jeanna Wacker is a partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. She is an experienced trial lawyer and concentrates her practice on patent litigation in the life sciences field. Jeanna has extensive experience representing clients in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, chemical and medical device industries and has represented both plaintiffs and defendants at all stages of litigation, including trials (bench and jury) and appeal. Jeanna also has experience in inter partes reviews before the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Her clients have included some of the largest companies in the life sciences area such as, Bristol-Myers Squibb, 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. Jeanna is also regularly called upon to advise pharmaceutical and biotech companies on intellectual property aspects of corporate merger agreements and product acquisitions.

Jeannie Heffernan is an experienced trial lawyer focusing on patent and trademark infringement litigation. Jeannie has successfully tried more than a dozen patent and trademark infringement cases around the United States in a wide range of industries, from medical devices to telecommunications to haute couture.

Jeff Sinek, a former Assistant United States Attorney, is a partner in the Commercial Litigation and White Collar Criminal Defense & Securities Enforcement groups. Jeff's practice focuses on white collar criminal defense and related civil litigation. Jeff represents companies and individuals in federal and state criminal and regulatory investigations. Jeff conducts internal investigations for publicly traded corporations. He has tried more than 20 jury trials, in both criminal and civil cases. From 1989 to 1994, Jeff served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Criminal Division of the United States Attorney's Office for the Central District of California. Jeff received commendations from several law enforcement agencies, including the IRS.

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.

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.

Jeffrey Sheffield concentrates his practice in the areas of tax planning, mergers, acquisitions, and spin-offs, with a particular focus on complex tax planning for publicly traded companies and consolidated groups. Jeff is past Chairman of the Planning Committee for the University of Chicago Federal Tax Institute, and has been listed as a Tier One attorney by Chambers USA. In the 2006–2017 editions of Chambers Global, The World's Leading Lawyers for Business, Jeff is recognized as a leading tax practitioner in the United States. The 2006 guide states that he is "'without question a leading light,' in the eyes of market experts, who view him as a 'tremendous' tax attorney with a 'first-rate' practice." Jeff has also been listed in Chambers USA, America's Leading Lawyers for Business every year from 2003–2018 describing him as being "highly skilled" and a "top attorney." The 2012 edition lauded him as being "impressive and incredibly responsive" and "a tremendous lawyer and an absolute star," while the 2011 edition noted that he is "truly outstanding." Jeff has also appeared in The Legal 500 U.S. every year since 2008, earning the distinction of "leading lawyer" in from 2008–2009 and 2011–2015 for Domestic Tax: Central. In 2012, he was named "Lawyer of the Year - Tax Law, Chicago" by The Best Lawyers in America. He has authored or co-authored many articles on tax matters, and speaks regularly at tax conferences throughout the United States. Jeff is a partner in Kirkland & Ellis' tax group, and holds various leadership positions in Firm management.

Jeff is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Jeff’s practice focuses on a wide range of antitrust matters, including securing antitrust clearance for complex transactions, antitrust litigation, antitrust counseling and government investigations.

Jeffrey Willian is a senior litigation partner with Kirkland & Ellis LLP. As lead trial attorney, he has obtained many nationally recognized results in forums throughout the country. His practice focuses on complex financial disputes, securities, corporate governance, frauds, engineering and construction failures, and real estate-related matters. As noted below, Jeff’s efforts have resulted in billions of dollars in favorable awards and savings for his clients.

Jeffrey Zeiger is a trial lawyer in Kirkland’s Chicago office. He has extensive experience litigating complex commercial cases in federal and state trial and appellate courts throughout the United States, including antitrust, contract, energy, environmental, fiduciary duty, foreign judgment enforcement, fraudulent transfer, products liability, royalty, restructuring, and securities fraud cases.

Jeff O’Connor is a partner in Kirkland’s Structured Finance & Structured Private Credit Practice Group. Jeff is recognized as one of the leading securitization attorneys in the United States by several major legal publications. He counsels clients in a broad range of complex asset securitization, structured finance, secured lending and receivables sale transactions involving credit card, auto and equipment, oil and gas, healthcare, manufactured housing and other assets. Clients describe Jeff as “a great technical lawyer” with “really good judgement with respect to legal and business points” who is “well-liked by in-house counsel.”

Jeffrey Quinn is a partner in Kirkland's employee benefits practice in the Chicago office. His practice is principally concentrated in the areas of employee benefits, ERISA and tax issues, and corporate transactions.

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.

Jennie Morawetz is the strategy and operations partner for Kirkland’s ESG & Impact practice, responsible for overseeing the day-to-day management of the practice to ensure it delivers on its promise of integrating cutting-edge legal and strategic counseling on ESG and impact topics into all aspects of Kirkland’s top-tier transactional practice. Prior to assuming her current role, Jennie was a partner in Kirkland’s Environmental practice, where she counseled clients in all areas of environmental law across a range of industries. She has provided environmental counseling to private equity and public company clients in hundreds of corporate transactions, worked with clients to identify and evaluate pending and proposed environmental regulatory changes that could impact their business decisions, helped clients assess and address potential environmental liability, including in connection with crisis events, and negotiated a number of complex environmental insurance policies. She has also developed approaches for integrating evaluation of climate change risk into the environmental due diligence process, particularly for transactions focused on energy and infrastructure assets, and is a thought leader on this topic as well as other ESG and environmental topics.

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.

Jennifer Perkins is a private equity partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Jennifer represents clients in complex domestic and cross-border acquisitions and dispositions and has extensive experience representing private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies in leveraged buyouts and other private equity investment transactions in a broad range of industries. Jennifer also advises clients on structuring, negotiating and executing minority investments in private equity and other asset management firms. Jennifer serves on the board of DOROT, a nonprofit social service organization providing a wide range of services for seniors, the board of directors of New Alternatives for Children, a nonprofit organization that provides assistance for children with special healthcare needs and their families, and is a Trustee of Larchmont Temple.

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.

Jeremy Veit joined the corporate group of Kirkland & Ellis LLP's San Francisco office as an associate upon the opening of the office in December 2002. He became a partner in 2006. Jeremy's practice at Kirkland has focused on all aspects of private equity transactions, particularly leveraged acquisitions of both public and private targets and equity and debt financings. In addition, Jeremy has experience in both public and private securities offerings, fund formation, executive compensation matters and general corporate matters.

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.

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.

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.

Jessica Schultz is a real estate partner in Kirkland's Chicago office. Jessica represents and counsels a wide variety of clients in all aspects of commercial real estate transactions, including fund formation, restructurings, acquisitions, and dispositions. She also assists in the real estate aspects of bankruptcy proceedings, corporate financing, mergers, acquisitions, dispositions and related transactions.

Partner

As an of counsel in Kirkland’s Chicago office, JoAnne Mulder Nagjee focuses on Federal, state and local tax controversies. She represents clients 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 is experienced with the numerous alternative dispute resolution options available to taxpayers during the IRS audit and appeals process, and is skilled at navigating TEFRA partnership proceedings.  JoAnne also regularly advises clients on the tax aspects of complex business transactions, including IPOs, joint ventures, and mergers and acquisitions, and has obtained private letter rulings from the IRS relating to proposed transactions.  JoAnne serves on Kirkland’s Pro Bono Committee and 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. She was awarded Pro Bono Service Awards in each of 2009 through 2015 for her work at Kirkland on behalf of pro bono clients.

Joel advises investment fund sponsors and investors on the federal income tax matters relevant to all aspects of their business. Joel’s practice includes advising clients on fund formation and structuring, sponsor liquidity transactions, fund- and sponsor-level tax considerations arising from investments, mergers, and acquisitions, and sponsor-level economic and tax planning and structuring, including succession planning. Joel has experience advising sponsors and investors on the tax considerations relevant to a wide variety of asset strategies, including private equity, venture capital, hedge funds, secondaries, real estate, energy, credit, distressed and special situations. Joel also has experience advising on the tax aspects and structuring of mergers and acquisitions, bankruptcy and out-of-court restructurings, and other complex business transactions. Joel previously worked as a tax counsel at a major U.S. multinational company. In this role, Joel advised on complex internal restructurings, tax planning projects, and a wide variety of U.S. and non-U.S. tax issues arising from complex international business transactions.

Joel Weinberger is a corporate partner in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Joel counsels clients in a variety of asset securitization, structured finance, secured lending and receivables sale transactions. He represents private equity firms and/or their portfolio companies in structured financings involving bankruptcy remote special purpose entities and complex true sale and substantive consolidation analyses.

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 concentrates in shareholder and commercial litigation. He also handles white collar criminal matters and internal investigations. John has represented many clients in a wide variety of securities, derivative, M&A and commercial litigation matters in federal and state courts throughout the United States. He has also represented numerous clients in connection with SEC and other government inquiries regarding securities, antitrust, health care and environmental matters, and he has conducted internal investigations for management, boards of directors and audit and special committees. John frequently advises boards of directors on a wide variety of legal matters.

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.

John's practice focuses on complex infrastructure and energy transactions including M&A, joint ventures and preferred equity. He regularly represents many of the leading private equity sponsors, including Ares, EIG Global Energy Partners, I Squared, KKR, Macquarie and Quantum Energy Partners, as well as strategic clients.

John Muno is a partner in the Investment Funds Group. He focuses on advising private equity fund sponsors in connection with structuring, forming and operating private equity funds and related management companies. John has represented sponsors in numerous private equity fund formations across a wide range of strategies, including leveraged buyouts, distressed investments and secondary investments. He also advises clients on a variety of general corporate counseling matters, including operations, deal-structuring and regulatory compliance.

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.

John has extensive experience counseling sponsors on the organization and operation of private investment funds, having advised on capital raises exceeding $42 billion in total commitments since 2016. His fund formation practice spans a range of investment strategies including buyout, infrastructure, real estate, natural resources, social impact and venture capital funds; co-investment funds; independent sponsor transactions and investment club programs. He also advises sponsors on strategic secondary and other fund-related transactions, internal partnership arrangements and regulatory compliance.

Jon Ballis is Chairman of Kirkland’s Executive Committee. 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.

Jonathan Davis’s practice primarily focuses on public and private company merger and acquisition transactions and activist defense. Jonathan also advises corporations and their directors on general corporate and governance matters. Over the course of his career, Jonathan has advised on transactions having an aggregate value of approximately $700 billion. His clients have included 3G Capital, AbbVie, Alliant Techsystems, Amcor, Anheuser Busch InBev, Avaya, Avon, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Delhaize Group, Fortive, General Motors, H.J. Heinz, Honeywell, IBM, J.Crew, Jones Group, Mead Johnson, Pentair, Pinnacle Foods, Scientific Games and Spectrum Brands, as well as numerous SPACs and investment banks.

Jonathan Kidwell is a partner in Kirkland’s Environmental Practice. He is recognized as a “Rising Star” by Law360 and recommended in The Legal 500 U.S. as “among the most commercial environmental attorneys in the market.” Jonathan’s clients rely on him to identify and manage complex environmental compliance and liability issues, primarily in the context of corporate mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, financing transactions, real estate investments and bankruptcies. Jonathan has particular experience in the oil and gas, waste management, manufacturing and chemical sectors and his work has included hundreds of successfully closed deals in a wide range of commercial transactions. Jonathan routinely identifies and assesses environmental risks and liabilities, coordinates due diligence, 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 regulatory compliance and environmental liability issues. Jonathan also has substantial experience advising clients on environmental regulatory risks and trends, managing cleanups, permitting and navigating enforcement actions. Through the Practice, Jonathan maintains a worldwide network of environmental consulting and insurance and legal professionals to provide his clients with all necessary resources during or following their transactions.

Jonathan Henes has led some of the most complex restructurings in the United States and abroad in a variety of industries, including two record-setting fastest Chapter 11 cases ever, Full Beauty and Sungard (plans confirmed in less than 24 hours). He represents debtors in Chapter 11 cases, including Avaya, Cengage, Cenveo, Rue 21, Sabine Oil & Gas, Cengage Learning, Tronox, Solutia, ION Media, Citadel Broadcasting, Masonite Corporation and Wellman Corporation. He also advises private equity funds, hedge funds and ad hoc committees in Chapter 11 cases and acquisitions.

Jonathan Schechter advises both U.S. and non-U.S. clients with respect to a wide range of domestic and international real estate-related transactions. Mr. Schechter has extensive experience representing private equity investors in connection with the formation of joint ventures and acquisitions, dispositions, mergers, financings and development of real estate and real estate-related assets.

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.

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.

Jordan T. Cohen is a corporate partner in the New York Office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, focusing on healthcare regulatory and transactional matters. Jordan is regularly called upon to advise clients on transactions involving health information technology (HIT) and healthcare provider platforms. Jordan routinely provides legal counsel related to federal and state privacy and data security matters, including compliance with HIPAA's Privacy, Security and Breach Notification Rules, as well as compliance with state breach notification laws. Jordan also provides guidance on a broad range of healthcare regulatory matters, including compliance with fraud and abuse laws including the Anti-Kickback Statute, the Stark Law, as well as state laws related to licensure and the corporate practice of medicine. In 2022, Law360 recognized Jordan as a “Rising Star” in healthcare, and Chambers USA named Jordan an “Up and Coming” attorney, with clients noting his “authoritative understanding” of healthcare law.

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.

Joseph Tootle is a tax partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Joseph advises clients on the tax aspects of a range of matters, including international and domestic mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, REITs and real estate transactions. He also advises private equity clients on the tax aspects of forming and operating investment funds.

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. Among Josh’s many accolades and honors are his selection to the 2011–2024 editions of Chambers Global, 2007 and 2010–2024 editions of Chambers USA, the 2010–2023 editions of The Legal 500 U.S., the 2012 edition of Who’s Who Legal, the 2007 and 2010–2020 editions of New York Super Lawyers, and the 2008–2009, 2011–2012 and 2018–2022 editions of IFLR1000. Additionally, he was named a 2014 Capital Markets MVP by Law360.

Joshua Rabinovitz is a partner in the Litigation Practice Group, where he focuses on securities and other financial litigation. His clients have included AbbVie, Boeing, Deloitte, Dow Chemical, General Motors, H.I.G. Capital, Medtronic, and Rio Tinto. Josh frequently argues as lead courtroom counsel, recently winning favorable decisions after oral argument at both the trial and appellate levels. He also routinely advises boards, in-house counsel, and company executives on litigation and corporate governance considerations. Josh has been recognized as a leading securities litigator by The Legal 500 U.S. from 2014–2019. Prior to joining the firm, Josh was a Trial Attorney at the United States Department of Justice, Civil Division, where he handled a broad range of federal litigation nationwide. From 2011 to 2013, he also served as a Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago Law School.

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.

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.

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.

Joshua Zachariah’s practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, securities and general corporate matters. He has represented public and private acquirers and target companies in a variety of domestic and cross-border acquisition and disposition transactions, joint ventures and other corporate transactions.

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.

Joshua Simmons focuses his practice on appellate and trial court litigation, intellectual property counseling and strategic portfolio management, as well as regulatory and legislative policy. He litigates copyright, patent, right of publicity, trademark, trade secret, and unfair competition cases—particularly complex cases and those of first impression—along with contract, licensing, and domain name disputes. He also advises on IP matters that intersect with antitrust, fraud, false advertising, privacy, and social media. As a media- and technology-savvy attorney, Josh is lauded for both media and entertainment, as well as software and technology representations. His eye-catching litigations involve a range of media (film, news, publishing, sports, television, theatre, and video games) and technologies (artificial intelligence, computer software and services, circuitry and semiconductors, Internet-based systems, medical devices, and telecommunications). For example, he represented Fox’s Modern Family; Fox News’ telecasts; Take-Two’s, Epic Games’, and Tetris’ video games; Damien Hirst’s art; the publishing industry’s books; the Anastasia and Spider-Man Broadway musicals; and Schumacher’s designs. He also represented Cisco’s operating system, IBM’s workload-management platform, GoodRx’s eCommerce website, Motorola’s radios, Oracle’s Java platform and Solaris operating system, Samsung’s smartphones, Sharp’s chat engagement, and TriZetto’s healthcare software.

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.

Concentration in litigation, principally in complex commercial litigation. Wide variety of trial, general litigation, negotiation, counseling, and investigation experience including antitrust, product liability, health care, intellectual property, and securities fraud. Special experience in complex class action litigation including multidistrict litigation.

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

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 worked on over a dozen investigations. His practice is focused on patent litigation, 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, and non-invasive body-contouring. Karthik’s practice also includes consulting on and litigating global FRAND issues and IP-adjacent antitrust matters.

Katie St. Peters is a partner in the Investment Funds Group, where her practice focuses on structuring and forming investment funds ranging from first-time funds to funds of over $5 billion. She represents leading fund sponsors across a wide variety of strategies, including leveraged buyout funds, distressed funds, energy funds, debt and credit funds, hedge funds, “hybrid” funds, and other private investment vehicles. In addition to fund formation matters, Katie counsels fund sponsors on various operational and firm management issues, including governance matters, compensation and succession planning arrangements, separation arrangements, regulatory compliance, and other investment management matters. She also advises fund managers on fund-related aspects of M&A transactions, including deal-structuring, co-investment arrangements and alternative investment structures.

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.

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.

Kelann Stirling focuses her practice on development and financing of energy and infrastructure projects. She has advised clients on a wide range of projects, within and outside of the U.S., with a focus on renewable power (including wind, battery storage and hydroelectric facilities), carbon capture and sequestration projects, conventional power, LNG and midstream gas gathering and processing facilities. Kelann has represented private equity investors, strategic investors, developers and lenders (including commercial and investment banks, export credit agencies, institutional investors, credit funds and governmental entities) and has experience in all aspects of structuring international and domestic infrastructure financings and negotiating and drafting finance and project development documents. In addition, Kelann has significant experience in restructurings and acquisition financings in the energy and infrastructure sector.

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.

Ken is a senior member of Kirkland’s dynamic Asset Finance & Securitization Practice Group, which has ranked as either the #1 or #2 Issuer’s Counsel for Asset-Backed Securities in the Thomson Reuters annual survey since 2010. According to Chambers Global 2017, Ken is valued by his clients for his ability to “distil information in a very compelling and effective way.” Since 1990, he has handled securitizations and principal finance matters involving a variety of asset classes on behalf of originators, underwriters, platform agents, principal finance groups and conduit sponsors. Ken has been extremely active in ABS reform matters. He is currently participating in a task force organized by the American Bar Association Subcommittee on Securitization and Structured Finance (SSF) that is commenting on the proposed National Mortgage Note Repository Act; he led the drafting of three different comment letters for a group of more than 15 vehicle ABS sponsors on the SEC’s proposals for Reg AB II, loan level disclosure and shelf eligibility; he chaired a drafting committee of the SSF that submitted two comment letters to the SEC on the Dodd-Frank Act requirements for risk retention and a comment letter to the SEC on the subsequent risk retention reproposal; and he drafted comment letters for the American Financial Services Association on Dodd-Frank Sections 943 (repurchase demands) and 945 (issuer asset reviews). Ken has also taken leading roles on a number of other comment letters and industry guides, including those by the American Securitization Forum on waterfall computer programs, auto sector disclosure, Rule 3a-7 reform and risk retention, and by the SSF on the FDIC’s securitization safe harbor regulation and the SEC’s reproposal on shelf eligibility.

Kenneth Young is a litigation partner in the Houston office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. His practice focuses primarily on complex commercial litigation. He has experience representing both plaintiffs and defendants in state and federal court in a variety of matters, including contract, intellectual property, and employment disputes.

Kevin Coenen is a partner in Kirkland's Chicago office.  His practice is focused on the tax aspects of planning and structuring complex business transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, buyouts, recapitalizations, debt and equity issuances, and executive compensation.

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.

Kevin Van Wart is of counsel in Kirkland's Chicago office, where he concentrates in complex litigation, including mass tort claims, class action lawsuits, product liability and pharmaceutical claims, and high stakes commercial disputes. Kevin has served as lead trial and appellate counsel in a wide variety of cases throughout the country and teaches trial advocacy at the University of Chicago Law School.

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.

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.

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.”

Kim’s practice focuses on public mergers and acquisitions, take private transactions, private equity investments, joint ventures and corporate governance matters in the energy and infrastructure industry. She has extensive experience with both public and private transactions across the industry, including in the oil and gas, power, infrastructure and technology sectors.

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.

Kristin L. Mendoza is a corporate partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Kristin advises public and private companies, including private equity firms and strategic investors, in connection with domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures, reorganizations and other general corporate matters, focusing in the energy sector. Kristin maintains an active pro bono portfolio relating to rule of law and media freedoms with the Media Law Working Group of the International Senior Lawyers Project.

Kyle Watson is a corporate attorney in the Houston office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. His practice focuses on representing private equity sponsors and public and private company clients in complex business transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, private equity and venture capital investments, leveraged buyouts and related general corporate counseling.

Partner

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.

Partner

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.

Lee Morlock focuses his practice on tax planning and transactional matters. He regularly represents private equity firms and U.S. and non-U.S. corporations in acquisitions, divestitures and other M&A transactions. He has significant experience representing fund sponsors and investors in structuring cross-border funds, including infrastructure, real estate and other private equity investments, and in implementing strategic transactions for fund sponsors. Lee also advises Fortune 500 and Global 500 companies on the structuring of cross-border operations, including implementing strategic restructuring transactions and post-acquisition integration, and cross-border financing activities. Lee regularly advises family offices and private investors on structuring management and investment vehicles.

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.

Partner

Leslie Smith is a litigation partner and was a long-time member of the Firm’s Global Management Committee. She concentrates her practice in the areas of commercial, class action and product liability litigation. In 2017 she was selected to the Crain’s Chicago Business “Most Influential Women Lawyers in Chicago” list.

Linda Myers is a senior leader in Kirkland’s Debt Finance Practice Group and served on the Firm’s Executive Committee from 2010-2020. She counsels private equity sponsors and companies in connection with leveraged buyout financings for acquisitions, working capital facilities, CP backup facilities, refinancings and other commercial banking matters. She also represents lenders in distressed transactions, acquisition financing and refinancings, and counsels debtors navigating through bankruptcy. Linda has promoted diversity and inclusion, at Kirkland and across the profession, throughout her career, and served on the board of The Chicago Network, a preeminent organization of Chicago’s leading professional women. Linda also enthusiastically supports professional, educational, civic and cultural organizations. She serves on the boards of the National Philanthropic Trust, Lyric Opera of Chicago and The Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Linda also sits on the board of St. Ignatius College Prep, a Jesuit Chicago high school and is a member of the Parents Council to the Chancellor at Washington University in St. Louis. She also serves on the advisory board of private equity firm Kinzie Capital Partners as well as Gibraltar Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ: ROCK).

Lindsey’s 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.

Lindsey Beran is a litigation partner in the Dallas office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Her practice focuses on government and internal investigations. Lindsey is a former federal prosecutor, with experience in both criminal and civil federal enforcement. She served as an Assistant United States Attorney with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas for over seven years, where she held leadership positions in the office, including as Deputy Civil Chief and Opioid Coordinator. As an Assistant U.S. Attorney and Deputy Chief in the Civil Division, Lindsey handled a varied docket of affirmative civil matters, recovering tens of millions of dollars in fraud proceeds on behalf of taxpayers, and is well-versed in the intricacies of False Claims Act and Controlled Substance Act investigations and litigation. During her time in the Criminal Division, Lindsey investigated and prosecuted a wide variety of cases, including healthcare fraud, financial fraud, environmental matters, and complex narcotics distribution matters that required the use of innovative legal theories and cyber tools. Lindsey is an experienced courtroom advocate and during her time in the U.S. Attorney’s office obtained convictions and favorable verdicts on behalf of the government in several jury trials.

Lisa is a partner in the Intellectual Property and Technology Transactions Group in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Lisa’s principal practice areas focus on international and domestic intellectual property and technology transactions, including licensing, research, development, marketing, promotion, manufacturing, supply, distribution and service agreements and product acquisitions, collaborations, strategic alliances and joint ventures, including in the life sciences, chemical, solar, consumer product, retail, hospitality, manufacturing and software industries among others. Lisa also advises clients in connection with the intellectual property and information technology aspects of general corporate transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, recapitalizations, leveraged buyouts and venture capital investments and with respect to intellectual property matters, including the protection, maintenance, clearance, use, acquisition and divestiture of intellectual property rights.

Lisa Madigan is a litigation partner in the Chicago office, with a broad practice focused on state and federal level investigations and regulatory work, internal investigations, crisis management and litigation. She has more than 25 years of experience handling a range of issues including consumer protection, data security and privacy, health care, the environment, and sexual assault and harassment.

Partner

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.

Luke is a partner in Kirkland’s Chicago office with ten years of experience advising clients through a wide range of strategic and high-stakes federal, state, and regulatory matters across numerous substantive areas including antitrust, bankruptcy, professional liability, breach of contract, fraudulent inducement, data security, trade secret, breach of fiduciary duties, RICO, ERISA, and mass tort litigation. Luke collaborates with his clients’ senior management and in-house teams to develop and implement case objectives and strategy from initial pleadings through final resolution by trial, settlement or appeal. He has represented public and private companies in a variety of sectors including: auditing, automotive, consumer credit, energy, financial services, healthcare, health insurance, mining, pulp & paper, rail, and retail.

Luzia Vaczy is a corporate partner in the Boston office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. She advises private investment fund sponsors on a variety of corporate, transactional and securities law matters, including fund formations and investments, as well as regulatory, compliance and operational issues.

Marc Kieselstein has extensive experience in complex corporate restructurings, representing debtors and creditors in all aspects of insolvency practice, including Chapter 11 reorganizations, out-of-court workouts, distressed debt transactions, and Section 363 asset sales and purchases. His recent representations include serving as lead counsel or counsel for Aegean Marine Petroleum Network, Windstream Holdings, Energy Future Holdings, C&J Energy Services, Cobalt International, Indiana Toll Road, Maxcom Telecomunicaciones, Revel AC, Lear Corporation, and Syncora Guarantee in the Detroit Chapter 9 case.

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.

Marin Boney is an antitrust and competition partner in Kirkland’s Washington, D.C., office. Ms. Boney regularly represents clients before the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice in complex merger reviews and government investigations. She also counsels clients on a range of business issues, including joint ventures, pricing, and distribution agreements. Ms. Boney has represented clients in a wide variety of industries, with particularly strong experience in software and technology, energy, healthcare, and consumer products and services transactions.Before law school, Ms. Boney was an analyst at the economic consulting firm Lexecon Inc. (now part of Compass Lexecon).

Mario leads Kirkland’s International Trade and National Security practice. A former senior member of the President’s national security team, Mario works closely with companies, private equity sponsors, and financial institutions to identify and mitigate the international risks of operating and investing across international borders. He’s a leading advisor on national security matters, especially involving CFIUS, economic sanctions and export controls.

Mark has more than 30 years’ experience representing clients in complex government antitrust investigations and litigations. During that time he has cleared hundreds of challenging horizontal and vertical merger transactions through various U.S. and foreign clearance processes, including numerous billion dollar transactions, expeditiously and most often without the need for any remedies. He focuses in particular on consumer products, high technology, software, pharmaceuticals, life sciences, healthcare, and defense industries. Mark is also an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University Law Center, where he has taught Antitrust Law since 2001.

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."

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 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.

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 a member of the executive committee of the New York State Bar Association Tax section. He is recognized as a leading lawyer for Tax in New York by Chambers USA, where clients 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 “Next Generation Partner” for both US Taxes: Non-Contentious and International Tax by The Legal 500 United States and as a “Bankruptcy Tax Specialist” by Turnarounds & Workouts magazine.

Mark represents some of the largest financial institutions and Fortune 500 companies in varied industries in complex civil litigation (including MDL and class action cases), criminal matters, internal investigations, and corporate integrity matters. He has extensive experience in court and advising boards of directors. Mark is also a member of the Kirkland Executive Management Committee.

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.

Partner

Matthew D. Rowen is a litigation partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. His practice focuses on appellate and Supreme Court litigation. Matthew has argued numerous cases in the federal courts of appeals and district courts, and has drafted dispositive motions and appellate briefs in a variety of substantive areas. His matters have addressed administrative law; antitrust; bankruptcy; constitutional law, including the separation of powers and presidential power, the First Amendment, the Commerce Clause, equal protection and due process, and preemption; federal jurisdiction and res judicata; intellectual property; labor and employment; products liability; and securities law. He has represented a diverse array of clients, including associations of and companies in the pharmaceutical, financial services, high technology, fashion, and energy industries; municipal entities; Native corporations; and individuals. Matthew has authored a number of briefs in the Supreme Court, including multiple successful petitions for certiorari and successful merits briefs in the following cases: Yellen v. Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation, 141 S. Ct. 2434 (2021) TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez, 141 S. Ct. 2190 (2021) Lucky Brand Dungarees Inc. v. Marcel Fashions Group Inc., 140 S. Ct. 1589 (2020) Encino Motorcars, LLC v. Navarro, 138 S. Ct. 1134 (2018) California Public Employees’ Retirement System v. ANZ Securities, 137 S. Ct. 2042 (2017) In addition to his appellate and Supreme Court work, Matthew provides strategic counseling to leading companies and organizations on a variety of complex legal issues. He also maintains a robust pro bono practice.

Matt focuses on a wide range of antitrust matters, including complex transactions (and any related litigation), antitrust counseling, and government investigations. Matt is frequently relied upon to obtain regulatory clearance for many of the toughest, high profile deals. Representative clients and transactions include Bristol-Myers Squibb in its acquisition of Celgene, AbbVie in its pending acquisition of Allergan, Liqui-Box in its acquisition of DS Smith Plastics, Staples in its acquisition of Essendant, GlaxoSmithKline in its joint venture with Pfizer, Tronox in its acquisition of Cristal’s TiO2 business, Spectrum Brands’ sale of Rayovac to Energizer, Mazor Robotics’ sale to Medtronic, Sycamore Partners, Health Care Service Corporation, Blackstone, and Cinven.

Matthew T. Shiels is a partner in the Firm's Executive Compensation Group. Matt regularly advises private and public companies, private equity funds, senior executives and portfolio managers in connection with executive compensation and employee benefits in a number of complex corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions and other business transactions. Matt's practice focuses on providing advice on a wide variety of executive compensation matters, including structuring and implementing deferred compensation, equity compensation, bonus compensation and incentive compensation plans and agreements. Matt's practice also includes drafting transactional documents, including employment, consulting, termination, change-in-control, severance and release agreements, as well as identifying issues arising under, and assisting in complying with, the Internal Revenue Code (including sections 280G and 409A), federal securities laws, applicable exchange regulations and related corporate governance rules. He also has experience with qualified plans, individual retirement accounts, wage laws, penalty assessment (by the Department of Labor and Internal Revenue Service), treatment of benefit plans in bankruptcy and complex ERISA issues involving fiduciary duties and prohibited transactions.

Matthew D. Cohn is a senior M&A/private equity partner and is part of a core group of Kirkland partners who opened the Firm’s Boston office in 2017. Matt represents large and middle-market private equity funds, growth funds, and public and private companies in domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, growth and structured equity financings, sponsor-backed capital markets transactions, and corporate restructurings and workouts. His practice covers a wide array of industries, including software and technology, consumer products and retail, manufacturing, education, and sports, media and entertainment, with substantial experience in regulated industries such as healthcare and life sciences, insurance and financial services. Representative clients include Summit Partners, ABRY Partners, Genstar Capital, TA Associates and Providence Equity, among others.

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

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.

Matt Colman is a partner in Kirkland’s Technology & IP Transactions Practice Group, focusing on structuring and negotiating complex transactions involving technology, intellectual property, content, and data, including mergers and acquisitions, minority investments, debt financings, joint ventures, strategic alliances, license agreements, development agreements, and services agreements. Matt also regularly advises clients on the collection, sharing, and monetization of data, cross-border data transfers, the protection of sensitive information, and development of incident response plans. 

Matt’s practice concentrates on capital markets transactions, corporate governance and SEC compliance. He regularly represents private equity-backed companies in connection with initial public offerings and high yield debt offerings, particularly in the energy and infrastructure sectors. Matt also represents distressed companies in complex liability management transactions, as well as in-court and out-of-court restructurings.

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.

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.

Matt Regan is a partner in Kirkland's Chicago office. He has broad experience representing plaintiffs and defendants in a variety of commercial litigation matters in both state and federal courts. Matt's cases have involved claims in the areas of antitrust and trade regulation, accountant/auditor malpractice, class actions, products liability, software consulting, fraud and breach of contract, and other complex commercial disputes. The Legal 500 U.S. 2013 recognized Matt for his work in Energy Litigation.

Matthew Steinmetz focuses primarily on leveraged buyouts of public and private companies, as well as recaps and joint ventures. His experience spans a wide variety of sectors, including technology, media, healthcare, industrials and retail. His principal clients include both large cap and middle cap leveraged buyout funds, located in the U.S. and abroad. In addition to his considerable transactional work, he is a trusted advisor to a number of senior PE fund managers.

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.

Partner

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.

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.

Megan New is a trial lawyer in Kirkland's Chicago office, where she focuses on complex intellectual property litigation covering a range of technologies, products, and industries. Megan has litigated several Lanham Act cases, including trying trademark infringement and false advertising cases to favorable verdicts for her clients, obtaining temporary restraining orders, and successfully defending against preliminary injunctions. Megan also regularly and successfully litigates patent infringement cases in federal court and the International Trade Commission. Megan’s practice also includes counseling clients on all aspects of trademark and advertising law, including managing trademark portfolios and counseling advertisers with respect to advertising claim substantiation and adherence to FTC guidelines and regulations. Megan’s pro bono practice focuses on protecting her clients’ constitutional rights. Megan is currently working with a team of Kirkland lawyers and the ACLU of Illinois on a class action involving the rights of transgender inmates. Early in her career, Megan handled a criminal appeal where, through a successful Petition for Writ of Certiorari to the United States Supreme Court, she obtained a new sentence for her client. Due to her commitment to pro bono, Megan has repeatedly received the firm’s pro bono service award.

A litigation partner in the Los Angeles office, Melissa Ingalls has a wide-ranging complex commercial litigation practice, including contract and business tort disputes, consumer fraud claims and other class action defense, employment-related matters and insurance coverage matters.  She has been involved in numerous jury and bench trials in state and federal courts and has handled matters in arbitration.

Melissa 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, bank/bridge commitments and other structured 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 and unsecured lending and financing transactions, including first and second lien financings, mezzanine financings, subordinated loans and asset-based loans. Melissa also has substantial experience in liability management transactions and other debt restructurings. Representative clients include American Securities, Bain, Blackstone, New Mountain Capital and Olympus Partners, among others.

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.

Partner

Michael Woronoff is a leading member of Kirkland’s transactional practice. He represents clients in complex private equity, M&A and restructuring transactions, as well as debt and equity financings. Clients also look to him for advice with respect to various other corporate and securities law matters, including SEC reporting, corporate governance and strategic alliances. In 2020, the Daily Journal named Michael (for the eighth time) one of the “Top 100 Lawyers in California.” He has twice been awarded Lexology’s Client Choice Award in the category of M&A (California). In 2019, he was named one of the “Most Influential Private Equity Advisors” by the Los Angeles Business Journal. Clients describe him as “very pragmatic and results oriented,” “100% focused on providing exceptional service,” and “literally one of the best attorneys with whom I have ever worked.”

Michael Falk advises clients in connection with executive and equity compensation, qualified and non-qualified employee benefits, and the compensation and benefits aspects of mergers and acquisitions. His clients include public and private companies, private equity sponsors, tax-exempt entities, and individual executives. Mr. Falk is an adjunct professor at Northwestern University Law School and Loyola University Chicago School of Law, where he teaches courses related to executive compensation and employee benefits. In addition, Mr. Falk is a frequent speaker and author on a variety of executive compensation and employee benefits topics.

Michael Jones has a national trial practice that has ranged from New York to Hawaii. He has tried cases in Baltimore, Maryland, New Orleans, Louisiana, Bisbee, Arizona, Queens, New York, Muskogee, Oklahoma, Blackburne County, Indiana, Oxford, Mississippi, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Illinois and Jackson, Mississippi. He has conducted arbitrations in Orlando, Florida and Washington, D.C, and has won numerous cases on dispositive motions in a variety of jurisdictions, including Mississippi, Maryland, Virginia, Indiana, and Washington, D.C.

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.

Michael Weisser represents private equity sponsors and portfolio companies in connection with acquisitions, dispositions 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. He regularly represents Altamont, Altas Partners, American Securities, Baring Private Equity Asia, Brightstar, CDPQ, The Jordan Company, Monomoy, Partners Group, Patient Square, Raine, TPG and Two Sigma Impact and their portfolio companies.

Michael D. Wright is a corporate partner who represents private equity groups and corporate borrowers in international, working capital, acquisition, asset-based and mezzanine financings, structured financings, loan restructurings, and workouts. The size of the transactions he has handled have ranged in size from several million dollars to over one billion dollars.

Michael Kim has a broad transactional practice, including capital markets transactions, mergers & acquisitions transactions and corporate governance matters. His capital markets practice focuses on complex securities matters, including initial public offerings, high yield offerings, spin-offs, tender offers and investment grade debt offerings. His mergers & acquisitions practice includes public and private acquisitions and divestitures for private equity funds and public companies.

Michael Belsley's practice involves structuring, negotiating and documenting complex business transactions, including strategic and leveraged acquisitions, recapitalizations and divestitures, formation and governance of private equity funds (including primary investments in and secondary market sales of private equity fund interests), venture capital investments (start-up and later-stage), mezzanine debt financings, equity financings and corporate governance matters. Michael regularly represents buyers and sellers, as well as market intermediaries, in their secondary market activities. His secondary market experience includes traditional portfolio sales, structured secondaries, synthetic secondaries (i.e., buy-ins and bundled secondary directs, as well as total return swaps), captive fund spin-outs, stapled secondary offerings, fund recapitalizations and restructurings, follow-on funding secondaries and orphaned asset sales in a variety of asset classes, including the venture capital, leveraged buy-out, special situations and real estate sectors. Michael is a frequent lecturer, speaker, and panel moderator on private equity secondaries. Michael also frequently represents both private equity fund sponsors (i.e., general partners) and investors in private equity fund formations, fund-level restructurings and governance matters. Representative buy-side clients include Adams Street Partners, Capital Dynamics, Coller Capital, Harbourvest, Landmark Partners, LGT, Liquid Realty Partners, Mesirow, Morgan Stanley, Northern Trust Corporation, Pantheon Ventures, Partners Group, Paul Capital Partners, and Virginia Retirement System. Representative sell-side clients include American Capital, Bank of America, confidential Canadian public pension plan, Citigroup, Colgate University, Danske Private Equity, Ewing Kauffman Foundation, confidential Fortune 100 pension plan, confidential Japanese financial institution, confidential Middle Eastern sovereign wealth fund, confidential Pacific-rim sovereign wealth fund, a leading property and casualty insurance company and Virginia Retirement System. Michael counsels clients on transactions throughout the world, including the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe and the Pacific-rim.

Michael P. Foradas is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He is Of Counsel in Kirkland’s Chicago office and was a litigation partner from 1987–2019. Michael is also a former member of the firm’s Management Committee. Michael has broad trial and appellate experience in all aspects of major case litigation, including commercial, insurance coverage, mass tort and product liability and shareholder litigation in federal and state courts around the country. Chambers and Partners has named Michael a “Senior Statesperson” in its 2020 edition and a “Star Individual” in its 2010–2019 editions of Chambers USA in the area of insurance coverage litigation. Michael was also named the Best Lawyers’ 2013 Chicago Insurance Law “Lawyer of the Year.” In late 2015, he was featured as “Litigator of the Week” by the American Lawyer for his victory against Caterpillar Inc.

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.

Michael Considine is a founding partner of the Firm’s Dallas office. Michael represents clients in connection with significant corporate events, focusing on mergers and acquisitions, carve-out divestitures, joint ventures, family office management and corporate restructurings and workouts. Michael has extensive experience in a variety of industries, including consumer products, software and technology, healthcare, energy, manufacturing, real estate and retail.

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.

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.” Since 2018, Mike has secured over $2.5 billion in plaintiff jury verdicts and settlements on behalf of his clients in IP litigations, including over $1.8 billion in five straight plaintiff jury verdicts in favor of his clients since September 2019: a $855 million jury verdict in October 2020 on behalf of Cognizant against a competitor in a trade secret and copyright case; a $765 million jury verdict in February 2020 on behalf of Motorola Solutions in a trade secret case against a competitor, Hytera; a $125 million jury verdict in September 2019 on behalf of EagleView Technologies in a patent case against a competitor; a $40 million jury verdict in March 2022 on behalf of Comet Technologies in a trade secret case against a competitor; and a $30 million jury verdict in June 2021 on behalf of LivePerson in a trade secret case against a competitor. These verdicts received extensive media coverage including The New York Times, Reuters, Bloomberg Law, and Mike was awarded The Am Law Litigation Daily’s “Litigator of the Week” feature multiple times for these victories in the last two years. In March 2022, The American Lawyer featured Mike’s years-long jury trial win streak in an article entitled “All They Do Is Win, Win, Win: Dissecting a Trial Hot Streak.” Named Law360’s “Trial MVP of the Year” in both 2020 and 2021 for his lead trial counsel work on IP litigation matters, Mike is a member of the Kirkland practices recognized as Law360 2020 “Practice Groups of the Year” for Intellectual Property and Trials. The Daily Journal named Mike to its 2010, 2014 and 2018–2023 lists of “Top Intellectual Property Lawyers” and its 2020–2022 lists of “Top Trade Secrets Lawyers,” and recognized Mike and his team in "The 2019 CLAY Awards: Intellectual Property" for their successful representation of Cisco in its long-running IP battle: Cisco Systems Inc. v. Arista Networks Inc. Mike was also named one of the Daily Journal’s “Top 75 IP Litigators in California” in 2010, 2014 and 2018–2021, and was featured among the Los Angeles Business Journal’s 2020 “Most Influential People in Los Angeles” and a “Top Litigator in Los Angeles” in 2018, 2020 and 2021. Additionally, he was a recipient of the 2020 “California Trailblazers” award from The Recorder. The 2012 and 2015–2022 editions of The Legal 500 U.S. recommend Mike for his work on the Firm’s Tier 1 Patent Litigation team, noting that Mike is “a key figure” in the Firm’s patent practice, and in the 2020–2022 editions, Mike is featured as a “Leading Lawyer.”

Partner

Michael De Vries is a nationally recognized IP trial lawyer with notable success handling complex, high-stakes trials both asserting and defending intellectual property rights involving especially technology-related patent, trade secret, and copyright claims, with a particular focus on large competitor v. competitor cases. Since 2019, Mike has secured over $2 billion in plaintiff jury verdicts for his clients in IP litigations, which include numerous multi-national entities in the semiconductor, telecommunications, computer hardware and software, and high-tech industries. Last year, Mike was named a “Trial MVP of the Year” by Law 360, and has been recognized as a “Top Trade Secrets Lawyer” and “Top IP Lawyer” by the Daily Journal.

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.

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. Representative clients include AE Industrial Partners, Bain Capital, Energy Future Holdings, Pritzker Private Capital, Toys “R” Us and United Airlines.

Mike Baumann is a partner in Kirkland’s Los Angeles office and has served as trial and appellate counsel advising and representing major corporate clients in federal and state courts and in arbitration. Mike initially joined Kirkland’s Washington, D.C., office in 1980 following a clerkship on the United States Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit. He left the Firm in 1984 for a two-year period to accept a political appointment in the senior executive service of the federal government, serving as chief legal counsel of an independent agency. In that position, Mike dealt with congress, the administration and the courts on a variety of issues. Mike was also appointed to serve as a member of the Administrative Conference of the United States, an organization formed to identify and recommend solutions to Congress and the President regarding the causes of inefficiency, delay and unfairness in administrative proceedings affecting private rights. In 1990, Mike and one other partner from Kirkland’s Washington office moved to Los Angeles to open a new office for the Firm. The office has grown from four lawyers to more than 100 lawyers.

Mike Greenberg is a partner in the Tax Group. Mike focuses his practice on the tax aspects of complex business transactions and reorganizations from early structuring stages to execution to post-closing matters. In particular, Mike’s practice concentrates on private equity, credit and real estate fund formation; fund recapitalizations and restructurings; REIT and real estate joint venture formations, asset acquisitions and dispositions and general mergers and acquisitions. In addition to his work with domestic clients (including U.S. pension plan investors), he works with non-U.S. institutional investors structuring inbound investments in real estate and real estate-related assets.

Robert "Mike" Brock is a nationally recognized trial lawyer with 30 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 focuses his practice on the tax aspects of mergers, acquisitions, buyouts and private equity investing, with a special emphasis on cross-border and international transactions. He also advises clients on the tax aspects of securities issuances, recapitalizations, joint ventures, and debt and equity restructurings. Mike has worked on numerous private equity and M&A transactions for clients including: Ares Capital, Bain Capital, CVC Credit, Huntsman Corporation, the Softbank Vision Fund and Summit Partners. He is an adjunct professor of law at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law where he teaches a class on the tax aspects of private equity transactions. Mike is also a lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School, where he teaches “Structuring Venture Capital, Private Equity, and Entrepreneurial Transactions.”

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 U.S. Michael was also included in the 2016–2019 editions of the U.S. News and World Report, Best Lawyers® in the field of Tax Law.

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.

Partner

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.

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.

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.

Partner

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.

Natalie Keller’s practice focuses on all aspects of tax controversies, including audits, administrative appeals and litigation. She has litigated cases in the US Tax Court, Court of Federal Claims, district and bankruptcy courts and courts of appeal. She also advises US and foreign multinational clients on intercompany transfer pricing planning and compliance, resolution of transfer pricing audits and competent authority. Her transfer pricing experience includes significant cases in the automotive, consumer electronics and pharmaceutical industries.

Nathan Santamaria is an energy and infrastructure partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Nathan represents private equity sponsors, developers and lenders across the spectrum of project development and financings of hard energy and infrastructure assets in the U.S. and Latin America. Nathan's financing experience includes both leveraged acquisition financings and traditional syndicated limited recourse project financings. His sectoral expertise covers the LNG industry (liquefaction and regasification), renewables technologies and conventional power and pipeline transactions.

Partner

Neil's practice focuses on intellectual property and technology-related transactions, including outsourcing (business process and information technology), software development, licensing, telecommunications, commercial agreements, joint ventures and strategic alliances. Neil has represented both customers and providers, domestically and internationally, in the outsourcing of functions including IT, human resources, F&A, procurement and call centers, among others. Neil also advises clients on intellectual property and technology issues that arise in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, recapitalizations and bankruptcies.

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.

Nicholas Schwartz is a corporate partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. His practice focuses primarily on debt financing. Nick has experience in a wide range of financings across sizes and industries, representing both corporate and private equity borrowers in acquisition and non-acquisition contexts. He also has significant experience in the financing and strategic elements of in-court and out-of-court restructurings, including complex liability management and other capital structure transactions.

Nic Gladd is a corporate Of Counsel in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Nic represents clients in complex regulatory, transactional, and litigation matters involving the energy industry, with a particular focus on power markets and infrastructure. Nic served at the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for more than six years, where he held several high-level positions. He served as legal advisor to two FERC Commissioners—Chairman Kevin J. McIntyre and Commissioner Tony Clark—whom he counseled on matters involving organized wholesale electricity markets, natural gas and oil pipeline rates and infrastructure, North American Electric Reliability Corporation standards, and electric transmission rates and interconnection rules. Prior to joining Chairman McIntyre’s staff in 2017, Nic was a litigation attorney in the FERC Solicitor's Office, where he defended FERC in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and U.S. District Courts. In that role, he litigated numerous high-profile cases concerning forward capacity markets, power generation and interconnection, interregional transmission planning, natural gas pipeline certificates and rates, and hydropower facility licensing. Nic began his service at FERC in the Office of the General Counsel’s Energy Markets Division, where he drafted agency orders on a range of matters, including RTO/ISO tariffs and public utilities’ return on equity.

Nicole represents debtors, creditors, equity holders and investors in all aspects of complex corporate restructurings, including Chapter 11 cases, out-of-court restructurings and special situation investments or acquisitions. She has represented clients in multijurisdictional and cross-border matters across multiple industries. Representative debtor clients include Payless ShoeSource, Caesars Entertainment, Sbarro Inc., OGX Petroleo & Gas Participacoes, Physiotherapy Associates, The Reader’s Digest Association, Tronox, Metro Fuel Oil Corp. and United Retail Group.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

Olivia Adendorff is a litigation partner in the Dallas office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. She has broad experience in antitrust, consumer protection, and general litigation matters, with particular experience in FTC investigations, private antitrust litigation and 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 antitrust, consumer protection statutes, state and federal False Claims Acts, and complex commercial disputes. In addition, Olivia also advises companies on consumer protection and antitrust compliance concerns.

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.

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.

Partner

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.

Patrick Gallagher advises on tax and structuring aspects of complex domestic and cross-border transactions, including acquisitions, mergers and divestitures, fund formations, debt and equity financings and restructurings, for private equity and other clients.

Patrick represents clients in complex business reorganizations, troubled company mergers and acquisitions, debt restructurings and financing matters. He has counseled companies experiencing financial difficulties, purchasers of and investors in distressed companies, and lenders to and creditors of such companies. Representative debtor clients include Chesapeake, Inc., Akorn, Inc., Bluestem Brands, Inc., Exco Resources, Inc., Shopko, Global A&T Electronics, Inc., Avaya, Inc., Horsehead Holding Corp., GSE Environmental, Sorenson Communications, Hawker Beechcraft, Tronox Incorporated, AMF Bowling, U.S. Concrete and FGIC Corporation. Representative creditor clients include Oaktree and various ad hoc creditor groups.

Partner

Paul focuses on Section 337 litigation before the U.S. International Trade Commission. His work for plaintiffs has led to orders excluding competitors’ products from the United States and high-value settlements and license agreements, and he has a near-perfect track record of wins following trial on the defensive side. Paul also works with Customs and Border Protection.

Paul 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.

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.

Peter McCormack is an Antitrust & Competition partner in Kirkland's New York office. Mr. McCormack advises a variety of clients on antitrust matters relating to mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and other business combinations, and represents clients before the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general in connection with merger reviews and civil antitrust investigations. Mr. McCormack also represents clients in connection with private antitrust litigation and has experience on three trial teams.

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.

Philip Cooke is a tax partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. His practice focuses on the tax considerations applicable to onshore and offshore private investment funds, including private equity funds, credit funds and hedge funds. Philip also advises private equity fund managers in connection with the acquisition and disposition of portfolio investments.

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 specialized focus on retail and consumer companies, industrials, transportation, real estate and financial services.

Polina Liberman is a partner in Kirkland’s tax group. Her practice focuses on the tax aspects of complex business transactions including domestic and cross-border mergers, acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, separations as well as joint ventures, recapitalizations and debt and equity restructurings.

Real Estate partner Rachel Brown has extensive experience representing both borrowers and lenders in the negotiation and documentation of real estate financing transactions, including mortgage loans, construction loans, mezzanine loans, other structured financings, revolving lines of credit and corporate level financings, as well as secondary market financing transactions including participations, co-lending relationships and the acquisition and disposition of debt positions. Rachel also regularly represents real estate investors in the acquisition, venture formation and disposition of real estate in all asset classes.

Rachel’s practice focuses on the tax aspects of complex business transactions including domestic and cross-border mergers, acquisitions, and leveraged buyouts, as well as joint ventures, recapitalizations, and debt and equity restructurings. She has worked on numerous private equity, LBO, and merger and acquisition transactions ranging from several million dollars to several billion dollars for clients including: Madison Dearborn Partners, Audax Group, Wind Point Partners, Levine Leichtman and Accel KKR.

Partner

Partner

Ragan Naresh litigates complex civil disputes in federal courts, state courts, and arbitrations across the country, with a focus on cases in the energy, agriculture, and telecommunications sectors. Ragan represents clients from pre-trial briefing and discovery through trial and appeal, and has achieved numerous significant outcomes from his clients. For example, Ragan was recently recognized for his work in obtaining a series of favorable rulings for client Chesapeake Energy in Ohio, including entry of summary judgment in two certified statewide class actions. Ragan’s work has been recognized by Super Lawyers, where he was named a “Rising Star” five times, and by the Legal 500 for his work in energy litigation.Ragan also has significant experience litigating class actions and multi-district litigations. Ragan has represented clients in class actions filed in more than twenty states, and has represented clients at all stages of the class action process—including class certification and trial. Ragan frequently lectures on class actions at the D.C. Bar and the Federal Bar Association, and has written numerous articles on that topic. In 2018, Ragan was recognized by Law360 as one of six attorneys nationwide as a “Rising Star” for his work in class action litigation.Ragan maintains an active pro bono practice. For example, Ragan and a team of Kirkland lawyers, in partnership with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law and the Washington Lawyers’ Committee, recently won a precedent-setting judgment holding neo-Nazi defendants liable for hate crimes and harassment after Kirkland’s client was elected as the first female African-American student body president of American University. Ragan also represents clients in immigration and asylum proceedings on a pro bono basis.

Rahul’s practice focuses on acquisitions, divestitures, and strategic joint ventures involving a broad range of energy assets, with an emphasis on the upstream and midstream sectors. Rahul’s practice includes advising clients with the formation of drilling partnerships, joint development arrangements, farmout and participation agreements, and other joint venture arrangements, the acquisition and divestiture of upstream and midstream oil and gas assets and companies, and oil and gas special situations and alternative financing transactions.

Partner

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.

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.

Reed Oslan is a litigation partner in our Chicago office.  Reed has extensive experience in handling environmental, commercial, transactional and international disputes.  Reed has devoted substantial time to handling venture capital-related disputes and to litigating in the context of bankruptcy proceedings.

Reginald “Reg” Brown is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. He has a vibrant and diverse crisis and governmental investigations practice, and regularly counsels financial institutions and other industry-leading clients facing complex and significant regulatory, enforcement and reputational matters. Reg provides investigations-related guidance, strategic counsel and crisis management assistance to a broad range of companies and senior executives confronting challenges and opportunities at the intersection of government, law, media and public policy. He has assisted leading institutions and high-profile individual clients with more than a hundred congressional inquiries, as well as numerous federal, state and global government investigations and crisis avoidance and mitigation matters.

Renee Smith is a litigation partner who represents Fortune 500 companies in high-profile complex products liability, class action, and commercial litigation. Her successes include securing trial and dispositive pre-trial victories for General Motors LLC, General Motors Corporation, Abbott Labs, AbbVie Inc., Baxter Healthcare Corporation, Dow Chemical and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Renee has litigated and tried cases for multiple clients in state and federal courts across the country involving mass torts, high-stakes products liability and class action claims, complex commercial disputes, cross-border restructuring disputes and others.

Rhett Van Syoc is a partner in the Houston office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. His practice focuses on domestic and international mergers and acquisitions in the energy, mining and infrastructure sectors, with a particular emphasis on private equity and complex joint ventures. Rhett’s experience covers a broad spectrum of matters in the energy and natural resources industries, including power generation, coal and other mining, oil and gas exploration and production, renewables and clean energy, energy services, transportation and midstream, and refining. He also has significant experience in the acquisition and development of infrastructure projects in the U.S., Africa and Latin America.

Richard W. Porter is a corporate partner with a wide-ranging practice representing public companies, private companies and private equity firms, primarily in mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and financings. He counsels clients on multi-billion dollar mergers, acquisitions and restructurings in and out of bankruptcy, as well as private equity firms and private companies operating in the middle and distressed markets on growth equity investments, acquisitions, financings, dispositions and restructurings. Drawing on his eclectic background in government, business and consulting, our clients have found Richard to be a valuable resource and practical counselor, particularly in transactions involving unique challenges, such as joint ventures, regulatory difficulties or restructurings. Richard has been active in the financial services, business services, health care, media and industrial end-markets, but has also represented clients in unique situations, such as the FCC, in the allocation of spectrum rights.

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.

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.

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).

Rick Madden focuses his practice on mergers and acquisitions, out-of-court restructurings and securities offerings. He also counsels clients with respect to corporate governance and SEC-reporting requirements and represents private equity firms and companies in connection with acquisitions and other transactions. Representative clients include: Cirque du Soleil, Hello Sunshine, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Knox Lane, Eros_STX Global Corporation, Moelis & Company, Platinum Equity Partners, The Gores Group and TPG.

Roald Nashi is a partner in the Washington, D.C., and Houston offices of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Roald 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.

Represents leading U.S. corporations and professional firms, as well as their officers, directors and partners, in securities class actions, shareholder derivative suits, SEC investigations, disputes over corporate transactions, ERISA class actions, and breach of contract actions. Successful representations include General Motors, Boeing, AbbVie, McDonald’s, Hecla Mining, Sanderson Farms, Ally Financial, Abbott Laboratories, PricewaterhouseCoopers, GTCR and Morgan Stanley. Tried cases in state and federal courts, and argued appeals in the U.S. Supreme Court and numerous appellate courts. Advises on corporate governance and acts as counsel to special board committees.

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.

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.

Robert has a leading reputation advising companies on the energy regulatory and compliance aspects of transactions and other energy market activities and defending energy and financial industry participants and individuals in energy markets against charges of market manipulation, particularly before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and other regulatory bodies. His deep knowledge of the electric and gas regulatory and enforcement landscape informs his representation of clients on energy regulatory, enforcement, compliance, transactional, commercial, legislative, and public policy matters and activities. He has been recognized in energy regulatory law by Chambers USA (2010–2020), Best Lawyers in America, Energy (2007–2020), and The Legal 500 US. Robert was named by The National Law Journal to its list of 2017 Energy & Environmental Trailblazers, was honored by the Energy Bar Association (EBA) with the EBA President's Award (2019) and the Paul E. Nordstrom Service Award (2016), and also received the Center for the Advancement of Energy Markets Service Award (2005). Robert served as Editor-In-Chief of the Energy Law Journal from 2005–2019, and is a past President of the Energy Bar Association.

Bob Hayward – 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 -- helps lead the team that has been awarded “Capital Markets Practice Group of the Year” numerous times by Law 360. 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.

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.

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.

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 in the 2021 edition of Chambers USA with clients noting “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 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.”

Robert Eberhardt is a debt finance partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Rob’s practice focuses on the North American independent power sector. He has advised private equity sponsors, strategic investors, lenders and commodity hedge providers, and he has provided counsel on project development and finance, tax equity, investments, commodity hedging and project acquisitions and dispositions. He has significant experience with a wide range of transaction types involving offshore and onshore wind, solar, conventional power, storage, transmission and other projects.

Robert Ellis is a litigation partner in Kirkland's Chicago office. His practice focuses principally on complex commercial disputes and class action matters. Rob has represented large corporate clients in a wide variety of complex litigation matters, including breach of contract, professional liability, non-compete and trade secret matters. Rob also has extensive experience defending complex consumer fraud and product liability class actions.

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.”

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.

Robin McCue is a partner in Kirkland’s Chicago office who specializes in advertising and trademark law. Robin has extensive courtroom experience on such matters, and has considerable experience litigating advertising matters in the context of requests for expedited relief. In addition, Robin also has extensive experience at BBB National Programs National Advertising Division (“NAD”) and has been the attorney primarily responsible for both bringing and defending actions before the NAD. 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 advertising and trademark litigation matters, including working extensively with damages experts.

Robyn Bladow is a litigation partner in the Los Angeles office who has handled numerous complex commercial disputes in United States and foreign courts as well as arbitration matters. She has represented and advised major corporate clients regarding contract disputes, unfair business practices and other business tort claims, consumer class actions, product liability claims, bankruptcy matters, intellectual property claims and employment disputes. Over the course of Robyn's career, she has increasingly focused her practice on defending clients against consumer and other class actions. She has been an integral member of multiple trial and arbitration teams.

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.

Partner

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.

Ross Kwasteniet’s practice is focused on 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. Representative clients include Armstrong Energy, Inc., Seadrill Limited, Samson Resources and Patriot Coal Corporation.

Ross Weisman is the head of the advertising, marketing and promotions group at Kirkland & Ellis. He counsels a variety of clients in virtually all aspects of advertising and promotions law, including: reviewing advertising and marketing copy; counseling advertisers with respect to substantiation for claims made in advertisements; drafting and negotiating advertising, public relations and media agreements; advising clients with respect to rights of publicity, false endorsement and unfair competition issues in advertisements; drafting various release forms for national advertisers, including, without limitation, releases to use names, photos, testimonials, property or intangible property in advertisements; and assisting clients with Federal Trade Commission and State Attorney General inquiries. He also has extensive experience defending and challenging advertising claims in federal court under 43(a) of the Lanham Act (and working with the experts who conduct 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 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.

Rudgee S. Charles is a finance partner in the Structured Finance & Structured Private Credit Practice Group in the Dallas office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. He has experience representing issuers, borrowers, lenders and initial purchasers in a broad range of asset finance, securitization, structured finance, structured lending and receivables sale transactions. He is active in both the public and private capital markets with broad experience encompassing warehouse financings, trade receivables financings, private placements and registered ABS offerings. He also counsels clients on complex offering issues, regulatory matters, securities laws and corporate governance matters. Clients describe Rudgee as “a terrific lawyer” who is “very helpful and responsive.”

Trial and ADR: patent infringement and trade secret misappropriation matters, disputes involving patent license agreements, PTAB proceedings, ITC Section 337 proceedings. Appellate: includes Federal Circuit appeals. Licensing: structuring, negotiating licensing-in and -out transactions. ILO Client Choice 2012 Award - Litigation, USA. Included in Chambers USA each year since 2008 with comments describing him as having a “strategic and client-oriented mindset,” being “an awe-inspiringly good litigator,” “an excellent patent litigator,” and “very bright and effective;” and praising him “for delivering pragmatic and well-reasoned legal advice in an understandable, business-friendly way.” Member, WIPO Center’s List of approved Mediators and Arbitrators; USPTO registered; Certified Licensing Professional.

Rustin Brown is a debt finance partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Rustin has experience in representing parties on various forms of financings, including energy and infrastructure projects in the oil and gas, renewable energy and power sectors. His clients have included private equity funds and commercial banks.

Ryan Blaine Bennett is a partner in Kirkland & Ellis' Restructuring Group and hiring partner for the Chicago office. Ryan's practice focuses on protecting and advancing the financial interests of corporate debtors and secured and unsecured creditors in the various transactional and litigation-related aspects of the debtor-creditor relationship. Ryan has played a principal role representing sophisticated corporate debtors, investors and other key parties in some of the most complex restructuring cases and transactions during the past two decades. In addition to his company-side representations, Ryan regularly counsels a number of private equity and investment fund clients, both in and out of court, with respect to acquisitions of distressed assets and investments and corporate governance matters related to such clients' portfolio companies. Ryan's fund clients include, among others, AE Industrial Partners, Audax Group, Blue Point Capital Partners, GTCR, GSO Capital Partners, Monomoy Capital Partners, Parthenon Capital, Summit Partners, and Sun Capital Partners. Ryan often represents large, multinational corporations with respect to distressed supply chain, acquisitions and other commercial matters involving distressed counter-parties. His clients in this regard include Archer-Daniels-Midland Company, The Boeing Company, Global Hyatt Corporation, McDonald’s Corporation, Motorola, Inc., The Tribune Company and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, among others.

Ryan Harris is a corporate partner in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Mr. Harris’ practice is focused on complex transactions including leveraged buyouts for private equity funds, domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, as well as general corporate representations for publicly held corporations, private/family owned companies and private equity funds and their portfolio companies.

Ryan Blaine Bennett is a partner in Kirkland & Ellis' Restructuring Group. Ryan focuses his practice on protecting and advancing the financial interests of corporate debtors and secured and unsecured creditors in the various transactional and litigation-related aspects of the debtor-creditor relationship. Ryan has played a principal role representing sophisticated corporate debtors, investors and other key parties in some of the most complex restructuring cases and transactions during the past two decades. In addition to his company-side representations, Ryan regularly counsels a number of private equity and investment fund clients, both in and out of court, with respect to acquisitions of distressed assets and investments and corporate governance matters related to such clients' portfolio companies. Ryan's fund clients include, among others, Audax Group, Blue Point Capital Partners, Chicago Growth Partners, GTCR, GSO Capital Partners, Monomoy Capital Partners, Parthenon Capital, Summit Partners, and Sun Capital Partners. Ryan often represents large, multinational corporations with respect to distressed supply chain, acquisitions and other commercial matters involving distressed counter-parties. His clients in this regard include Archer-Daniels-Midland Company, The Boeing Company, Global Hyatt Corporation, McDonald’s Corporation, Motorola, Inc., The Tribune Company and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, among others.

Partner

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.

Samantha concentrates her practice on debt financing transactions, representing public and private companies and private equity clients and their portfolio companies in acquisition financings, dividend recapitalizations, and refinancings; companies and ad hoc committees of creditors in out-of-court restructuring transactions and bankruptcy cases; and debt funds in unsecured, mezzanine and secured lending. She has handled numerous cross-border transactions, out-of-court restructurings, amend-and-extend transactions, and financing transactions for the software, business services, industrials and hospitality industries, film portfolios and FCC-regulated companies.

Sandra has a broad practice, with a particular focus on securities, M&A and commercial disputes. Recently, she has represented clients in litigation relating to more than 30 transactions with a cumulative value of $500 billion+, and she has secured numerous pretrial wins, including a major summary judgment victory in a multibillion-dollar securities class action. Sandra frequently argues as lead courtroom counsel, winning over a dozen favorable decisions after oral argument before trial and appellate courts. Since 2020, she has defended over 20 major companies, including 3G, ArcLight Capital Partners, Constellation Brands, GrubHub, Honeywell, Taubman Centers, and Xerox, in more than 30 lawsuits filed across the country. Recent wins include: for Pitney Bowes, argued and won precedent-setting PSLRA discovery stay, the first defense attorney to do so in over two decades, and then case dismissal. Also won motions to dismiss for: the Murdochs and Fox Corporation of shareholder derivative suit over $73B Walt Disney merger; Six Flags and ArcLight Capital of securities class actions in Texas and New York; Amcor and Bemis of SDNY class action relating to $6.8B merger.

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.

Sanjay Mullick has a broad range of experience providing counsel on export controls administered by the Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) under the Export Administration Regulations (EAR); the Department of State Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR); and the Department of Energy’s rules on nuclear exports, as well as economic sanctions administered by the Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). He also advises on compliance and enforcement matters concerning the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and foreign trade zones (FTZ). Mr. Mullick advises companies, sponsors and investors on export controls and sanctions risk assessment in conjunction with investments, offerings and mergers and acquisitions. He also conducts internal investigations, handles voluntary self-disclosures, and designs and implements trade controls compliance programs. Mr. Mullick assists companies with navigating the export control aspects of software deployment, including global encryption controls, cloud computing, and offshore outsourcing. In addition, he counsels companies and financial institutions on compliance with economic sanctions, including considerations for market entry and implementation of corporate policies and procedures. Mr. Mullick has advised companies and governments in international arbitration and litigation, including dispute resolution proceedings under the investment provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and bilateral investment treaties (BITs), administered under the rules of the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and the United Nations Committee on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). Mr. Mullick has represented U.S. companies and foreign governments in trade remedy proceedings, including antidumping and countervailing duty investigations and suspension agreements before the Department of Commerce, the International Trade Commission and the Court of International Trade.

As a partner in Kirkland’s Global Environmental Practice Group, Sara advises clients on a wide variety of complex 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 and operations. 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 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 Zablotney advises clients on the U.S. and cross-border tax aspects of a wide range of complex transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures and spin-offs. Sara also advises clients on the tax aspects of securities issuances (including debt offerings and IPOs), as well as with respect to bankruptcy and restructuring matters.

Sara K. Orr is a partner in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Sara advises clients around the world on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. She has almost two decades of experience working with private equity, public company and financial institutional clients on hundreds of complex environmental matters, and is a thought leader on sustainability and ESG issues. Her practice specifically focuses on sustainable finance, corporate sustainability programs, ESG reporting and disclosure, ESG due diligence, Equator Principles and IFC Performance Standards on Environmental and Social Sustainability, innovative climate solutions, and other ESG risks and opportunities. Sara’s experience includes advising sponsors and lenders on multiple conventional and energy transition-focused projects and transactions, including wind, solar, biomass, and carbon capture, utilization and sequestration. She has represented clients on numerous international project financings of liquefied natural gas (LNG), petrochemical, pipeline and other major infrastructure projects. Sara also provides strategic insights gained from more than a decade of Washington, D.C. experience, including expertise with federal environmental and energy policy issues.

Sara Whyte represents investment banks, finance companies, asset managers and investors in connection with securitization transactions involving a broad variety of asset types, including timeshare, auto loans, marketplace loans, equipment lease and trade receivables. Her experience also includes open market and balance sheet CLOs.

Sarkis Jebejian is a corporate partner focusing primarily on mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and shareholder activism defense. Sarkis’s clients include Accenture, Avaya, Bain Capital, Eli Lilly, Fox Corporation, Infineon Technologies, Lazard, Moelis & Co., Nexstar Media, Six Flags Entertainment Corporation, Tripadvisor and Vista Equity Partners.

Scott Berger is a partner in the Firm’s Real Estate Practice Group. Scott focuses on the private equity aspects of domestic and international real estate and real estate related transactions. He regularly advises sponsors, owners, developers and equity investors on joint ventures, investment funds, club arrangements, M&A and capital markets transactions, dispositions, acquisitions, portfolio and development transactions involving a broad range of asset classes. Scott is regularly involved in matters involving non-US parties.

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.

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.

Partner

Partner representing public and private companies, including private equity firms, in their most complex transactions. Sean’s experience spans the entire range of M&A activity, including strategic mergers, joint ventures, take-privates and cross-border transactions. He also has an active securities law practice, having led more than 50 IPOs and many debt and follow-on equity offerings. Sean practice also includes offerings and acquisitions involving special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs). He has counseled clients across numerous industries, including the energy, infrastructure, space, healthcare, technology, real estate and travel industries.

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.

Sean represents investment managers in all aspects of their business and operations, with particular emphasis on forming private investment funds, and the structuring and execution of secondary transactions. He works with emerging managers and established, multi-strategy firms managing more than $100 billion in assets. Sean counsels sponsors in North America, Europe and Asia in forming private funds investing in numerous sectors and pursuing various strategies. He also works with fund sponsors to structure firm ownership and operations, succession planning and executive transitions, and incentive arrangements.

Sean is a partner in the Firm’s corporate group, where he focuses on mergers and acquisitions. He regularly represents private equity firms and corporations in a wide range of transactions including leveraged buyouts, stock and asset acquisitions and sales, recapitalizations, mergers, private equity investments, and general corporate and securities law matters.

Sean Royall’s practice focuses on antitrust and consumer protection from both the litigation and government investigations perspectives. Sean previously served at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), as the Deputy Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, where he played a prominent role in shaping and overseeing the agency’s antitrust enforcement agenda. In that capacity, Sean supervised the FTC’s investigations of many mergers and acquisitions and served as lead trial counsel in a landmark patent-related monopolization suit the FTC brought against Rambus, Inc. Since returning to private practice in 2003, in addition to his decades of distinction as a nationally prominent antitrust attorney, Sean has become one of the leading lawyers in the country handling complex consumer protection matters involving marketing and advertising practices, privacy and data security, often in relation to investigations and enforcement actions brought by the FTC and state attorneys general. Signaling the breadth and scope of his practice, Sean served as lead counsel for Facebook in connection with the FTC’s investigation of Facebook’s privacy-related practices and in 2018, representing AT&T, was a member of the trial team that successfully defended the company’s $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner against the Department of Justice’s lawsuit challenging that transaction.

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Sehj Vather is a partner in Kirkland's tax group. His practice focuses on the tax aspects of complex business transactions.

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.

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.

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 nine 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.

Shaun is a corporate partner and a leader of Kirkland’s Shareholder Activism & Hostile Takeover Defense practice. He counsels public companies and their boards of directors on shareholder activism and hostile takeover response and preparedness, investor engagement, and corporate governance matters, including those related to diversity, sustainability and other ESG related issues. In addition, Shaun is a member of Kirkland’s Crisis Response practice, counseling clients on governance and communications considerations in high-profile crisis situations. 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, Carl Icahn, Starboard Value, JANA Partners, and Engaged Capital. Shaun is a frequent speaker on shareholder activism, corporate governance and ESG topics and has guest lectured at Harvard Law School and the University of 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 and The Deal.

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 and other strategic commercial contracts. Shellie has experience counseling clients in a broad range of industries, including life sciences, healthcare, consumer products, technology, financial services, insurance and media.

Sierra Elizabeth has a wide-ranging complex commercial litigation practice including toxic torts and other environmental and products liability matters, trade secret, entertainment fee disputes and breach of contract. Sierra has tried cases in both federal and state courts, arbitration hearings and private mediations. Sierra also serves as a guest legal correspondent for CNN Headline News.

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.

Sophia Hudson is a capital markets partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Sophia advises clients on SEC disclosure and compliance, governance and general corporate law matters, as well as the full range of capital markets transactions, including initial public offerings and follow-on equity offerings, public and private high-yield, investment-grade and convertible debt offerings and private placements of equity and convertible securities. She has extensive experience with foreign issuers and cross-border transactions. In 2023, Sophia was selected as one of Law360’s capital markets MVPs—one of the industry’s most coveted awards, bestowed upon leading lawyers for their involvement in record-breaking deals and complex global matters—for her work spearheading transactions worth hundreds of millions of dollars for major companies such as Bed Bath & Beyond, Norwegian Cruise Line and WeWork, among numerous others. Her experience ranges across a variety of industries, including consumer goods, financials, industrials, life sciences, mining, retail, specialty pharmaceuticals and technology. She has also represented all the major U.S. investment banks.

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Stefan works on a range of complex litigation matters in the United States and abroad, including securities, M&A and antitrust 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 3G Capital, Barnes & Noble, H.J. Heinz, Mylan, Pitney Bowes, Qualcomm, Starwood Hotels, Vitamin Shoppe, The Williams Companies and Xerox.

Stefanie Gitler is a partner in Kirkland’s Global Environmental Practice Group, based in the Washington D.C. and Houston offices. Stefanie has led and negotiated environmental aspects of hundreds of transactions. She conducts environmental due diligence for private equity and industry clients involved in complex transactions concerning the acquisition and divestiture of large businesses and companies. She negotiates contractual language in agreements, including those utilized in purchases and sales, credit transactions for obtaining loans from financing institutions, and leases for owning or occupying real property. Stefanie counsels clients regarding regulatory compliance and exposure to environmental liabilities, including the process of obtaining environmental insurance. She assists in the retention and oversight of environmental consultants. She also plays a key role in the handling of environmental liabilities in bankruptcy matters. Stefanie also is the lead of the Environmental Group’s Knowledge Management, with responsibility for internal know-how and maintaining networks of consultants and subject matter experts.

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.

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Stephen Tomlinson’s practice focuses on business transactions in the real estate and hospitality industries for real estate private equity sponsors, sovereign and other non-U.S. investors and real estate operating companies engaged in acquisitions and dispositions, operating company and multi-investor fund formations and investments. Steve is one of the partners leading Kirkland’s initiatives in the area of Opportunity Zone investing and is currently devoting substantial time to structuring and executing investment vehicles intended to capture Opportunity Zone benefits for investors across a variety of real estate, infrastructure and operating business strategies.

Steve Hessler represents debtors, creditors and investors in large and complex Chapter 11 cases, out-of-court restructurings and distressed acquisitions. He has counselled clients across a broad range of industries, including: energy, telecommunications, travel and hospitality/gaming, manufacturing, financial institutions, and real estate.

Stephen Ritchie focuses on complex business transactions, with a particular emphasis on structuring, negotiating and managing the legal aspects of mergers, acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations, venture capital and growth equity investments, restructurings and workouts. He has handled private equity, LBO, growth equity, and merger and acquisition transactions for clients including GTCR, TCV, Chicago Growth Partners, Evergreen Pacific Partners, Wind Point Partners, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Public Sector Pension Plan, Solera Holdings and their respective portfolio companies. He has served as a member of the Firm’s global executive management committee.

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.

Steve Fahey is a partner in the Dallas office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. He is a member of the Firm's Government, Regulatory & Internal Investigations Practice Group. Steve has wide-ranging experience with government investigations and federal court litigation, having served 18 years as an Assistant United States Attorney with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Texas. He held several leadership positions in the Office, including Chief of the Criminal Division, Chief of the Civil Division, and First Assistant United States Attorney. In his time as a federal prosecutor, Steve tried more than 20 federal trials to verdict. As Chief of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Texas for nearly four years, Steve oversaw more than 80 federal prosecutors and supervised all of the Office's criminal cases, including complex white collar fraud, national security, public corruption, cybercrime, and money laundering investigations. During his five years as Chief of the Civil Division, Steve supervised all of the Northern District's affirmative False Claims Act litigation and the defensive civil litigation against the United States and its personnel. Under his leadership, the Civil Division built a robust affirmative FCA practice that recovered tens of millions of dollars annually in fraud proceeds on behalf of taxpayers.

Steve represents private equity funds, family offices and public and private corporations in connection with leveraged buyouts, mergers and acquisitions, going private transactions, growth equity financings, senior and mezzanine debt financings, joint ventures, recapitalizations and restructurings. Steve has particular experience with private equity, merger & acquisition, joint venture, financing and restructuring transactions in the heavily-regulated for-profit healthcare industry, where he has served as lead counsel in numerous private and public transactions involving complex federal and state healthcare regulatory considerations.

Stuart Drake represents vehicle and engine manufacturers, energy producers, appliance and commercial heating manufacturers, and others who are regulated by the federal and state governments under the Clean Air Act, federal energy statutes and regulations, and state air quality or energy statutes and regulations. His work includes litigation, investigations and enforcement defense, rulemaking, strategic planning and work in legislative forums.

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.

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.

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."

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.

Thomas Fleming is an intellectual property partner in the New York office of Kirkland& Ellis LLP. He is a veteran trial lawyer with extensive experience in complex commercial litigation, intellectual property litigation and patent litigation. He has co-chaired numerous jury patent trials in the areas of biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and wireless technology, and has been lead counsel in patent and trade secret litigation matters in the areas of chemical products, devices and genetically modified crops. He has argued numerous appeals, including before the Federal Circuit.

Thomas Yannucci is a litigation partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Chair Emeritus of Kirkland's Firmwide Management Committee.  He has been a member of that Committee since 1995 and served the maximum of three terms as Chair, beginning in 2001, when the position was created.  He also is an adjunct professor for trial advocacy at Georgetown University Law Center. He has acted as trial and appellate counsel in both individual and class action suits involving claims in the following areas: defamation, intellectual property, securities, antitrust, government enforcement and regulatory matters (DOJ, FDA, EPA, FTC, SEC, ITC, FEC, CIA, NLRB), RICO, insurance coverage, ERISA, international trade and white collar crime. He has handled both jury and bench trials, and has appeared in state and federal courts as well as in arbitrations. He also has served as an arbitrator for complex commercial cases for the American Arbitration Association.

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.

Todd Maynes focuses his practice on the tax aspects of bankruptcy and tax litigation. He was the lead tax lawyer on many of the most significant restructurings in recent history, including EFH, United Airlines, Conseco, Calpine, and Charter Communications, and is the only active tax attorney elected to the National Bankruptcy Conference and to be inducted to the American College of Bankruptcy. He is former chairman of the University of Chicago Federal Tax Conference and the Chicago-Kent Federal Tax Institute.

Todd Herst is an associate in Kirkland's Chicago Technology & IP Transactions Practice Group, focusing on structuring and negotiating complex transactions involving technology, intellectual property, and data, including mergers and acquisitions, licensing arrangements, outsourcing/services arrangements, bankruptcy matters, joint ventures, and strategic alliances.

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.

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Vicki Hood is the most senior partner of the Firm’s Employee Benefits practice group. Her practice focuses on employer/employee benefits aspects of business transactions and restructuring. Vicki also has experience in advising private equity and real estate funds and other clients regarding Department of Labor plan asset rules, prohibited transactions and other fiduciary compliance issues and responsibilities.

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.

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.

Walter Lohmann is Of Counsel to the Firm's Environmental Transactional and Restructuring Practice Group. His practice focuses on managing environmental compliance and liability issues in the context of corporate transactions, restructurings and bankruptcies in the US and around the world, including conducting or coordinating environmental assessments, retaining and supervising technical experts, counseling clients on deal and bankruptcy related environmental liability issues, drafting and negotiating contracts and court filings, and pursuing resolution of environmental liability issues through interaction with governmental authorities and coordination of remedial actions.

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.

William Pratt is the senior litigation partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis. He practiced for 13 years in Kirkland's Chicago office before moving to New York in 1990 as one of the founding partners of the Firm's New York office — which now has in excess of 300 lawyers. William is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He has acted as lead trial counsel on cases (both individual and class action) in a wide variety of substantive areas, including antitrust, securities, intellectual property, trade secrets, environmental, contract, and tort, and he has substantial experience before government regulatory agencies, including the Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as various state agencies. William also has substantial experience counseling senior management and Boards of Directors on various litigation and other legal matters. He has been lead counsel in both jury and bench trials in numerous state and federal venues throughout the United States, and he has handled dozens of substantial arbitration matters in both the United States and overseas. He also has handled cases on appeal in most of the federal appellate circuit courts, as well as in state appellate courts in New York, Illinois, California, and Texas.

Bill has spent over 30 years representing a wide range of clients on real estate transactions, restructurings and corporate reorganizations. He has advised clients on real estate fund formation, public and private limited partnerships, REITs and other real estate operating companies. Bill has represented REITs and other real estate operating companies in their formation, IPOs, mergers and acquisitions, financings, complex joint ventures, and in-bound and out-bound investments. He is widely recognized as one of the national leaders with respect to investing in opportunity zones where he represents fund sponsors on fund formation, opportunity zones on their investments and in connection with opportunity zone driven joint ventures. Bill’s practice also encompasses restructurings, with specific expertise in real estate, energy restructurings and large scale project finance.

Bill’s practice concentrates on complex business transactions in the energy and infrastructure sectors, including mergers and acquisitions, private equity and venture capital investments, SPAC transactions, leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations, executive compensation and equity incentive arrangements, and related general corporate counseling. Bill has worked on transactions in a variety of industry segments, including clean energy and power generation, upstream, transportation and midstream, coal and other mining, chemicals and industrials, energy and industrial services, recycling and engineering and construction.

Bill Streff has been practicing intellectual property law for 45 years, concentrating on patent litigation (including jury trials) and transactions (including international strategic alliances) involving computer hardware, firmware, software and systems; semiconductor processing technology and circuitry, including LEDs, DRAMs, CCDs, MPUs and inverter controllers; optical networks; satellite and cable communications systems; avionics; high definition and satellite television systems; navigation systems; and digitally-controlled fuel systems. He was named a 2015 Top 25 Client Service All-Star by BTI Consulting and Best Lawyers' 2015 Chicago Litigation – Patent "Lawyer of the Year".

William C. "Beau" Brashares is a partner in the Investment Funds Group, where he concentrates his practice on representing fund sponsors in the formation and management of private investment funds, including buyout, mezzanine, venture, senior debt, industry-specific, and funds-of-funds, as well as the structuring, operation and regulatory compliance of their management companies. He also advises clients in the formation and management of hedge funds, “hybrid” funds and other private investment vehicles. In addition, Beau counsels funds-of-funds and prominent institutional investors in connection with their investments in leading private equity, venture, real estate, and hedge funds.

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.

William focuses his practice on government and internal investigations, FCPA enforcement matters, and white collar criminal defense. Bill has represented boards, companies and individuals in many complex government and internal investigations and compliance matters.

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.

William Patrick Nicholson is a debt finance partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. William’s practice focuses on the North American power industry. His clients include sponsors, investors and lenders, and he advises on project development and finance, investments (including tax equity investments), and project acquisitions and dispositions. He has significant experience with a wide range of transaction types involving wind and solar projects.

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.

Winn Allen is a litigation partner in Kirkland’s Washington, D.C. office. He litigates complex commercial cases at both the trial and appellate levels in federal and state courts across the country. He has handled cases on a broad array of subject matters, including antitrust, contracts, class actions, fraud, labor and employment, mass torts, mergers and acquisitions, products liability, and unfair trade practices. Representative clients include Honeywell, Caterpillar, Facebook, Carrier Corporation, the State of Georgia, and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts.

Yi-Chin Ho is a litigation partner in the Los Angeles office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Yi-Chin’s practice focuses on representing Chinese companies, based in the U.S. and abroad, ranging from multinational public companies to emerging companies, in antitrust and trade regulation, white collar and government investigations, securities fraud and investigations, class action, intellectual property and other complex, cross-border business litigation matters. She has litigated commercial disputes at all stages including arbitrations, mediations, court and jury trials, and appeals in federal and state courts throughout the country, as well as before the California Court of Appeal, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the California Supreme Court. She has specific cross-cultural experience leading complex litigation matters to resolution on behalf of Chinese companies.

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.

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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.