Kimberly Zirkle Email & Phone Number

My favorite word for “lawyer” is “counselor”. The ability to truly hear and understand client ideas, concerns, and goals sets us apart and enables us to respond to those specific items. Likewise, the ability to hear and understand competing concerns sets up an atmosphere of collaboration that helps us to get to the finish line more efficiently and with a result that all parties can feel excited about.I focus my practice on corporate finance and acquisition transactions and regularly represent various types of lenders, private equity portfolio companies, and private companies in corporate finance and acquisition transactions. My experience involves a wide variety of debt structures, including unitranche, ABL, first lien, split lien, second lien, and mezzanine (secured or unsecured). I have provided counsel to clients for transactions involving technology, service, and manufacturing companies, as well as for companies operating in regulated industries such as government contracting, telecommunications and healthcare. After almost 20 years, when people ask me what I do, I say “I do what my clients do”. My experience includes a range of debt structures for both domestic and cross-border transactions. Willingness to pivot enables me to craft creative solutions and structures for lender clients to maximize returns and achieve desired outcomes.I also counsel private equity funds in leveraged buyout transactions and represent portfolio companies and other private companies as borrower counsel in their third-party debt financings. I enjoy providing thoughtful advice on structuring, debt terms, and other business considerations to enable clients to meet their financing needs.As an attorney, one of my proudest endeavors has been leading efforts to develop a nonprofit legal service provider aimed at providing much-needed transactional legal assistance to small businesses in the Carolinas owned by diverse and underserved entrepreneurs. In my pro bono practice, I’ve represented survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking. I also genuinely enjoy being an active mentor for younger attorneys as they progress in their legal careers. My best piece of advice for younger attorneys is “your law degree has one name on it, your’s; it’s up to you to decide what you will do with it and where.”

Listed skills include Private Equity, Corporate Law, Mergers And Acquisitions, Investments, and 4 others.