Three Partners Named Law360 MVPs

Law360 named Kirkland partners Adam Alper, Michael De Vries and Adam Kool 2025 “MVPs of the Year.” MVPs distinguished themselves from their peers by securing significant achievements in high-stakes litigation, complex global matters and record-breaking deals.

Adam Alper and Mike De Vries, who won in the Intellectual Property category, are two of the country’s foremost trial lawyers and IP practitioners. They have secured more than $2.5 billion in verdicts and publicly reported settlements since 2018, including 10 jury trial wins since the end of 2019. In the period under consideration, Adam and Mike won three jury trial victories: a $25 million verdict for Finch Therapeutics and the University of Minnesota in patent litigation related to medical technology; for Samsung and Applied Materials in what is believed to be the largest defense-side patent win in U.S. history, with a potential award of $4 billion in damages; and their second jury trial victory for TriZetto and Cognizant Technology in litigation related to trade secret misappropriation, bringing the total award to $370 million.

Adam Kool, who won in the Tax category, plays a lead role in many of Kirkland’s most high-profile domestic and cross-border M&A transactions. Known for his strategic vision, command of complex technical detail and collaborative approach, Adam is a go-to tax adviser for major private equity sponsors and multinational public companies alike. In the last 12 months, he advised on the tax aspects of Kellanova’s pending $35.9 million sale to Mars; the $24.25 billion sale of Worldpay to Global Payments; and Thoma Bravo’s $10.55 billion purchase of digital aviation assets from Boeing.