Steve Napolitano retired as a senior partner from Kirkland & Ellis LLP, where he was a partner in the M&A/Private Equity Practice Group from 2018 to 2025.
Over a 40 plus year career, Steve represented private capital sponsors, family offices and corporations in leveraged buyouts, M&A, going-private transactions, growth equity and debt financings, public offerings, joint ventures, recapitalizations and
restructurings. Steve also counseled boards on a broad range of strategic and transactional matters.
Steve has depth in the heavily regulated for-profit healthcare industry, serving as lead counsel on numerous private and public transactions involving complex federal and state healthcare regulatory considerations.
Prior to rejoining Kirkland & Ellis, where he began his legal career, Steve was Co-Chair of DLA Piper’s U.S. Private Equity Practice and a member of the Firm’s Executive and Policy Committees.

Steven Napolitano is a veteran corporate, private equity, and restructuring attorney with
more than 40 years of experience advising companies, financial sponsors, family offices,
boards, and management teams on complex transactions, financings, recapitalizations,
and restructurings. A retired senior partner of Kirkland & Ellis, Steven was a partner in the
firm’s M&A/Private Equity Practice Group from 2018 through 2025 and previously served
as Co-Chair of DLA Piper’s U.S. Private Equity Practice.
Steven brings extensive experience in restructuring, distressed transactions, corporate
governance, M&A, and complex capital structures to the firm’s Chapter 11 and postconfirmation
work. His restructuring experience includes representing Vertellus Specialties
in its Chapter 11 process and sale of substantially all of its assets, as well as advising IPC
Systems in an out-of-court restructuring of more than $1 billion of funded debt that
reduced leverage by over $400 million and provided $125 million of new capital.
Steven has also advised companies facing significant financial and operational challenges,
including Adeptus Health in the restructuring of hospital joint ventures and its senior credit
facility and the sale of its senior indebtedness, and True Health Diagnostics in the
restructuring of its senior debt facility. His broader transactional practice has included
leveraged buyouts, debt financings, joint ventures, recapitalizations, and board-level
fiduciary and governance matters.
Steven has served as lead counsel on numerous private and public transactions involving
complex regulatory and financial considerations. He received his J.D. from Boston
University School of Law and his B.A. in Economics from the University of Notre Dame.

FOOD, BEVERAGE & CONSUMER
Arbor Investments / Red Collar Pet Foods—$700M sale of three dry pet food plants to Colgate-Palmolive; acquisition of Mars Petcare’s U.S. Exclusive Brands pet food business
Arbor Investments / Greco & Sons—leveraged acquisition and later sale of the Italian food importer-distributor to Sysco
Arbor Investments—acquisitions of Fontaine Santé (plant-based foods), Concord Foods, Columbus Manufacturing (from Endeavor) and Trojan Lithograph; recapitalization of Dr. G’s Creations; sales of Columbus Craft Meats to Hormel Foods, Fieldbrook Foods to Wells Enterprises, Trudeau Foods to UNFI, Gold Standard Baking to Tricor Pacific, Great Kitchens to Aryzta and Bradshaw to Onex; acquisitions of Bradshaw Home (from ONCAP) and Steelite International (from PNC RiverArch)
Wind Point Partners—sale of Hearthside Foods to Goldman Sachs and Vestar; acquisition and sale of Santa Maria Foods (to Sofina); acquisition of Ames True Temper from Jacuzzi and later sale to Castle Harlan
KBP Investments—sale of the largest KFC franchisee to The Pritzker Organization and DNS Capital
Black Rifle Coffee Company—$1.7B business combination with SilverBox Engaged Merger Corp I (NASDAQ: SBEA)
Stonebridge Partners—debt and equity restructuring of Specialty Bakers
HEALTHCARE
RiverGlade Capital—structuring of U.S. Oral Surgery Management and its multi-clinic roll-up, and its sale to Oak Hill Capital; acquisitions of Home Helpers (from Linsalata Capital) and KidsCare (from Sterling Partners)
Sterling Partners—leveraged acquisition of Grand Rapids Ophthalmology and creation of its MSO platform; acquisition of Kids Care Dental and formation of its DSO
Physician groups—Michigan Institute of Urology in its sale to Solaris Health; Arizona Cardiovascular Institute & CCRE in its sale to National Cardiovascular Partners
Adeptus Health (NYSE: ADPT)—hospital acquisitions and joint ventures with Dignity Health, University of Colorado Health and Texas Health Resources; JV and senior-credit restructuring and sale of senior debt to Deerfield Management
NovaMed (NASDAQ: NOVA) —NovaMed’s venture financings, IPO and tender-offer sale to Surgery Partners (H.I.G. Capital)
HealthAllies—HealthAllies’ equity financings and sale to UnitedHealthcare
Other—N. Pritzker Capital’s acquisition of Foundations Recovery Network; Psilos Group growth investments in digital health, including HealthEdge; Wind Point’s sale of Performance Optics to Hoya and acquisitions of Vision Ease, Daemyung Optical and Omniflight air medical
INDUSTRIALS, PACKAGING & SPECIALTY CHEMICALS
Centerbridge Partners—acquisitions of Precinmac (from Pine Island, Bain Capital Credit and Compass), MacLean Power Systems (from MacLean-Fogg) and American Bath Group from Lonestar, including leveraged recapitalizations Wind Point Partners—sale of Novolex to The Carlyle Group; acquisition and leveraged recapitalization of Hilex Poly (TPG Growth); acquisition and sale of Paragon Films (to Wellspring); Clock Spring / NRI merger and acquisition of Milliken Infrastructure Solutions; Vertellus acquisition (from Arsenal), purchase of Dow’s sodium borohydride business and Section 363 sale; sale of Arr-Maz to GSO; acquisition and later sale of RailWorks
Stonebridge Partners—acquisition and sale of Cast-Crete (to Monomoy); acquisitions of Brand FX and ADI (UK aerospace)
Arbor Investments / Dunn Paper—leveraged acquisition and later restructuring; purchase of Clearwater Paper’s Ladysmith mill; acquisition of Keyes Packaging
Other—Berry Plastics management in Goldman Sachs and Apollo buyouts; Cortec Group’s buyout of CGI Windows & Doors; Prairie Capital’s buyout of Plastimayd
FUNDS, EDUCATION & TECHNOLOGY
Fund formation—Arbor Investments IV ($765M), V ($1.5B) and VI ($1.3B) and Arbor Debt Opportunities I and II; RiverGlade Capital I and II; Sterling Fund IV continuation-fund recapitalization with RenWave
Sterling Partners—take-private of ASX-listed Keypath Education International
IPC Systems—out-of-court restructuring cutting leverage by $400M+, extending maturities five years and raising $125M of new capital

Chambers USA & Global -ranked annually since 2003; “thinks like a private investor”

Best Lawyers in America – Corporate Law, since 2006

Lawdragon – 500 Leading Dealmakers in America, 2021-2025

Legal 500 U.S. and Euromoney Legal Media – Recognized for M&A and private equity

Illinois Super Lawyers – Recognized since 2004

Olympus Guardian – Partner (2026), focused on representing companies that are frequently impacted by bankruptcy proceedings

KN Capital Advisors – Co-Founder (2026), a boutique investment bank and strategic advisory firm

Kirkland & Ellis LLP – Partner, M&A / Private Equity, 2018–2025; began his legal career at the firm

DLA Piper LLP (US) – Partner, Co-Chair, U.S. Private Equity Practice; Executive and Policy Committees

Boston University School of Law
J.D.; Editor, American Journal of Law & Medicine; American Jurisprudence Award; G. Joseph Tauro Scholar

University of Notre Dame
B.A., Economics; Omicron Epsilon Delta

Member, University of Notre Dame Law School Advisory Council

Former Chairman, UCP Seguin of Greater Chicago

Director Emeritus, Malignant Hyperthermia Association of the U.S.

Board of Trustees, National Football Foundation

Board and mentor roles with LINK Unlimited Scholars