Patrick V. Salvo

Kirkland & Ellis counseled GCM Grosvenor (NASDAQ: GCMG), a leading global alternative asset management firm, on its Infrastructure Advantage Strategy acquiring a 25% equity interest in Shepherds Flat, the largest repowered wind farm in North America, from Brookfield Asset Management (NYSE: BAM, TSX: BAM) and its institutional partners, including its listed affiliate Brookfield Renewable (NYSE: BEP, BEPC; TSX: BEP.UN, BEPC). Read GCM Grosvenor’s press release The Kirkland team was led by corporate partners John Kaercher, Patrick Salvo and Zahra Usmani and associate Gabrielle Sumich; debt finance partners Robert Eberhardt and Lucas Spivey; tax partners Michael Masri, Steve Butler and Jon Nelsen and associate Brittany Nguyen; and energy regulatory partner Brooksany Barrowes.

Sep 24

1 min

Kirkland & Ellis advised Marlin Equity Partners and its portfolio company Virgin Pulse, a leading global digital-first health, wellbeing and navigation company, in connection with Virgin Pulse’s definitive agreement to merge with HealthComp, a next generation benefits and analytics platform. The merger will create a technology and data powered health platform-as-a-service organization poised to tackle some of the industry’s biggest challenges. The merger is expected to close in Q4 2023, subject to regulatory approvals and satisfaction of all closing conditions under the definitive agreement. Financial details of the transaction have not been disclosed. Read the transaction press release The Kirkland team was led by corporate partners John Kaercher, Patrick Salvo, Brendan Caldon and Javier Oliver-Keyworth, with support from partner Marc Browning, and associates Brett Mele, Evan Chavez and Braxton Smith; debt finance partners David Nemecek and Paul Rezvani and associate Elena Babakhanyan; and tax partner Kevin Coenen and associate Michael Alcan.

Sep 28

1 min

Kirkland & Ellis and Freshfields are advising on the acquisition of U.S. billboard operator Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings by a Mubadala Capital and TWG Global consortium, marking a fresh push by Gulf investors into U.S. media and infrastructure assets. The all-cash deal values NYSE-listed Clear Channel at $6.2 billion and will see the investors acquire all outstanding shares. Clear Channel’s board unanimously approved the agreement. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals, after which Clear Channel will be delisted. Kirkland is advising Clear Channel with a 16-lawyer team led by David Klein, Patrick Salvo and Daniel Wolf. The firm previously advised the company on an $865 million debt offering in 2024 and on the proposed $497 million voluntary general offer by a consortium to acquire its controlling shareholder in 2020. Freshfields is advising Mubadala Capital and TWG Global with a team of more than 30 lawyers. The firm has previously faced Mubadala across the table when advising other clients. Separately, the firm advised Uber on its acquisition of Getir’s delivery portfolio in Turkey from Mubadala Investment Company, the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund. Mubadala Capital’s deal comes amid a surge in Gulf investment in the U.S., led by sovereign wealth funds. Sovereign and public pension funds invested $132 billion in the U.S. in 2025, nearly half of their global allocations, according to Global SWF. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) topped the rankings, while Mubadala was the most active investor for a second straight year, deploying $33.7 billion. Overall, the seven largest Gulf funds invested $119 billion, up 43% from 2024. Last year, Kirkland advised a consortium including Saudi PIF on the $55 billion take-private of Electronic Arts, one of the largest leveraged buyouts on record. Separately, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld advised Mubadala on its minority investment in U.S. healthcare technology firm Zelis. Kirkland, Latham & Watkins, and Sterlington also advised on the $40 billion acquisition of Texas-based Aligned Data Centers by a consortium including Abu Dhabi’s MGX and BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners. More recently, Paul Hastings advised a majority of the investor consortium members, which includes Abu Dhabi‑based MGX alongside U.S. investors such as Oracle and Silver Lake, on the formation of TikTok’s U.S. data and operations joint venture. Other law firms, including Kirkland, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Hogan Lovells, also advised on elements of the transaction. SWFs and other Gulf investment vehicles are among the key drivers of U.S and UK law firm launches in the Gulf states. Kirkland’s Riyadh office, for example, advises PIF. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, which launched in Abu Dhabi last year, also counts PIF and Mubadala among its Gulf clients. In November, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, which advises PIF and its portfolio companies, opened an office in Riyadh.

Feb 11

2 min

The litigation trust overseeing bankrupt crypto custodian Prime Core Technologies Inc. has launched a clawback suit in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, seeking to recover nearly $93.6 million in alleged preferential transfers made to a London-based trading partner in the weeks before Prime's collapse. In the complaint filed Friday, the PCT Litigation Trust said Prime paid $244.4 million to Enigma Securities Ltd. and affiliate Makor Securities London Ltd. between May 16 and June 21, 2023, just before Nevada regulators forced Prime Core into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. This, the trust said, clearly meets the five elements of avoidable preference claims, given the payments were property of Prime, made to a creditor, on account of an antecedent debt, while Prime was insolvent, and within 90 days of its Aug. 14, 2023, petition to file for bankruptcy. After subtracting Enigma's potential "new-value" defense of about $150.8 million, the trust pegs recoverable preference exposure at $93,576,258.70. "Prime's transfers to Enigma during the preference period exacerbated Prime's already precarious financial position, accelerating the downward financial spiral that culminated in Prime's Chapter 11 filing," the trust said in the complaint. The Enigma suit builds on an earlier clawback action the same litigation trust filed against Crescent Financial Inc. in late July, which seeks to recover about $2.1 million in pre-bankruptcy transfers made under similar circumstances. In both cases, the trust alleged that Prime used commingled customer funds to pay favored counterparties as its finances unraveled, saying the relationships were strictly debtor-creditor, not fiduciary, and echoing U.S. Bankruptcy Judge J. Kate Stickles' July 18 opinion that Prime's assets and customer deposits were so intermixed that they must be treated as property of the estate. The trust argued in this case that Prime was insolvent during the preference period, citing $179 million in liabilities against $44 million in assets, adding that the payments enabled Enigma to receive more than it would have received in a Chapter 7 liquidation. The trust said that because Prime and Enigma's relationship was purely debtor-creditor, not fiduciary or custodial, the transferred funds are property of Prime's estate and subject to avoidance, rather than assets Prime merely held in trust for Enigma. "The [master services and custodial] agreements establish that the parties always maintained a strictly debtor-creditor relationship," the trust said. The trust also cited Judge Stickles' earlier opinion on Prime's involvement with Crescent, where she said Prime's customer and company's assets were "hopelessly commingled" and "not traceable," which the trust argued forecloses and claim that Enigma's deposits were segregated or immune from clawback. The trust said Prime also kept all customer deposits, including Enigma's, in omnibus bank accounts, sweeping funds daily between accounts in round numbers with no link to specific clients. "The internal ledger was errantly and later intentionally corrupted by Prime," the trust said. The trust pointed out that Prime employees testified that fake wire entries were created to mask Prime's use of customer cash to replace roughly $82 million in missing Ethereum. Because Prime's records were unreliable and its accounts mixed client and company money, the trust said, "it is impossible to identify, trace, or otherwise distinguish" the funds Enigma withdrew. Representatives for the parties did not respond to immediate requests for comment Tuesday. PCT Litigation Trust is represented by Joseph M. Aminov, Darren Azman, Magali M. Duque, Joseph B. Evans, Jessica Greer Griffith, David R. Hurst, Patrick V. Kennedy and James Pardo of McDermott Will & Schulte LLP. Counsel information for Enigma Securities Ltd. was not available Tuesday. The case is PCT Litigation Trust v. Enigma Securities Ltd., case number 1:25-ap-52370, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. The underlying bankruptcy case is In re: Prime Core Technologies Inc. et al., case number 1:23-bk-11161, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

Oct 14

3 min

The litigation trust overseeing bankrupt crypto custodian Prime Core Technologies Inc. has launched a clawback suit in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, seeking to recover nearly $93.6 million in alleged preferential transfers made to a London-based trading partner in the weeks before Prime's collapse. In the complaint filed Friday, the PCT Litigation Trust said Prime paid $244.4 million to Enigma Securities Ltd. and affiliate Makor Securities London Ltd. between May 16 and June 21, 2023, just before Nevada regulators forced Prime Core into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. This, the trust said, clearly meets the five elements of avoidable preference claims, given the payments were property of Prime, made to a creditor, on account of an antecedent debt, while Prime was insolvent, and within 90 days of its Aug. 14, 2023, petition to file for bankruptcy. After subtracting Enigma's potential "new-value" defense of about $150.8 million, the trust pegs recoverable preference exposure at $93,576,258.70. "Prime's transfers to Enigma during the preference period exacerbated Prime's already precarious financial position, accelerating the downward financial spiral that culminated in Prime's Chapter 11 filing," the trust said in the complaint. The Enigma suit builds on an earlier clawback action the same litigation trust filed against Crescent Financial Inc. in late July, which seeks to recover about $2.1 million in pre-bankruptcy transfers made under similar circumstances. In both cases, the trust alleged that Prime used commingled customer funds to pay favored counterparties as its finances unraveled, saying the relationships were strictly debtor-creditor, not fiduciary, and echoing U.S. Bankruptcy Judge J. Kate Stickles' July 18 opinion that Prime's assets and customer deposits were so intermixed that they must be treated as property of the estate. The trust argued in this case that Prime was insolvent during the preference period, citing $179 million in liabilities against $44 million in assets, adding that the payments enabled Enigma to receive more than it would have received in a Chapter 7 liquidation. The trust said that because Prime and Enigma's relationship was purely debtor-creditor, not fiduciary or custodial, the transferred funds are property of Prime's estate and subject to avoidance, rather than assets Prime merely held in trust for Enigma. "The [master services and custodial] agreements establish that the parties always maintained a strictly debtor-creditor relationship," the trust said. The trust also cited Judge Stickles' earlier opinion on Prime's involvement with Crescent, where she said Prime's customer and company's assets were "hopelessly commingled" and "not traceable," which the trust argued forecloses and claim that Enigma's deposits were segregated or immune from clawback. The trust said Prime also kept all customer deposits, including Enigma's, in omnibus bank accounts, sweeping funds daily between accounts in round numbers with no link to specific clients. "The internal ledger was errantly and later intentionally corrupted by Prime," the trust said. The trust pointed out that Prime employees testified that fake wire entries were created to mask Prime's use of customer cash to replace roughly $82 million in missing Ethereum. Because Prime's records were unreliable and its accounts mixed client and company money, the trust said, "it is impossible to identify, trace, or otherwise distinguish" the funds Enigma withdrew. Representatives for the parties did not respond to immediate requests for comment Tuesday. PCT Litigation Trust is represented by Joseph M. Aminov, Darren Azman, Magali M. Duque, Joseph B. Evans, Jessica Greer Griffith, David R. Hurst, Patrick V. Kennedy and James Pardo of McDermott Will & Schulte LLP. Counsel information for Enigma Securities Ltd. was not available Tuesday. The case is PCT Litigation Trust v. Enigma Securities Ltd., case number 1:25-ap-52370, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. The underlying bankruptcy case is In re: Prime Core Technologies Inc. et al., case number 1:23-bk-11161, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

Oct 14

3 min