Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs
The Am Law Litigation Daily named Kirkland a "Litigator of the Week" runner-up for the week of Sept. 13, 2021, after a victory for AbbVie in a fraud suit connected to the company's failed $55 billion merger with Shire.
...A joint team at Kirkland & Ellis and Goldman Ismail Tomaselli Brennan & Baum get a runner-up nod for scoring a summary judgment ruling for biopharmaceutical company AbbVie Inc. in Illinois state court on fraud claims brought by hedge funds connected to its failed $55 billion merger with Shire plc. AbbVie terminated the deal, where it would have merged as a subsidiary of a foreign corporation for tax purposes, following changes in U.S. Treasury regulations announced in September 2014 that would have nixed the deal’s tax advantages. The hedge funds alleged that AbbVie’s prior statements about the deal led them to purchase Shire shares at artificially elevated prices. But Cook County Circuit Judge Margaret Brennan ruled from the bench Monday, knocking out all the remaining claims. The Kirkland team included Andrew Kassof, Jim Hurst and Gabor Balassa. The Goldman team included Alan Littmann, Tarek Ismail and Andrew Rima.
