Kirkland Deals Lawyer, Family Flee Israel With Help From Firm

Kirkland & Ellis partner Daniel Wolf and his family fled Israel with help from his law firm three days after Hamas launched a surprise attack on the country, according to the New York deals lawyer.

“It was like a slow-motion horror movie,” Wolf said of the experience in an interview.

Wolf, whose parents and brother live in Israel, is based in Manhattan and has an apartment in Jerusalem. He was headed to a local synagogue on Oct. 7 when air defense sirens began to blare.

He turned back to the family’s apartment, he said, and sprinted up the steps to the front door, hands shaking as he tried to open it. Wolf and his family gathered inside a safe room, reinforced with concrete and steel. He turned on a phone app that uses geolocation technology to play a siren warning of incoming rockets and missiles.

Wolf is no stranger to hearing the sirens linked to the country’s Iron Dome defense system. He served in the Israeli army after moving finishing high school in the US. His three nephews have mobilized with the country’s army following the attacks.

“When your family’s there and your kids are there, it’s a different thing,” he said.

Wolf and his family remained stuck in Israel for the next three days as missile strikes continued and US airlines canceled flights, he said. Kirkland eventually was able to help about 20 people—including other firm lawyers and their families—get on flights out of the country, after the attorneys reached out to the firm, according to Wolf.

“From the moment they found out about it, they literally mobilized unlimited resources and were in touch with us nonstop coming up with alternatives, providing escort and travel help,” said Wolf, adding that the firm’s staff stayed up all night to make sure flights took off.

The firm declined to comment.

‘Welcome Distraction’

More than 1,400 people in Israel and 3,700 people in Gaza have been killed as the conflict nears the two-week mark.

President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken made separate trips to Israel last week pledging the US’s support for Israel.

The conflict has also has reverberated on US law school campuses and across the legal industry.

Winston & Strawn revoked a job offer for a New York University law student who blamed Israel for the attacks. Davis Polk & Wardwell said it rescinded three offers from students at Harvard and Columbia after their organizations signed onto statements that laid sole responsibility for the violence on Israel.

Investor Bill Ackman criticized a letter from more than 30 Harvard student groups that signed onto those statements. A federal judge said he won’t hire law clerks who have signed onto letters that he believes effectively support Hamas’ attacks.

The American Bar Association weighed in on Tuesday, expressing concerns about the reported targeting of civilians in the fighting and related hate crimes in the US. ABA President Mary Smith condemned “the rise in antisemitism, anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia that we have seen in public discourse in recent days.”

Wolf recounted his experience in Israel during the attacks in a LinkedIn post. He also joined more than 400 lawyers signing a letter arguing that Israel has “a right to defend itself from terror.”

“I have no idea what the right answer is,” Wolf said of what happens next in the ongoing conflict. “But I also am conscious of the fact that it’s a war and no one wins in a war.”

Kirkland partners have individually raised more than $1.7 million to donate to humanitarian organizations, according to the firm

Wolf is best known as a prolific M&A lawyer, advising Bristol Myers Squibb on its $90 billion acquisition of Celgene and $13.1 billion acquisition of MyoKardia. He also led teams of Kirkland lawyers that counseled Oak Street Health on its $10.6 billion sale to CVS and Danaher Corp. on its $21 billion buy of General Electric’s biopharmaceutical business.

Now back in New York, Wolf says the reality of the conflict is still close as his parents, brother, family, and friends remain in Israel. He used Zoom to attend the funeral of close family friend, an Israeli solder killed in the fighting.

Since his return to work, Wolf has tried to compartmentalize by handling board meetings, negotiation sessions, and carving out time for the most urgent matters. It isn’t easy, he said.

“Work is a welcome distraction,” Wolf said.