Kirkland & Ellis LLP announced today that the Firm has expanded its West Coast corporate practice with the hiring of leading attorneys Michael S. Ringler and Rick C. Madden. Mr. Ringler will join the Firm as a partner in the San Francisco office and was previously a mergers and acquisitions partner in the San Francisco office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Mr. Madden will join as a partner in the Firm’s Los Angeles office and was previously a corporate partner in the Los Angeles office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP.

Mr. Ringler is recognized for his many years of broad public company transactional experience in Northern California, with a particular focus on the technology sector. Mr. Madden focuses his Los Angeles-based practice on high-profile mergers and acquisitions for public and private companies and private equity firms, out-of-court restructurings, and securities offerings. The two lawyers add significant new capabilities to the Firm’s leading West Coast corporate practice, which currently includes private equity lawyers in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Palo Alto.

“These two senior hires strategically strengthen our West Coast presence,” said Jeffrey C. Hammes, Chairman of Kirkland’s Global Management Executive Committee. “Kirkland is firmly established as a premier legal advisor for West Coast private equity firms, as well as for technology companies engaged in complex intellectual property litigation. Mike and Rick bring a broad range of experience that will significantly expand our offerings to clients involved in the technology sector, and across a wide array of other industries.”

Mr. Ringler represents clients on an extensive range of M&A transactions, including strategic mergers, tender and exchange offers, company acquisitions and sales, business acquisitions and divestitures, leveraged buyouts and other going-private transactions, hostile takeovers, unsolicited acquisition proposals and other contests for corporate control, and joint ventures and other strategic partnering arrangements. He recently represented Meraki, Inc. in its $1.2 billion sale to Cisco Systems, Inc.; salesforce.com in its $750 million acquisition of Buddy Media, Inc.; Taleo Corporation in its $2.1 billion sale to Oracle Corporation; F5 Networks, Inc. in its $140 million acquisition of Traffix Systems; Adobe Systems Incorporated in its $400 million acquisition of Efficient Frontier; and LSI Corporation in its $400 million acquisition of SandForce, Inc.

Mr. Madden represents private equity firms as well as public and private companies in connection with acquisitions and other transactions. He also represents initial purchasers, underwriters and issuers in connection with sales of securities in private and public offerings. His significant representations include Joltid Limited, a member of the investor group in Skype Global S.à r.l., in connection with Microsoft Corporation’s $8.5 billion acquisition of Skype; Centro Properties Group in its $9.4 billion sale of its U.S. shopping centers to The Blackstone Group L.P. and the acquisition and restructuring of the operations of certain of its affiliated funds; Leonard Green & Partners, L.P. and Texas Pacific Group in connection with their acquisition of PETCO Animal Supplies, Inc.; Apollo Advisors, L.P. in its acquisition of the K-12 education business of Sylvan Learning Systems, Inc. and the subsequent representation of Educate, Inc. in connection with its initial public offering; The Gores Group, LLC and its portfolio company, Stock Building Supply Holdings, LLC, in Stock Building Supply’s approximately $45 million acquisition of substantially all of the assets of Bison Building Holdings, Inc. and its subsidiaries as part of Bison Building’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings; and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. (MGM) in a $4 billion prepackaged bankruptcy.

“Mike and Rick are the latest in a select group of talented, energetic partners who have joined the Firm to further build our global M&A team. They both add geographical and industry experience to our group and complement the multidisciplinary M&A practice that we have been building at the Firm,” said David Fox, a partner in the New York office and member of Kirkland’s Global Management Executive Committee. “We continue to have the fastest growing and busiest practice, and pride ourselves on providing clients with creative solutions for the most challenging transactions.”

The Firm recently added corporate M&A partner Sarkis Jebejian and private equity partner Taurie Zeitzer to its New York office. Kirkland has one of the most active and highly regarded international corporate practices, representing many of the world’s largest public companies and more than 300 private equity firms on complex multi-jurisdictional transactions in every major market around the globe.

Mr. Ringler was named one of the Daily Journal‘s top 100 California lawyers in 2012, and was recognized as a 2010 attorney of the year by The Recorder for his work on 3PAR’s acquisition by Hewlett-Packard. He has been recognized as a leading attorney in his field by Chambers & Partners, Legal 500, Best Lawyers in America, Super Lawyers and Who’s Who Legal, and also as among the “next generation of deal makers” in the New York Times in 2007.

Mr. Ringler holds a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, and a B.S., magna cum laude, from the University of Michigan. He is a member of the editorial board of The M&A Lawyer.

Mr. Madden’s transaction for the Centro Properties Group was recognized in the Financial Times‘ 2011 “U.S. Innovative Lawyers” report, and received the “Turnaround of the Year (Large Market),” “Distressed M&A Deal of the Year (Upper Middle Market)” and “Real Estate Deal of the Year ($500 million and over)” awards at the sixth annual M&A Advisor Turnaround Awards. His work for MGM was named in 2011 as “Media, Entertainment or Telecom Deal of the Year” by The M&A Advisor.

Mr. Madden also holds a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, and a B.A. from the University of California, San Diego.

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