The Legal Power 30

Kirkland partner Jon Ballis is named to Private Equity Manager's list of the 30 private equity lawyers identified by the industry and their peers as the best of the best.

Jon Ballis
Kirkland & Ellis, Chicago

PRACTICE: M&A partner

CLIENTS: Bain Capital, The Blackstone Group, Centerbridge, Madison Dearborn Partners

Jon Ballis is one of the young stars of the Kirkland & Ellis buyouts practice, and a standout player for private equity firms doing deals in America's third largest city of Chicago, centre of the industrial Midwest. He is a prolific dealmaker, and has been central to a team effort that puts Kirkland as the most active private equity firm in the US by deal volume over the last decade , according to Mergermarket.

Ballis' work covers the gamut of LBOs of public and private companies, through strategic mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures, to venture capital and PIPE investments.