Michael A. Woronoff

With three decades’ experience in more than $100 billion worth of deals, Woronoff had a busy year advising clients in business and legal issues arising from the pandemic.

“Technology has come so far it’s been seamless to work from home,” he said, “though you lose a lot in terms of personal interactions. The volume of work was dramatically up—it was a record year for private equity transactions, not just in our best-in-the-world restructuring group, but also on the new business M&A side.”

A test was his continued work integrating the group he brought from Proskauer Rose LLP’s Los Angeles office, where Woronoff had been the managing partner, to Kirkland in 2019. He led a 20-attorney Proskauer transactional team that first took up temporary office space, then moved to Kirkland’s new Century City shop. “Then the pandemic hit, making the integration all the more challenging,” he said. “Happily, it has now exceeded our wildest expectations. We are now completely joined with Kirkland teams around the world.”

Among the clients he brought with him was Ares Management LP, a Los Angeles investment firm that manages over $149 billion in assets. In 2020 Woronoff advised Ares in the Chapter 11 restructuring of its portfolio company Guitar Center Inc., a music industry retailer. Its reorganization plan, confirmed in December, allowed the company to reduce its debt by $800 million, funded in part by $165 in new equity investments from funds managed by Ares, Brigade Capital Management and The Carlyle Group.

Another highlight for him was a request from three respected investment firm clients for help in diversifying the alternative investment industry. He and Kirkland colleagues offered pro bono services, Woronoff said, as Ares, Apollo Global Management Inc. and Oaktree Capital Management LP pledged $90 million to attract and train students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities for jobs in the sector.

Set to launch in 2022, the AltFinance initiative includes a mentored fellowship program, scholarships and a virtual institute available to students at four HBCU schools. A nonprofit set up by the three companies will administer the initiative.

“My basic job is implementing clients’ visions,” he said. “And here were three of the most prestigious private equity firms in the world coming to us and putting their money where their mouth is to implement this quite complex plan. There’ll be many strategic partnerships involved, and we’re proud to be part of it.”

- John Roemer