At Pratch & Company, Emile serves as an invaluable sounding board, applying his wide-ranging experience to the problems we deal with and, not least, always willing to play devil’s advocate to each member of our business advisory team.

Emile Karafiol was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1935, but grew up in Montreal, Canada.  He went to college at Princeton University (Class of 1955), and to graduate school at Cornell University where he received a Ph.D. in European history.  Between 1960 and 1977 he taught European history to undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Chicago.  He then decided to change careers, and in 1979, when he received his JD degree from the University of Chicago Law School, he joined Kirkland & Ellis LLP’s corporate practice.  He is now retired, but is still active as “of counsel” to Kirkland & Ellis.

As a lawyer, Emile has worked in most areas of corporate law, but he has specialized in representing institutional venture capital/private equity (VC/PE) investors and their portfolio companies.  He has extensive experience in structuring, negotiating and documenting complex business transactions, including venture capital investments, leveraged buyouts, mergers and acquisitions, corporate divestitures, and recapitalizations.

Emile is also experienced in other matters involving VC/PE funds, including fund formation and compensation plans for VC/PE managers.  Not least, he has extensive experience in regulatory matters affecting many of his firm’s VC/PE clients, including licensing and regulation of Small Business Investment Companies by the U.S. Small Business Administration, and regulation by various federal agencies of equity investing by banks and bank holding companies. Emile has been a member of the Advisory Boards of a number of VC/PE funds.