Risa M. Salins

Prior to joining Kirkland, Risa was involved in the following representations:

Spin-Offs and Carveouts

• DuPont de Nemours, Inc. in its:
  • $45.4 billion spin-off and sale of its Nutrition & Biosciences business to International Flavors & Fragrance through a reverse Morris trust transaction, involving transfers of over 10,000 employees in approximately 50 countries; and
  • Two-step spinoff of its Agricultural Division (now Corteva, Inc.) and its Materials Science Division (now Dow Inc.), resulting in workforce of approximately 98,000 employees being divided among three new publicly traded companies.
• E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Company in its carveout sale of a portion of its Crop Protection business to FMC Corporation and simultaneous acquisition of FMC's Health & Nutrition Business and $1.2 billion in cash in order to secure regulatory approval for the Dow-DuPont merger.
• Nasdaq, Inc. in connection with the sale of legal vehicles and assets comprising its public relations solutions and digital media services businesses to West Corporation for approximately $335 million.
• Intel Corporation in its $4.2 billion joint venture with TPG Capital, L.P. to form the independent cybersecurity company McAfee, including the transfer of an in-scope workforce spanning approximately 60 countries to the joint venture.
• Citigroup in its $685 million sale of its fixed income analytics and index businesses, including The Yield Book and the World Government Bond Index, to the London Stock Exchange Group.

Private Equity Transactions

• Kelso & Company in its acquisition of a majority stake in Refresh Mental Health.
• Kelso & Company and affiliates of Blue Wolf Capital Partners in connection with the acquisition of Jordan Health Services from Palladium Equity Partners, and Kelso in connection with the concurrent merger of Jordan Health Services with Great Lakes Caring and National Home Health Care under a combined entity jointly owned with affiliates of Blue Wolf.
• HPS Investment Partners in its acquisition of Citadel Servicing Corporation.
• JAB Holding Company in its acquisition of National Veterinary Associates.

Public Company M&A

• E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Company in its $130 billion merger-of-equals with The Dow Chemical Company.
• EMC Corporation in its $67 billion acquisition by Denali Holding Inc., the parent company of Dell Inc.
• Endo International in its $658 million acquisition of BioSpecifics Technologies.
• WEC Energy Group, Inc. in its $5.7 billion acquisition of Integrys Energy Group, Inc.
• Specialty pharmaceutical company Correvio Pharma Corp. on the sale of its shares to ADVANZ PHARMA for $76 million.

Restructurings

• Synergy Pharmaceuticals Inc. in its Chapter 11 restructuring, reduction-in-force and sale of substantially all of its assets to Bausch Health Companies Inc.
• Titan Energy LLC on employee matters in connection with its out-of-court restructuring.
• Key Safety Systems, Inc. in its $1.6 billion acquisition of substantially all of the non-PSAN inflator assets of Takata Corporation through cross-border restructuring proceedings in the U.S., Japan and Canada and out-of-court asset purchase transactions in Germany, China and Mexico.
• Melinta Therapeutics on labor and employment issues in connections with its Chapter 11 reorganization.

Pharmaceutical Transactions

• Array BioPharma in its $11.4 billion acquisition by Pfizer.
• ArQule in its sale to Merck for $2.7 billion.
• Alder Biopharmaceuticals in its sale of Lundbeck for up to $1.95 billion.
• CerSci Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology providing neurological treatments, in its sale to ACADIA Pharmaceuticals for up to $939.5 million.
• Ionis Pharmaceuticals in its acquisition of the remaining outstanding stake of Akcea Therapeutics for $500 million.

Talent Agency Deals

• United Talent Agency (UTA) in various matters, including:
  • acquisition of a significant stake in agent Klutch Sports Group, which represents LeBron James and other top NBA athletes, and the formation of a UTA sports division;
  • acquisition of top social media influencer agency DBA Media;
  • acquisition of electronic music-focused Circle Talent Agency;
  • acquisition of two e-sports talent and marketing agencies; and
  • acquisition of news and broadcast agency Bienstock.
• Klutch Sports Group and UTA in the acquisition of leading football representation agency Revolution Sports.

Counseling

• Private equity firm on contentious termination of an executive officer of its portfolio company, including a dispute regarding repurchase of profits units.
• Leading automotive parts supplier and its Board of Directors on the separation of the company's Chief Financial Officer.
• Fortune 500 company on separation of an officer following investigation of a sexual harassment complaint.
• Automotive retailer in investigation of sexual harassment complaints against an officer.
• Global consulting firm in investigation of gender discrimination allegations.