Vanessa Xu > Kirkland & Ellis International LLP > London, England > Lawyer Profile

Revamped considerably following the high-profile departure of leading rainmaker Neel Sachdev to Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP in November 2023, Kirkland & Ellis International LLP quickly swooped on leading debt finance lawyers Ian Barratt and Sinead O’Shea from Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP and even more recently gained the services of Vanessa Xu from A&O Shearman. These arrivals provided additional critical mass and expertise for the firm’s pre-eminent sponsor-side-only client base. Unencumbered by lender-side relationships, the firm is able to really push the envelope for its private equity client base, enabling it to provide favourable terms in spite of challenges in the market. Drawing upon his extensive deal experience, Stephen Lucas is one such lawyer who uses his encyclopedic knowledge of financing techniques to drive deals through to completion and has been active also in a number of large take privates, as well as amend and extends. As well as handling new money deals, Kirsteen Nicol has been a vital resource for sponsor clients on portfolio management issues, as has Chris Shield, who is additionally well-versed in advising borrowers on the use of unitranche financing to fund M&A transactions. Other key practitioners include New York and English law qualified partner Evgeny Zborovsky, who excels at handling both large and mid-cap transactions; Leon Daoud, who handles mandates involving complex inter-creditor arrangements and numerous tranches of debt; and Daniel Borg, who works with a host of private equity firms on multijurisdictional matters.