Simpson Thacher & Bartlett has opened an office in Chicago with a team of five private investment and family office partners hired from Kirkland & Ellis.
The new office – the firm's 16th globally – will be led by managing partner Ryan Harris, who has joined from Kirkland alongside Cole Parker, Kyle McHugh, Ryan Jackson and Ziyad Ziyadzade.
The team advises private equity sponsors, family offices and public and private companies on transactions including M&A, leveraged buyouts, growth and venture investments, restructurings, divestitures and financings.
Alden Millard, chair of Simpson Thacher’s executive committee, said the team would significantly expand the firm's ability to advise mid-market private equity funds and other private capital clients.
“Opening an office in Chicago extends our ability to serve our clients in one of the country’s most dynamic centres of investment activity and legal talent,” he added.
Harris led the private investment and family office practice at Kirkland, where he spent 11 years as a partner, having earlier practised at legacy McDermott Will & Emery.
Collectively, Harris and his team's client base spans major private investment firms like Bain Capital and Thoma Bravo as well as Chicago-based private equity funds including Beecken Petty O’Keefe & Company (BPOC), GTCR and ParkerGale.
In 2020, Harris advised GTCR-backed Lytx on its $2.5bn sale to Permira Funds, while more recently members of the team have advised on transactions including BPOC's sale of Cranial Technologies and ParkerGale on its investment in RedZone Technologies.
Harris said Simpson Thacher intended to build a "major presence" in Chicago.
“We look forward to fully scaling the office as part of Simpson Thacher’s world-class platform, with the goal of bringing together the best lawyers to collaborate across transactional, regulatory and disputes practices,” Harris added.
Another recent entrant to the Chicago market is Akin Gump, which opened there last autumn with a four-partner real estate funds and infrastructure M&A team it hired earlier in 2025 from Mayer Brown.
Simpson Thacher's Chicago move also comes just a few months after the firm opened in Dallas after hiring distressed company specialist David Nemecek from Kirkland to head its newly-created capital structure solutions practice.
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