Milbank is set to launch in Chicago and has brought on a White & Case practice co-head as its first partner in the city.
Nadav Klugman has joined Milbank having co-led White & Case's global project development and finance practice to help open the new office – the firm's 12th globally.
"We believe that Chicago can be an important new market for the firm to attract first-level talent that will allow us to better serve our clients,” Milbank chairman, Scott Edelman, said in a statement.
Edelman added Klugman was "recognised as a star" in the energy transition sector, which he pointed to as a growing area for the firm.
Chicago will mark Milbank's first new location since 2015, when it launched its foreign legal consultant office in Seoul, South Korea.
Klugman, who has advised clients including BlackRock, Bank of America, KKR and Nomura, will be expected to help lead the new office. He was a partner at Mayer Brown before joining White & Case in 2024 and focuses his practice on energy transition and structured corporate solutions, particularly advising financial institutions and sponsors on project financings, private acquisitions and divestitures of renewable energy investments, and tax equity investments.
“Financings for renewable energy assets have increased at an unprecedented rate as the demand for energy continues to accelerate,” Milbank global project, energy and infrastructure finance partner, Mike Duff, said. “Nadav’s experience will meaningfully strengthen our ability to deliver the financing structures that our clients require and cement our position as the market’s leading renewables platform.”
Last November Milbank also boosted its energy and infrastructure financing bench in its New York headquarters with partner Thomas Sines from Paul Hastings. His work spans project finance, debt capital markets, bank financings and corporate transactions across traditional and renewable energy, as well as digital infrastructure and data centre financings.
The firm's Chicago move comes just a few weeks after Simpson Thacher & Bartlett opened an office in the city with a team of five private investment and family office partners hired from Kirkland & Ellis.
Another recent entrant to the Chicago market is Akin Gump, which launched there last autumn with a four-partner real estate funds and infrastructure M&A team it hired earlier in 2025 from Mayer Brown.
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