Trump Tumult Is No Sweat for Kirkland’s $49 Billion Deal Closer
Kim Hicks was in New York advising Kimberly-Clark Corp. on a $49 billion plan to buy Tylenol maker Kenvue Inc. when President Donald Trump dropped word bombs into the mix.
“But with Tylenol, don’t take it,” Trump said Sept. 22 at the White House, claiming without evidence that pregnant women’s use of the drug increases autism risks in children.
The surprise comments added tension to the talks—the type of situation in which Hicks thrives.
The Austin, Texas dealmaker for Kirkland & Ellis enjoys test driving BMW M4s at roughly 200 miles per hour at a racetrack just outside the city. She counts “Under Pressure” by David Bowie and Queen as one of her favorite songs.
“She remains calm,” said Paul Humphreys, a veteran M&A partner at Freshfields who has worked across the table from Hicks on other transactions.
Hicks and other lawyers shifted in response to Trump’s comment. They joined with consultants and media professionals to craft a presentation to shareholders and prepare for questions.
As Kimberly-Clark Chief Executive Officer Mike Hsu said Nov. 3 when the deal was announced, “Our collective brands help parents raise their children and continue to play an important role throughout consumers’ lifetimes in moments of need and vulnerability.”
The plan initially didn’t appear to work. Kimberly-Clark shares fell nearly 15% the day the transaction was announced.
But on Jan. 16 medical journal Lancet published a study finding no link between Tylenol and autism and other disabilities and disorders. Nearly two weeks later, Kimberly-Clark and Kenvue announced that the companies’ shareholders overwhelmingly approved the deal. It is expected to close in the second half of the year.
The twists in the saga didn’t bother Hicks, whose work for Kimberly-Clark and on other big deals last year elevated her profile.
“That’s the part of dealmaking that I like,” she said in an interview. “It’s working through the issues and trying to find a solution.”
Kirkland Powerhouse
For law firms that close big deals, Kirkland is near the top of the heap. Only Latham & Watkins guided more than the $743 billion worth of transactions Kirkland handled last year, according to Bloomberg data.
Kirkland is known for hiring attorneys with big personalities and sharp elbows. It’s where partners at the country’s most profitable large law firm have embraced a reputation as “wolves in wolves clothing.”
That’s why Hicks, 41, stands out at as a high-end dealmaker who doesn’t like being the center of attention.
“I don’t want to be the center of the attention anywhere,” she said. “Hell to me would be someone throwing a big surprise party. I would hate that. I didn’t have a wedding. I didn’t want to be the center of that.” Hicks and her husband, Matt Miller, went to the judge in a Houston courthouse on a Tuesday in 2011.
“She’s often the smartest person in the room, but she definitely does not feel the need to show that,” said Doug Bacon, a Kirkland M&A partner. “That isn’t necessarily common in this industry.”
Read More: Big Law’s Top 20 M&A Dealmakers
The Kenvue deal is one of several large transactions that Hicks has helped steer over the last year.
She led a Kirkland team
In the midst of the Brookfield deal, Trump announced
“We wanted to make sure the deal got signed on a very timely basis,” he said. Hicks joined him in helping to get it done quickly, even as Kirkland specialists slowed down the process, he said.
Humphreys, the Freshfields partner, represented the global pulp maker Suzano last year in a $3.4 billion joint-venture with Kimberly-Clark, which Hicks represented.
“She embodies the person who is a hard negotiator but a decent person,” Humphreys said. “We could all strive a little harder to be like that.”
Hicks, who once weighed careers in consulting and medicine, never envisioned herself at a place like Kirkland.
She grew up in northwest Austin, the daughter of parents who worked in insurance. She considered the legal profession only after internships at a local law firm and the US Attorney’s office while attending the University of Texas.
She tried litigation for six months as an associate at Jones Day after graduating from UT before spending more than three years doing only transaction work. Then she focused on M&A work at Paul Hastings for nearly four years.
“There are all these different levers you can pull to make the deal come together, which I really like,” Hicks said.
Kirkland came calling in 2017. M&A partners including Bacon and Andrew Calder hosted Hicks at a recruiting dinner to try to persuade her to join the then 80-lawyer Houston office the firm had opened three years earlier.
Deciding to join Kirkland “was a scary move,” Hicks acknowledges. “There are a lot of superstars here.”
Austin Home
In 2021, Hicks returned home when Kirkland asked her to help open its new Austin office.
A music junkie who frequents the Austin City Limits annual music festival, Hicks was thrilled when she and other partners named conference rooms after Texas music legends: George Strait, Janis Joplin, Beyonce, and Willie Nelson.
She constantly listens to self-curated music playlists that include country and punk songs “to make sure the vibe feels right” but not so much in the office, out of fear of missing a client’s call. She prefers Johnny Cash guitar-driven tunes after she closes a deal, finding his simplified rhythmic beats “very calm.”
One of the first people Hicks helped recruit to Kirkland’s new Austin operation was M&A partner Martha Todd, with whom she attended high school.
“She was always incredibly driven,” Todd said of Hicks. “When she is under a lot of strain, you do not know it.”
On the 40th floor of The Republic building in Austin, where 105 Kirkland attorneys now work, Hicks stood in the Janis Joplin room last month, peering out into dense fog blanketing city hall and Lady Bird Lake, signs of the incoming winter storm.
Just like her approach to M&A work, she had already prepared for the possibility of a storm. She and her husband had bought extra food and water for themselves and their cats, and they had battery backups and solar in the event of a power loss.
“I don’t worry about it too much,” Hicks said. “Even if the power goes out, it’s usually fine.”
Editor’s note: This is the second installment of The Big Deal, a periodic series profiling M&A lawyers.
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