August 21, 2008
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Geoffrey A. Richards '95 Joins Chicago Investment Banking Firm


Geoffrey A. Richards ’95 joined the investment banking firm William Blair & Company in Chicago as co-head of Special Situations & Restructuring in June 2007. In his new position, he draws on his 12 years of sophisticated transaction experience as a restructuring lawyer and investment banker to help companies solve their financial challenges. William Blair, a leading independent, employee-owned investment firm founded in 1935, offers investment banking, asset management, equity research, institutional and private brokerage, and private capital services to individual, institutional, and issuing clients.

A native of Scarsdale, New York, Richards grew up in Chicago after his family moved there when he was in grade school. He completed two years at Brooklyn Law School before returning to the Windy City to finish his law degree at Northwestern University School of Law, where he has taught corporate restructuring as an adjunct professor since 2001. “I wanted to start my career in Chicago,” he explains, “and going to law school there helped me gain exposure to Chicago law firms.”

After law school, he joined the Finance and Reorganization Group at what is now Katten Muchin Rosenman, a 500-lawyer firm at the time. Three years later, he was recruited to join the Restructuring Group at Kirkland & Ellis in the firm’s main office in Chicago. He worked with billion-dollar corporations and helped grow the firm’s restructuring practice from 10 attorneys to 88. He became a partner there in 2002. “Participating in the growth of K&E’s Restructuring Group was great training for developing and strengthening the group I joined at William Blair,” says Richards.

Richards also brings experience in the financial world to his new position. He served as a managing director at New York-based investment banking firm Giuliani Capital Advisors, where he worked with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani before Giuliani announced his presidential candidacy. “I migrated from practicing law in order to delve deeper into the financial side of bankruptcy and restructuring,” Richards explains.

Richards is happy to be back in Chicago building on his transaction experience as a lawyer and banker. With both his legal and financial backgrounds, he offers his clients a wider range of solutions than the traditional investment banker. “Representing hedge funds, private equity funds and companies in a variety of industries and working with some of the best and brightest of the bankruptcy bar has helped me to understand how the pieces on the negotiation chess board are likely to move,” he says.

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