Bio

Neill Jakobe is a member of Ropes & Gray’s governing management committee, having previously served as co-head of its global private equity practice and head of the Chicago office. Focusing on private equity buyouts and strategic M&A, Neill has helped steer an international roster of clients through complex deals ranging in size from tens of millions to billions of dollars. Neill’s global client base includes the sponsors listed below, in addition to BDT Capital, McNally Capital, Mitsubishi, Xerox, Takeda, Hershey and others. Neill offers clients rare insight into the dealmaking process. In addition to his legal experience structuring, negotiating and closing complex deals, Neill has firsthand transactional experience from his work as an investment banker with the Financial Sponsors Group at Morgan Stanley. He has evaluated acquisitions from a financial perspective, developed financial models, arranged equity and debt financing, and worked on a number of transactions (including IPOs, LBOs and other M&A) on the finance side. Neill’s understanding of the business side of a deal allows him to anticipate his clients’ needs throughout the life cycle of a transaction and take a pragmatic approach in complex negotiations. Neill’s earlier experience as a securities litigator also benefits clients with corporate governance issues, as he can help identify and analyze the types of securities issues that often lead to litigation in this era of shareholder activism and an activist plaintiffs’ bar. Early in his career, Neill was a member of litigation teams handling high-profile securities fraud matters, including a number of actions arising from the bankruptcy of Enron. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the University of Michigan Law School, Neill has lived and worked in the Midwest for the last 15 years, and he possesses an in-depth knowledge of the region’s private equity and venture capital communities.