Kirkland & Ellis LLP

Aaron Marks

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

Abigail Cotterill

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.

Alexandra Farmer

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.

Andrew Wright

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.

Andrew Calder

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.

Anthony Speier

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.

Bradley Weidenhammer

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.

Brian Greene

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.

Bruce Gelman

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.

Carla Hine

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.

Chris Heasley

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.

Christopher Hartmann

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).

Christopher Palmer

Partner

Christopher Thomas

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

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.

Corey Fox

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

Dale Cendali

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

Daniel Wolf

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

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.

Daniel Donovan

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.

David Fox

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

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 Wheat

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

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.

Douglas Bacon

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.

Douglas Gessner

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.

Edward Donovan

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

Emily Hughes

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

Eugene Assaf

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.

Garret Leach

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 Hicks

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

Gianni Cutri

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

Gregory Arovas

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.

James Hurst

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

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

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.

Jeffrey Seifman

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

Jeffrey Sheffield

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.

Jeffrey Hammes

Jeffrey Ayer

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.

Jessica Schultz

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.

Jonathan Davis

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

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.

Joseph Loy

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

Joshua Korff

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

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.

Keith Crow

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

Kelann Stirling

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.

Kevin Coenen

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 Ehrhart

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

Leora Ben-Ami

Partner

Linda Myers

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).

Luke Dauchot

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

Luke Ruse

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.

Marin Boney

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).

Mark Kovner

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.

Matthew Reilly

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 Shiels

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 Cohn

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

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.

Melissa Ingalls

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.

Michael Krasnovsky

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

Michael Brueck

Partner

Michael Woronoff

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

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

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.

Monica Shilling

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

Neil Hirshman

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 Eggleston

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

Nicholas Schwartz

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.

Nicholas Gladd

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.

Paul Delligatti

Partner

Paul Brinkman

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.

Peter Farrell

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

Philippa Bond

Pippa Bond is a capital markets partner in the Los Angeles office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. She has extensive experience in corporate finance and securities, including leveraged buyouts, acquisitions and restructurings. Pippa acts as counsel to issuers, sponsors and underwriters in registered public offerings, block trades and private placements of debt and equity securities, as well as tender offers and consent solicitations. Pippa also counsels institutional and corporate clients with respect to general compliance and governance. Her work spans a broad range of industries, with a specialized focus on retail and consumer companies, industrials, transportation, real estate and financial services.

Rajab Abbassi

Partner

Roald Nashi

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.

Robert Kopecky

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

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

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 Fleishman

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.

Rohit Chaudhry

Partner

Ross Kwasteniet

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.

Ryan Bennett

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.

Sandra Goldstein

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.

Sean Wheeler

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.

Shanti Sadtler Conway

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

Sophia Hudson

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.

Stefan Atkinson

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

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.

Steven Napolitano

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

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.

Thomas Fleming

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.

Todd Maynes

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.

William Pratt

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.

William Levy

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.

William Benitez

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.

William Streff

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".

Winn Allen

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.

Yosef Riemer

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