Ivan A. Schlager

Ivan Schlager is an international trade and national security partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Ivan provides counsel on structuring, negotiating and documenting transactions to address regulatory issues, including approval by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). He represents a diverse group of clients ranging from defense companies, major telecommunications providers, and media and technology companies to private equity firms and companies in the financial services, energy, manufacturing and health care industries.

Ivan has significant experience navigating national security reviews and negotiating complex mitigation agreements. He has developed innovative structures to address national security issues in some of the largest and most complex cross-border transactions. He also assists clients with industrial security (including mitigation of foreign ownership, control or influence (FOCI)), international trade, export control and government contracting issues, as well as congressional investigations and other matters involving government relations and investigations. In 2021 and 2022, Chambers Global also assigned Ivan a Band 1 rating in International Trade: CFIUS Experts (USA).

Before joining Kirkland, Ivan was a partner and head of the national security practice and served on the Policy Committee at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. His prior experience includes serving as the chief counsel and staff director to the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, where he supervised subcommittee professional staff and devised legislative strategy.

Ivan has repeatedly been recognized as a leading lawyer in his field. According to peers and clients, “he acts across a range of industries,” earning recognition as a “thoughtful, connected, calm and authoritative” practitioner. In 2016, Ivan was honored as the Transatlantic Lawyer of the Year: Regulatory at the second annual American Lawyer Transatlantic Legal Awards, which recognizes “the best legal work conducted between the U.S. and Europe.” In 2016 and 2015, he was named as one of Law360’s International Trade MVPs. He also has received a Burton Award for legal writing, one of the highest literary honors in law. Ivan was named by The Washingtonian as a leading lawyer for national security, and is selected for inclusion in Chambers Global, Chambers USA, The Legal 500 U.S., The Best Lawyers in America and Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America.