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Kirkland & Ellis's Chicago practice employs 19 tax partners and seven fee earners. The firm does not have practice or group heads, as such. Jeffrey Sheffield, Todd Maynes, Don Rocap, Natalie Keller and William Welke are the senior partners in the practice. ... [more]

Kirkland & Ellis's Chicago practice employs 19 tax partners and seven fee earners. The firm does not have practice or group heads, as such. Jeffrey Sheffield, Todd Maynes, Don Rocap, Natalie Keller and William Welke are the senior partners in the practice. Competitors praise Jack Levin for his M&A expertise. "He is top notch," said one rival. In June 2011, it added two new partners to its team: Edward Schneidman and William Levy, both partners at Mayer Brown with extensive experience in real estate. Kirkland & Ellis's strongest practice area has been private equity, but they also specialise in energy and real estate. In March 2012, Kirkland advised Constellation Energy Group, a long-time client, on its $7.9-billion merger with Chicago-based energy company Exelon in a stock-for-stock transaction. Kirkland also represented Oklahoma-based Tronox in its $3.4-billion acquisition in June 2012 of the mineral sands operations of Exxaro Resources, a South African coal and iron ore mining company. Exxaro will have a 38.5% stake in the new company, New Tronox, which will be the world's largest fully-integrated producer of titanium ore and titanium dioxide.

The New York practice of Kirkland & Ellis, which employs nine partners and nine fee earners, is particularly strong in private equity. Greer Phillips, Stephen Fraidin, William Sorabella and David Feirstein are advising Burger King Worldwide Holdings ... [more]

The New York practice of Kirkland & Ellis, which employs nine partners and nine fee earners, is particularly strong in private equity. Greer Phillips, Stephen Fraidin, William Sorabella and David Feirstein are advising Burger King Worldwide Holdings and its controlling stockholder 3G Capital Partners, in a business combination with Justice Holdings, a London Stock Exchange-listed public investment vehicle. The transaction will result in a partial sale of Burger King to Justice shareholders and a NYSE listing of Burger King. Under the terms of the agreement, Burger King will merge with a new Justice entity and be renamed Burger King Worldwide; 3G Capital will receive $1.4 billion in cash and a 71% stake in the new company, which will begin trading on the NYSE at the closing. Former Justice shareholders and its founders will hold the remaining 29% interest. The transaction, which comes 18 months after Kirkland helped 3G Capital take Burger King private in a $4 billion leveraged buy-out, values Burger King at about $1.8 billion. Once the transaction is completed, 3G Capital will have returned all of its investors' invested equity capital from the 2010 deal – as well as additional investment returns – and 3G Capital will continue to own 71% of the company. The transaction also helps Burger King obtain a NYSE listing without the market uncertainty of a conventional IPO process. Kirkland & Ellis does not have formal department heads, but the senior partners in the New York tax practice group are Phillips, Steve Clemens and Patrick Gallagher.