Overview

Andrew Kaufman is of counsel to the Firm’s Corporate Group, focusing his practice principally in the areas of debt financing and secured transactions, leasing, structured financings, workouts and reorganizations, general corporate practice, and transactional legal opinion practice. During his years as a partner in the Firm, he was the founder and former head of the Firm’s Debt Finance Practice and the chair of the Firm’s Legal Opinion Committee. He continues to advise on matters in his areas of concentration and on audit letter responses, legal opinion and related risk management matters.

Teaching & Academic Activities

University of Maine School of Law, Portland, ME. Professor of Practice, since 2016. Current Courses: Risk Management and Compliance - Law and Practice, Start-Ups and Entrepreneurship, Commercial Law (Sales and Secured Transactions), and Transactional Practicum: Deals. Director, Business and Transactional Law Certificate Program and Compliance Program.

Vanderbilt University School of Law, Nashville, TN. Professor of Practice for the Law and Business Program, 2009–2012; Adjunct Faculty, 2005–2008 and 2016–2022. Courses: Secured Transactions, Current Issues in Transactional Practice, Introduction to Leveraged Buyouts, and Transactional Practice – The Syndicated Loan Transaction.

University of Southern California Law School, Los Angeles, CA. Guest Lecturer, 2008–2009, 2011, 2014–current. Short Courses: Transactional Practice – The Syndicated Loan Transaction and Advanced Secured Transactions Workshop.

UCLA School of Law, Los Angeles, CA. Executive Director and Professor from Practice, Lowell Milken Institute for Business Law and Policy, 2012–2013.

Judge, National Transactional LawMeets, 2014–2017.

Kirkland & Ellis internal training seminars addressing financing and secured transactions matters and legal opinion and risk management issues.

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Thought Leadership

Seminars

Regular speaker at conferences and seminars including:

  • Working Group on Legal Opinions – Program Co-Chair (2008–2021) and regular faculty member and discussion group leader at semi-annual conferences, New York, NY (since 2008); Chair, Joint WFLO/ABA Legal Opinions Committee “Statement of Opinion Practices” Expansion Project (2023–present).
  • Conference on the Teaching of Transactional Law and Skills, Emory University School of Law, June 2018 – “Context, Integration and the ‘Big Three Questions’: An Approach to Teaching Transactional Law.”
  • ALI – ABA Commercial Lending Today, Chicago, IL, June 2011 – “Intercreditor Agreements.”
  • Law Seminars International, Licensing Transactions Conference, Seattle, WA, August 2013, 2012, 2011 and 2010, San Francisco, CA, July 2006 – “Licenses and Anti-assignment Provisions,” “Financing License Transactions” and “Bankruptcy, Insolvency, and Licensing: Identifying and Managing Risks as Licensor and Licensee.”
  • ABA Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, August 2010 – “Legal Opinions to Government Entities.”
  • Conference of State Bank Supervisors, Portland, ME, August 2008 – “Changing Climate for Borrowers and Lenders.”
  • Presentation to Chinese Credit Project Delegation, New York, NY, October 2005 – “Introduction to Personal Property Secured Lending in the United States.”
  • Annual Computer and Information Law Institute, Dallas, Texas – annual planning committee and faculty member (1985-2007). Recent topics presented include: “Counseling the Financially Distressed Technology Company,” “Financing Technology Start-ups,” “Creating and Perfecting Security Interests in Intellectual Property” and “Intellectual Property Licenses in Bankruptcy.”
  • PLI Intellectual Property Institute, New York, NY, September 2004 – “Bankruptcy, Insolvency and Licensing: Identifying and Managing Risks as Licensor and Licensee.”
  • Chicago Bar Association, Chicago, IL, February 2003 – “Financing the Business Acquisition.”
  • PLI Electronic Contracting Program, San Francisco, CA, May 2002 – “Counseling the Financially Distressed Technology Company: Finding and Preserving Value in E-Commerce Assets.”
  • Active Communication International’s (ACI) Intellectual Property 2002 Conference, Chicago, IL, March 2002 – “Structuring IP to Maximize Value - Insolvency Considerations.”
  • CLE International Venture Capital Financing Conference, Chicago, IL, March 2002 – “Managing Meltdowns: Preliminary Considerations - Non-Bankruptcy Alternatives.”
  • Co-chair and speaker at seminars in New York and San Francisco in April and May 2001 regarding Secured Transactions Under UCC Revised Article 9.

Recognition

Frequent lecturer and author on financing and legal opinion issues at national professional seminars and programs and in related publications.

Recognized in The Best Lawyers in America, America's Leading Lawyers for Business, PLC Which Lawyer? Global 50, Who's Who in America, Who's Who in American Law and Who's Who Legal - Banking.

Memberships & Affiliations

TriBar Opinion Committee (2011–present).

Working Group on Legal Opinions Foundation – President (2014–2021), Director (2014–present).

Yale University Alumni Activities – Class Secretary, Class of 1971 (2011–present), Co-Chair, 40th Reunion (2011); Yale Alumni Fund (prior member, Board of Directors); Yale Alumni Schools Committee.

Vanderbilt University Law School – Board of Advisors (multiple terms ended 2018).

Member, Uniform Commercial Code Committee, Commercial Financial Services Committee, Legal Opinions Committee and Audit Responses Committee, American Bar Association Section of Business Law.

Former Chairman, Subcommittee on Lease Financings and Secured Transactions, Committee on Developments in Business Financing, American Bar Association Section of Business Law.

Credentials

Admissions & Qualifications

  • 1993, Illinois
  • 1974, Texas (inactive)
  • 1976, Georgia (inactive)
  • 2014, New York
  • 2017, Maine

Education

  • Vanderbilt Law SchoolJ.D.1974

    Order of the Coif

    Editor-in-Chief, Vanderbilt Law Review

  • Yale UniversityB.A., Englishcum laude1971