Kirkland & Ellis is adding Ivan Schlager, the former leader of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom's national security practice, as a partner in the firm's Washington, D.C., office.

Schlager, who will bring to Kirkland substantial expertise in shepherding transactions past the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, spent the last two decades with Skadden.

"In my interactions with Kirkland over the years, I have been continually impressed with their extensive M&A/private equity platform," Schlager said in a statement. "This is an incredible opportunity to pursue new challenges as I embark on the next chapter of my career."

Prior to joining Skadden, he served as the Democratic chief counsel and staff director to the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. Schlager was unavailable to speak further about his move.

"I've had the pleasure to know and work with Ivan for many years. He will be an outstanding asset for clients and the firm," Mario Mancuso, a senior member of Kirkland's international trade group, said in a statement.

A former senior member of President George W. Bush's national security team, Mancuso himself served as a CFIUS decision-maker in the government before joining Kirkland in D.C.

Demand continues to grow for CFIUS expertise since President Donald Trump signed the National Defense Authorization Act for the Fiscal Year 2019, and practitioners have been seeing an uptick in the administration's staffing and monitoring efforts.

"We thank Ivan for his many significant contributions to our firm. Going forward, former U.S. National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) director Mike Leiter, who joined us in 2017, will be leading our national security practice," a Skadden spokesperson said.

In October, Skadden national security partner Donald Vieira left the Washington office and went in-house as chief legal officer of venture fund Sequoia Capital.

The firm's office in the capital was previously roiled by the indictment of former partner Gregory Craig, onetime White House counsel for Barack Obama, over work he did for the government of Ukraine during his time at the firm. Craig was ultimately acquitted of a charge that he misled the Justice Department about the work to avoid the perceived stigma of registering under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

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