Wes Benter is an employment & labor associate in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP.
Experience
Representative Matters
Representing Murray Energy Holdings Co. and certain of its subsidiaries in their Chapter 11 cases in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Ohio. Murray is the largest privately-owned coal company in the United States, headquartered in St. Clairsville, Ohio, and has operations primarily in Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Alabama, Illinois, Utah, and Colombia, South America. Murray employs nearly 5,500 people, including approximately 2,400 active union members. Murray entered Chapter 11 with approximately $2.7 billion in prepetition funded debt and more than $8 billion in actual or potential pension and employee benefit obligations.
Prior Experience
Summer Associate, Kirkland & Ellis LLP, 2017
Legal Intern, Constitutional Court of South Korea Constitutional Research Institute, Summer 2016
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Recognition
Paul Fuller Scholar
Dean’s List
Archibald R. Murray Public Service Award
Certificate in Management & Leadership for Lawyers
Credentials
Admissions & Qualifications
2022Illinois
2019New York
2019Missouri
Education
Fordham University School of LawJ.D.cum laude2018
Staff, Intellectual Property, Media, and Entertainment Law Journal
Bucerius Law School Exchange Program, Hamburg, Germany
Syracuse University, S.I. Newhouse School of Public CommunicationsB.S., Broadcast Journalism2004