The former Kirkland New York-based partner has been with Six Flags, the world's largest regional theme park company, since September 2010. With 18 parks in the United States, Mexico and Canada, the company boasts $1.1 billion in annual revenues.

A strong foundation

After spending his childhood in the Toledo, Ohio area, Balk graduated from Northwestern in 1980. He went on to receive a prized joint J.D. and M.B.A. from the University of Chicago (1984).

Balk worked as a summer associate before officially joining Kirkland in 1984. Though his summer work was litigation, Balk soon found himself under the wings of "two exceptional leaders" in the corporate and private equity field, Glen Hess and Jack Levin. These two transactional giants were to have, Balk adds, "a monumental impact on the trajectory of the Firm," and on Balk's own career. Balk's career prospered under the tutelage of both men and their protégés such as Karl Lutz, and by 1989, he had been promoted to non-share partner.

Riding the market roller-coaster

His big move at Kirkland took place in January 1990, when Balk joined Glen Hess in helping to open the Firm's New York office. It was, he remembers, "quite a change, going from this large and cozy mothership in Chicago to these small and new offices in the First Boston Building at 52^nd and Park." The timing turned out to be not entirely auspicious, for, as he recalls, "the buyout market went to hell just about then," driven by the downfall of Drexel Burnham Lambert.

So difficult was the prevailing market that Balk — along with future Kirkland senior litigation partner Joe Serino — was asked to help with the new office's bankruptcy work. Those pioneering days passed quickly and soon Balk had "not only a bundle of lifelong friends," but also some major clients, including Bain Capital. After serving as general counsel at Dade Behring and Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics, Balk found himself recruited by one of those lifelong friends, Jim Reid-Anderson, "the CEO of a Bain Capital portfolio company," and Balk's future boss at Dade Behring and Six Flags.

A firm foundation for success

Lance credits Kirkland for giving him the best preparation possible for his job at Six Flags, beginning with "the Kirkland culture of excellence, the highest standard of performance imaginable."

By the time he joined Six Flags, headquartered in Grand Prairie, Texas, Balk had acquired experience in "finance, board of director-level service, and in handling SEC filings." His client work for Bain Capital also helped prepare him for his Six Flags job: "I was already working as a generalist, effectively as the GC for a host of Bain Capital portfolio companies."

An "amusing" career

Lance's career is most certainly impressive and his work for Six Flags is more than just a job. "Hey," says Balk, "Six Flags is a fun place too. Heck, how can it not be? You're making people happy! How many lawyers get to say that?"

When you ask Kirk how he came to be at Kirkland, he first gives you a two-word answer: "Dallin Oaks." "Dallin was first in his class at the University of Chicago Law School, clerked for Chief Justice Earl Warren, joined Kirkland for a few years, then Dean of the University of Chicago Law School, President of Brigham Young University, Chairman of PBS, and an Apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A really impressive guy and a wonderful human being."

Once at Kirkland, Glen Hess and Carter Emerson "were my two go-to guys and great mentors." Glen Hess, Wickman says, "was the perfect example of a commercial lawyer. He wasn't a big fan of doing anything by form — he felt that form documents shut off the brain." From Carter Emerson, Wickman says he learned the ins-and-outs of private equity.

There were also fellow young Kirkland lawyers, who have stayed good friends and who influenced Wickman's career, Lance Balk, today the executive vice president and general counsel of Six Flags, for example, and Dan Yih, today the COO of Starwood Capital.

Family Man

"I was very unique at Kirkland. I was married with two children when I joined the Firm. A different situation."

He had his priorities, beginning with family and church, where he has long been a bishop (or pastor), "doing weddings, funerals, and even marriage and financial counseling — which was very hard."

He and his wife Sheryle, who met as undergraduates at Dartmouth over 35 years ago, also have a lot to be proud of in their three sons, Tom, Nate and Forrest. Their eldest son, Thomas M. Wickman, is a history professor at Trinity College in Hartford. He earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Harvard and is currently working on a book entitled Snowshoe Country: Indians, Colonists, and Winter Spaces of Power in the American Northeast. Middle son Nate, a Northwestern University grad, is an options trader on the Chicago Board of Options Exchange (the CBOE). Youngest son Forrest, also a Northwestern grad, is a senior editor at Slate, where he both writes and edits the culture blog, "Brow Beat."

Kirk's views on Kirkland — "Kirkland was where I learned the practice of law, and I remain a huge fan of the firm."