Kirkland & Ellis International LLP > London, England > Firm Profile

‘The Kirkland corporate team is an absolute powerhouse. It’s staffed with super smart and extremely experienced lawyers who get deals done. They are creative problem solvers who not only identify deal problems, but they propose a range of well thought out solutions, and steer the client to the appropriate way forward.’

‘Stuart Boyd is an exceptional deal maker. He brings gravitas and experience to the negotiating table alongside his technical excellence.’

‘We have a deep and trusting relationship with the Kirkland team who lead on vast majority of our legal work. They have an exceptionally strong team, high degree of technical skillset and professionalism, ability to navigate through wide range of complex situations, and the responsiveness and communication is first class. We continue to be impressed by their quality of work and commitment to deliver in any circumstances.’

‘Matthew Elliott has advised us on a large number of complex situations.’

‘Matthew Elliott is our long term partner and go-to lawyer on increasing number of deals over the years. He is sharp, focused, and will deliver best service every single time. We’re extremely grateful for all of his help over the years.’

‘The hardworking team provides commercial, practical and user-friendly advice.’

‘The team remained calm and focused throughout the process.’

‘Sean Lacey provided outstanding counsel on a number of complicated matters which required a balanced consideration of legal, commercial and broader relationship issues.’

‘Leading law firm representing financial sponsor clients. Highly professional ensuring smooth execution process including on highly complex transactions. Delivers on a timely basis and identifies potential issues upfront to ensure efficient execution.’

‘As you would expect highly professional but also a pleasure to work with, taking a commercial approach to get to the finish line. Able to maintain calm heads in stressful situations.’

‘This law firm is leader in the market in supporting its clients in their debt issuance.’

‘I work very closely with Cedric Van den Borren and Antoine Lebienvenu. They are very pragmatic and responsive and always offer a very qualitative service. No complicated jargon but a suitable discourse and teacher approach.’

‘Outstanding team which delivers exceptionally high level of service and achieves great outcomes for clients. Consistently creative and solution-oriented, which facilitates transactions that other firms would struggle to deliver.’

‘Cedric Van den Borren is a master of high yield. Very smart, creative, commercial, and thorough adviser. Always available on deals and all over the details. A pleasure to have him on your side.’

‘We have a great dedicated team across bank and bond who work together very efficiently and effectively and are proactive in helping to prioritise areas of opportunity and very responsive to our questions.’

‘They are professional, friendly, very responsive, happy to explain concepts and specifics in layman’s language and understand the practical implications for the business and work very effectively cross-functionally internally.’

‘The fund finance team at Kirkland & Ellis have a great depth of personnel and knowledge. They were able to quickly gain an excellent understanding of what we required and show very strong negotiation skills to ensure we achieved the best terms possible. I feel like no stone is left unturned and their engagement in helping me understand the key terms was very important.’

‘George Dyesmith needs a mention here and he stands out for his ability to help me through the agreements and clearly understand the terms, narrowing down on where we should focus our attention in negotiations.’

‘This practice stands out due to its exceptional dedication to client service, deep legal expertise, and innovative approach to problem solving.’ 

‘The individuals I worked with are distinguished by their exceptional legal knowledge, proactive approach, and unwavering commitment to client success. They stand out from competitors due to their ability to anticipate potential challenges and devise effective strategies accordingly.’

‘Sandipan De deserves special mention for his strategic insights and meticulous case management.’ 

‘The Kirkland & Ellis private markets team are exceptional in the field of fund formation, standing out for their knowledge of the market, strength of the team, responsiveness at all levels but in particular at the Partner level, and their collaboration to resolve issues.’ 

‘Responsiveness and willingness to invest in building a strong relationship is what stands out with the Kirkland & Ellis team. We have worked with Richard Watkins  for many years and the trust and knowledge built in that time has ensured that we can pick up the phone at any time and deal with an issue efficiently.’ 

‘The team is market-leading with vast knowledge and expertise in the area. Partners and Associates are experts in client management as well as understanding and executing transaction structures. The team’s strong hold on the GP-led restructuring market across Europe is commendable, along with a strong presence in LP secondaries, fundraising, etc.’ 

‘We regularly work with Ted Cardos, Aleks Bakic, Tarsis Goncalves and other partners from the team. Their commercial sense of client management and deal management is unmatched. They have strong technical capabilities as well as a commercial attitude.’ 

‘The Kirkland team I have worked with is notable for an exceptional level of professionalism combined with very deep market and transaction knowledge. I view them as being perhaps the best-informed group in the secondary funds market regarding developments and trends in transaction terms. I view them as uniquely well-placed to advise on complex secondary transactions.’

‘I have worked extensively with Ted Cardos and Tarsis Goncalves. Both are proactive, responsive and thoughtful. I particularly value their commercial perspective on deals given a detailed understanding of the whole market. I also appreciate their ability to highlight the open issues that we really need to be worried about.’ 

‘Unparalleled depth and breadth within fund formation. They have a market-leading position, are involved in most high-profile fundraisings, and have access to a lot of data and experience. Very technically skilled team.’

‘Deep bench, very strong technically, focused on client service and vast market exposure.’

‘Paul Sampson is a top-notch partner, always searching for ways to improve his client’s position.’

‘Their strength is the breadth of their international knowledge and experience in multiple jurisdictions.’

‘There is no question that this is one of the strongest and best teams in the UK and EU. Exceptional depth and breadth of practice and experience. Unquestionably deep industry knowledge. Very practical and commercial. They are particularly strong in mergers.’

‘The team is made of highly qualified and experienced lawyers all having trained in top tier UK and international law firms. Collectively they have a wide range of expertise and skills which when put together is highly valuable for clients. Equally, personalities fit well one with each others.’

‘James Boswell is one of the best partners on market currently.’

‘The team here are very experienced in the sector. They have excellent sub-sector knowledge and relationships with key market participants. They are very user friendly and the various team members we have worked with have all been consistently strong. They are a very diverse team. They have good knowledge of what is considered market in the sector.’

‘Sara Pickersgill in particular has been a pleasure to work with. She is both technical and commercial. She is user friendly and knows when to give key advice. She holds strong relationships across the market and is very dedicated. Sara is one of the best infrastructure lawyers in the market.’

‘Toby Parkinson is a strong and experienced lawyer who is also very personable. He has good market intel and is well respected in the infrastructure space. James Boswell is another key figure at the top of the game in terms of infrastructure financing lawyers.’

‘The K&E team has wide ranging experience in various industries in the application of EU competition law. They provide business-oriented legal advice and are very available and efficient in their work.’

‘An unbeatable combination of experience, talent and tenacity. The team works hard for its clients to achieve the best results. Litigation is conducted effectively and efficiently. The team has the benefit of great strength and depth, ensuring that cases are appropriately resourced.’

‘Nicola Dagg is a standout star. Highly intelligent, she understands her client’s needs and objectives and is able to utilise her legal talent to obtain fantastic results.’

‘Jin Ooi is a standout member of the Kirkland team; clever, conscientious and a joy to work with. A standout talent with a real understanding of patent law.’

‘Steven Baldwin is wonderful to work with; intelligent and impressive on both technical and legal aspects of cases.’

‘A firm with an incredibly deep bench of talent. When litigation become unmanageable for other firms Kirkland & Ellis will always manage to find another gear. This allows them to turn up to every hearing more prepared than the other side. Having such a strong presence across the sector means that their clients benefit from associates and partners with up-to-the-minute experience.’

‘The patent litigation team at Kirkland is one of the best on the market, and full of some of the sharpest litigators around. They have the capacity for the biggest litigation and conduct both UK litigation and coordination of multi-centre transnational litigation.’

‘The team is led by Nicola Dagg, who has a massive reputation as the leader of her field and with a career at the top stretching over many years.’

‘Jin Ooi is extremely clever and very thorough. He has also a gift for managing diverse aspects of different cases in various jurisdictions, such that litigation is run consistently and efficiently.’

‘Great reputation for fund formation and transactional work for funds.’

‘Ceinwen Rees has joined K&E from Macfarlanes and is a real talent.’

‘The K&E London tax team are top drawer and comprise an embarrassment of riches.’

‘Art Ward is frustratingly intelligent. He knows the answer before you have asked the question, and he is unusually clear and eloquent in communicating both the problem and the solution.’

‘Ceinwen is commercial and technically excellent. She is eager to help and can navigate complex issues and distil them to easy to understand advice. Also, genuinely a lovely person and a pleasure to work with.’

‘The team have up-to-the-minute market knowledge and are super responsive when needed.’

‘Peter Abbott is clearly extremely knowledgeable, but it is also his communication, relationship building, network and responsiveness that marks him out from his peers.’

‘Kirkland has an outstanding reputation in fund formation, including related tax aspects. They offer a well-integrated fund formation service to mutual fund clients, which makes it great to work with them. ’

‘By far the strongest team in the market on risk advisory and we do not use anyone else. Responsive, measured and commercial. The best there is for risk advisory work.’

‘Marcus Thompson is the best lawyer in Europe for risk advisory work. I would not call anyone else. He is super responsive but always calm. He is the only person I call in a crisis as his controlled and balanced view is highly regarded by all in our organisation.’

‘Shruti Chandhok is a rising star in the sanctions world. She is experienced across a range of transactions and structures and is able to give clear, focused advice.’

‘The K&E team’s strength is their ability to quickly distil issues and risks identified and come up with a clear plan to understand the practical and legal risks of those identified issues and risks. They also work with many other financial sponsors so they have a great deal of knowledge in terms of how to approach issues and how to solve them.’

‘Great team adept at dealing with complex sanctions issues across multiple jurisdictions.’

‘I have worked with Patrick Navein extensively. He is smart, strategic, reliable, easy to deal with, and a very clear communicator of complex issues.’

‘Patrick Navein is very pleasant, intelligent and developing a real expertise in money laundering and insider trading.’

‘Very hard-working, practical, solution-focused and committed.’

‘Kirkland’s strength is the breadth of their international knowledge and experience in multiple jurisdictions.’

‘I would particularly highlight Joel Gory. In the fast-paced, deadline-driven world of antitrust law, his standout attributes are responsiveness and decisiveness, rooted in a deep understanding of the law and practical commercial insight.’

‘I regularly work with the Kirkland & Ellis team in the area of FDI control. The team is without any doubt currently the best team in the market to coordinate complex multijurisdictional FDI notifications: their level of efficiency to smoothly obtain FDI clearances is unseen.’

‘Athina van Melkebeke is a true FDI star who is strongly in the driving seat to bring all matters to a good end, irrespective of complexity.’

‘Mark Gardner consistently provides thoughtful, commercial advice on antitrust and competition issues across numerous ex-US jurisdictions and helps us navigate through the different regimes to successfully close our transactions.’

‘Very commercial and responsive.’

‘Adam Skinner is excellent and very responsive.’

‘The strength of this team is that they are solution orientated. Their communication and response time is second to none.’

‘Market leading due to its scale, experience and dynamism. An unrivalled bench of leading partners.’

‘Lisa Cawley is the best financial services regulatory lawyer I have come across in London. She leads a hugely impressive, growing team.’

‘They are knowledgeable, user-friendly, and a pleasure to work with.’

‘Excellent go-to practice for all private equity-related regulatory and compliance matters, with particular strength around the EU and UK AIFMD regimes. Strong partner bench and top-notch capabilities.’

‘Strong team – able to run cases effectively and efficiently.’

‘A pre-eminent team. Very strong technically and commercially. The team works very hard and is very responsive.’

‘Kirkland is a well-known powerhouse in disputes and its international arbitration practice is growing under Rajinder Bassi. They have global reach, a deep bench of talent internally from which to draw, and a meticulous approach to case work.’

‘Rajinder Bassi, Richard Boynton, Jon Newman, and Noah Stewart-Ornstein are standouts within the practice. They are regularly appointed by blue-chip clients on the most high profile of disputes.’

‘Rajinder Bassi is great at leading the team and keeping all the parts moving.’

‘Noah Stewart-Ornstein – enthusiastic and able to craft creative solutions.’

‘Noah Stewart-Ornstein is an absolute star. He is a partner with immense experience, litigation know-how, and a shrewd tactician.’

‘Richard Boynton is a very powerful advocate who has a very good manner with tribunals.’

‘The team is one of the best teams in life sciences and healthcare in London today.’

‘The team is extremely impressive, with real strength and depth. Members of the team work seamlessly together to achieve the best outcome for the client. The team’s technical, legal and commercial knowledge is exceptional. ’

‘Nicola Dagg – a star. Highly intelligent, she understands her client’s needs and objectives and is able to utilise her legal talent to obtain fantastic results.’

‘Jin Ooi – a standout member of the Kirkland team – clever, conscientious and a joy to work with. A talent with a real understanding of patent law in the healthcare field.’

‘The major strength of the life sciences team at Kirkland is the depth of their technical knowledge. It is just second to none. ’

‘I am a barrister who works with Kirkland in intellectual property cases, esp. patent litigation. The Kirkland team has great strength in life sciences cases. Like by the highly dynamic force of nature that is Nicola Dagg, clients love them and come back regularly. You only have to the look at the cases they are in and the clients they represent to see how well regarded they are. The other partners are equally strong and the associates are hardworking and bright. ’

‘Nicola Dagg is the head of the IP team and is amazing at bringing the work in she effectively manages her team to keep all the plates spinning.’

‘Daniel Lim is excellent on medical device cases. Jin Ooi has as a nose for a good point. ’

‘It is well-placed to deal with contentious regulatory issues affecting private equity funds and their portfolio companies.’

‘They are first-class operators who know their subject area so well but are able to provide practical and commercially oriented advice.’

‘Marcus Thompson is brilliant and commercially very astute.’

‘Julia Dixon is hard working and extremely capable. She has contentious regulatory experience and also more general advisory experience.’

‘Julia Dixon’s regulatory knowledge and way she is able to communicate to clients is next level – she is personable, very client friendly and uber responsive.’

‘Patrick Navein is technically excellent.’

‘The team has specific expertise in the private equity sector. It is therefore well placed to deal with contentious regulatory issue affecting private equity funds and their portfolio companies.’

‘The team has extensive experience with depth in this area. They know each other well and work collaboratively as a team. They put in serious hard graft! Yet at the same time are super personable, easy to do business with and good fun to work with. Julia is particularly super to deal with and has a great way with clients.’

‘Rajinder Bassi : great motivator and keeps the team running smoothly. Noah Stewart-Ornstein: hard worker, astute to find creative solutions.’

‘Richard Boynton is a commercial litigation superstar. Having worked with him on many cases,  I can safely say he would be my first port of call for any major piece of commercial litigation. He’s massively brainy; he’s a first-rate lawyer, with a very fine breadth of legal expertise; he’s brilliant at organising and running a massive case, and a large team; he’s immensely hard-working; he produces terrifyingly good documents; he’s a fearsome opponent; he’s a delightful team-leader and team-player; and he’s an excellent tactician. He’s monstrously good!’

Rajinder Bassi is excellent. She, rightfully, has a massive practice. She has a wonderful manner with clients, and with every member of the team that she leads so adeptly; she’s an extremely thoughtful and able lawyer, and tactician; and she radiates both deep commercial experience and great confidence. Absolutely top quality. Noah Stewart-Ornstein is top quality. He’s bright, immensely hard-working, highly articulate, and very able.’

‘They stand out for their intellectual prowess and ability to get on top of a very complex subject matter, and their dedication to challenge accepted ways of doing things to get the best result for their client.’

‘Their lawyers are genuinely clever: they are able to acquire subject matter expertise in quick time and demonstrate incisive understanding and challenge detail on highly technical areas. They are ardent advocates for their clients, always trying to push boundaries to get the best possible result even if that is outside the norm. They combine this with a relaxed, calm and professional approach and are extremely good to work with. Their junior lawyers are also very impressive, showing maturity both personally and professionally beyond their years, demonstrating quiet assurance.’

‘A small, focused team, readily accessible and not simply focused on process but thoughtful and contributing sensible views and opinions.’

‘Stuart Doxford is excellent. Other US and magic circle firms drown a matter with endless bodies, few of whom add any value. Stuart and Charlie Griggs have done some excellent work.’

‘Rajinder Bassi and Noah Stewart-Ornstein. What marks them out is their quality as lawyers, their understanding of the clients’ needs and objectives, their desire and willingness to go that mile further for their clients to meet their clients’ needs, and their working relationship with Counsel.’