Cooley has made a twin partner hire from Kirkland & Ellis to further strengthen its recently launched infrastructure, energy and real estate group.
The incoming duo are Kevin Donahue and Jacob Clark, who join in New York. They bring expertise in advising sponsors, private equity firms, institutional investors and sovereign wealth funds on real estate, financing and transactional matters related to large-scale data centre and infrastructure development.
The firm launched the infrastructure, energy and real estate group in May with the hire of Mona Dajani from Baker Botts, who joined as the group’s global co-chair alongside longtime Cooley partner Michelle Schulman, who previously led the firm’s real estate practice.
Peter Werner, a partner and chair of Cooley’s global business department, said: “Kevin and Jacob bring formidable transactional and infrastructure capabilities to our fast-growing group. We are investing deliberately to meet growing client demand at the convergence of infrastructure, energy and the digital economy, and we are capable of handling the most complex, high-value matters in the space.”
Donahue arrives after almost four years as a partner at Kirkland, having previously been of counsel at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher and Paul Hastings before that. He started his career at Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft.
Clark moves over after just short of a decade at Kirkland, his first legal role. He became a partner in 2022.
Donahue said: “The opportunity to join Cooley and the infrastructure, energy and real estate group was highly compelling. Few firms combine the range of trusted relationships across the global technology and investment communities with deep data centre experience in the way that Cooley does.”
The duo’s arrival is Cooley’s latest hire from Kirkland, having nabbed real estate partner John Goldman back in February, who is now part of the infrastructure, energy and real estate group.
Clark added: “Financing and infrastructure are evolving in new ways, and providing integrated and seamless solutions to our clients is critical to their success. Cooley’s collaborative culture and its role advising many of the world’s most dynamic companies make this the ideal platform to support clients pursuing increasingly complex infrastructure strategies.”
Paul Hastings also strengthened its real estate and infrastructrure bench last month in London with the hire of private equity partners Lyndsey Laverack and Jade Williams-Adedeji from Covington & Burling.
Email your news and story ideas to: [email protected]
