Bruce I. Ettelson

Bruce Ettelson has represented us since the mid-90's and has consistently provided our firm with sound advice. He is extremely responsive to our needs and has a strong legal and business perspective on a variety of issues that we face as a private equity fund. Additionally, he and his partners at K&E have deep experience in all matters impacting the private equity business and provide superior guidance in a timely fashion.

Bruce Ettelson is a leader in the field. He is creative and execution oriented. He is very responsive and client focused.

Bruce is particularly tuned in to the market. He seems to know intimate details about most private equity firms, even those he does not represent. He is one of the smartest lawyers I work with.

Simply put, Bruce is a worl-class fund formation attorney. Over the past 15 years, Bruce represented my prior firm, Vestar Capital Partners, on each of its institutional private equity funds. In every instance, Bruce's advice was sound and, importantly, based on a true understanding of current market practices. Whenever we asked Bruce and the Kirkland team to help us think through new or challenging structuring concepts, they came back to us in a timely manner with incredibly creative suggestions and solutions. As the world of private equity increases in complexity, Bruce's experiences and insights will represent even more of an asset to his clients.

David Hooper (Centerview Partners)

New York, NY

Bruce Ettleson has established himself as the leading fund formation lawyer in the United States. He is keenly aware of market conditions and developments and has been a force in moving the market on many terms, including introducing innovations that benefit both GP's and LP's. His team at K&E has fund formation down to a science and they can work the fund formation process and its many intellectual and logistical challenges like no other law firm in country. He is not a one-man band, however, and has developed a squad of very capable lieutenants. There are virtually no issues that he has not seen before and his mastery of them is second to none.

Mark Tresnowski (Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC)

Chicago, IL

I thoroughly enjoyed working with Bruce and the Kirkland team. Bruce brought a depth of experience and market knowledge that was invaluable and ultimately saved us a lot of money. Bruce's knowledge of the market favorably positioned us as we negotiated with our investors. Bruce was a master at handling the negotiations with the limited partners who invested in our fund. I would highly recommend Bruce and Kirkland to represent General Partners who are raising funds. They were extremely responsive and held themselves highly accountable - the best legal dollars I have ever spent, as Bruce's knowledge saved us significant time and expense.

John Hatherly (Wynnchurch Capital)

Lake Forest, IL

Bruce is at the top of his field. His skills in PE fund formation are unmatched in my experience. He has endless energy and is very responsive. He is clear at outlining options and comparing them to what is the state of the market. I have worked with him for a number of years, over multiple funds, and find him easy to work with and very through. I recommend him frequently.

Terry Graunke (Lake Capital)

Chicago, IL

I was told by a number of respected attorneys (including rivals of Mr. Ettleson's firm) that Mr. Ettleson was the best private equity partnership attorney in the business. Having now successfully completed our fund raising, I completely concur with that assessment. It became clear to me during the document preparation that many novel structuring techniques that produce very favorable and direct personal benefits for all of our team were created by Mr. Ettleson over the years. All of that prior expertise came to bear on our structure. Most importantly, Mr. Ettleson was intimately involved in all aspects of the transaction, from the details of the drafting to the negotiations. This proved enormously beneficial, as he had direct experience negotiating with limited partners and could again apply that knowledge to gain an advantage on crucial points. Additionally, because Mr. Ettleson was so directly involved in the process, it was very important that he be responsive to our needs and questions. I cannot think of a single instance where we struggled to reach him to answer questions or where there was any delay in scheduling conference calls or meetings. He was unusually responsive. We will certainly use Mr. Ettleson on our next fund.

James Cooper (Thompson Street Capital Partners)

Saint Louis, MO