Ms Carol Liu > Kirkland & Ellis > Hong Kong, Hong Kong > Lawyer Profile
Kirkland & Ellis Offices
26TH FLOOR, GLOUCESTER TOWER
THE LANDMARK, 15 QUEEN'S ROAD CENTRAL
HONG KONG
Hong Kong
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Ms Carol Liu
Work Department
Investment Funds
Position
Partner
Career
Carol Liu is a private investment funds partner of Kirkland & Ellis. She routinely advises and leads teams of lawyers advising global and Asian fund sponsors on structuring and forming private investment funds across a wide variety of strategies, including buyout, growth capital, venture capital, fund of funds, private credit, real estates and infrastructure, co-investment funds and separate managed accounts, in sectors across healthcare, TMT, consumer, the financial sector and others, and across jurisdictions from China, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia to India. She is frequently called upon to advise clients on delicate sponsor internal issues, such as designing carried interest and other compensation incentives, advising GP stakes transactions and succession planning issues. Clients also turn to Carol on a wide range of complex fund-related transactions, including GP-led restructuring of investment funds, LP tender offers, stapled secondaries, preferred equity transactions and LP portfolio sales transactions, and other complex transactions.
Carol is ranked as “Band 1” lawyer in investment funds by Chambers Global and Chambers Greater China 2022–2024 and recognized as a “Notable Practitioner” (Investment Funds: Private Equity) in Chambers Asia-Pacific 2021–2024. Carol has also been recognized for several years as a leading lawyer by a number of other reputable legal publications, including Legal 500 Asia Pacific, IFLR1000 and Who’s Who Legal.
Languages
English, Mandarin
Education
University of North Carolina School of Law, J.D., with Honors, 2005
Central China Normal University Law School, L.L.M., 1999
Central China Normal University, School of Foreign Languages – The Department of English Language and Literature, B.A., English, 1997
Lawyer Rankings
Hong Kong > Investment funds
(Leading partners)Kirkland & Ellis LLP remains very active in the market advising an impressive roster of fund managers, including Ares Management and Forebright Capital, on their Asia-based fund raisings – regularly drawing additional strength from the firm’s huge private equity offering throughout the US. The ‘very rigorous and professional’ Carol Liu has excellent traction among PRC and regional asset managers which she advises on the establishment of funds traversing a range of strategies including buyout, growth capital, venture capital, and private credit. Liu has also been very active of late advising on liquidity solutions for clients in the sector, both on the GP front (in terms of continuation funds) and for LPs, including Cathay Life Insurance which she advised on the $1.2bn sale of limited partner interests in 21 private funds. The vastly experienced Justin Dolling
provides very strategic advice to international sponsors and regional fund managers establishing private funds in the region, as well as advising on carried interest and co-investment plans. Jennifer Feng co-heads the team with Dolling and Liu.
China > Investment funds: foreign firms
Kirkland & Ellis International LLP‘s Hong Kong-based group acts on the gamut of funds work. It handles fund structuring and formation, as well as fund-related restructurings, buyouts, special situations and distressed investments. The practice’s principal advisers are Justin Dolling, who advises on major deals across the investment funds spectrum, including fund structuring and establishment, secondary transactions, restructuring, and refinancing; Carol Liu, a regular adviser on fund structuring, and liquidity and GP solutions; and Jennifer Feng, who is experienced in fundraising, fund establishment, restructuring and carried interest schemes. The team further includes Jamie Hill, who is particularly focused on private equity, credit and real assets, and secondary transactions specialist Michelle Cheh. Damian Jacobs relocated to the firm’s US offices.
Lawyer Rankings
Top Tier Firm Rankings
- Capital markets (equity)
- Corporate (including M&A)
- Investment funds
- Private equity
- Restructuring and insolvency