Kirkland & Ellis LLP

The firm: Kirkland & Ellis is an international law firm with approximately 4,000 lawyers representing clients in private equity, M&A and other complex corporate transactions; investment fund formation and alternative asset management; restructurings; high-stakes commercial and intellectual property litigation; and government, regulatory and internal investigations matters. The firm operates from 21 offices around the world. The London office has over 500 lawyers.

Principal areas of work: Kirkland is a full-service law firm focusing in the following practice areas:

Antitrust and competition: Kirkland’s global antitrust and competition team advises across the full spectrum of antitrust requirements, from wide-scale multi-jurisdictional cartel investigations and litigation, to specific antitrust queries such as distribution and resale structures, pricing and behavioural conduct, competitor cooperation agreements and State aid. Our merger control practice advises on complex and novel cases involving fix-it-first solutions and carve out divestment packages, managing the process smoothly and anticipating issues.

Capital markets: Kirkland’s capital markets group has one of the largest high yield practices in Europe. Our London-based team advises issuers and sponsors on a wide variety of international securities transactions, across every major industry, with a particular focus on offerings of high-yield, liability management transactions, initial public offerings, SPACs and other complex debt securities.

Debt finance: Kirkland has the largest sponsor-focused debt finance practice in Europe, advising on TLB, second lien, PIK, bank/bond and unitranche structures across large cap and middle market deals. The team has been at the forefront of some of the most innovative financing structures and acts regularly on the most complex global and pan-European transactions. This has included advising on the largest sponsor-backed financings for public to private transactions across Europe.

Infrastructure: Kirkland advises clients on all aspects of infrastructure transactions, ranging from the development, acquisition and financing to the sale and restructuring of infrastructure projects and assets around the world.

Intellectual property litigation: Kirkland’s London IP team supports clients across four areas (i) strategic life sciences patent and product lifecycle advice; (ii) patent litigation; (iii) coordinating global IP enforcement/defence cases; and (iv) standard essential patent (SEP) and FRAND disputes.

International litigation and arbitration: Kirkland is renowned for its experience in complex litigation and arbitration and has a proven track record of generating successful results for clients in their most high stakes cases. We represent clients under the auspices of all leading arbitral organisations, including the ICC, LCIA, HKIAC, ICSID and the SIAC, as well as ad-hoc arbitrations. Kirkland is recognised for its experience in all aspects of international arbitration and in the conduct of white-collar crime and government investigations.

Investment funds: Kirkland has the largest and most active investment funds practice in the world and is uniquely positioned to serve clients across all verticals, including private equity funds, credit funds, secondaries, real estate and infrastructure funds. The team addresses the legal, regulatory, tax and commercial challenges facing a diverse group of investment fund clients, ranging from some of the world’s largest alternative-asset managers and financial institutions to independent boutiques and first-time fund sponsors.

Private equity/mergers and acquisitions: Kirkland has the largest dedicated private equity and financial investor practice in Europe, acting for US and European private equity funds, pension and sovereign wealth funds and financial investors with real estate funds. The team advises across the full spectrum of corporate matters including acquisitions, reorganisations, restructurings, public to privates, minority investments, carve outs and sales. Working in conjunction with the deepest bench of private equity and financial investor-focused practitioners, Kirkland provides clients with unbeatable expertise in highly complex transactions and cross-border deals.

Regulatory: Kirkland has developed a market-leading regulatory practice, advising sponsor firms amongst other organisations on a wide variety of regulatory matters.

Restructuring/insolvency: Kirkland’s restructuring group has earned a distinguished international reputation by achieving outstanding results for a wide range of global clients. The team provides a range of executable solutions from insolvency to distressed and special situations to event-driven financings through to exit.

Tax: Kirkland has a strong international reputation for providing sophisticated tax advice to private equity and financial sponsor clients. The tax team also advises on credit, real estate, infrastructure, and fundraising issues as well as acting for clients in tax disputes worldwide.

Technology and intellectual property transactions: Kirkland represents clients in all areas of IP, trademark matters, outsourcing, computer software, licensing, distribution, joint venture agreements, biotechnology, data protection and e-commerce issues.

Other offices: Austin, Bay Area, Beijing, Boston, Brussels, Chicago, Dallas, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Munich, New York, Palo Alto, Paris, Riyadh, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Shanghai and Washington, D.C.