Goodwin poaches Kirkland partner and Next Gen Leader

Jacqueline Eaves will join the law firm's private equity and private investment funds practices in London.

headshot of Jacqueline Eaves
Jacqueline Eaves, Goodwin

Goodwin has hired a partner from Kirkland & Ellis as it continues to expand its secondaries practice.

Jacqueline Eaves will join the law firm’s private equity and private investment funds practices in London as a partner, according to a statement.

Goodwin’s secondaries practice includes portfolio sales, structured secondaries, continuation funds and GP-led transactions, said Richard Lever, a London-based partner in the private equity practice, in the statement.

Eaves focuses on advising private investment funds on secondaries transactions, including traditional portfolio sales, preferred equity and GP-led transactions.

She ranked seventh in Secondaries Investor‘s Next Gen Leaders of Secondaries in 2021 and was noted for “playing a unique role as a knowledge manager, helping to ensure the team is incorporating the latest data and market insights” into Kirkland’s practice.

A spokesperson for Kirkland told Secondaries Investor the firm wished Eaves “all the very best for the future”.

Eaves is at least the third Kirkland professional with secondaries expertise Goodwin has hired in the last year, after Esther Chiang and Rob Emerson, who joined in April and August, respectively.

Secondaries deals that Goodwin has advised on recently include Antin Infrastructure Partners on a strip sale and Investcorp on a $1 billion GP-led deal with Coller Capital, according to the statement.

Last year it advised an undisclosed fund sponsor in the healthcare arena on a roughly $1.3 billion GP-led restructuring involving the transfer of multiple portfolio companies to a new vehicle, and also advised G Square Private Equity on a €500 million continuation fund to extend its control of portfolio investments from two legacy vehicles, according to details shared with affiliate title Private Equity International for the PEI Awards 2022.