King & Spalding today announced that Jake Downing joins the firm as a partner in the Corporate, Finance and Investments practice group, and as part of the recently-launched Global Human Capital and Compliance (GHCC) practice. Downing, who specializes in global executive compensation and employee benefits issues, will be based in the Chicago office. Downing joins from Seyfarth Shaw, where he led its Executive Compensation group, and is a colleague of Darren Gardner, Amanda Sonneborn, Dominic Hodson and Luke Edwards, who joined King & Spalding in the fall of last year.
“Jake has handled virtually every type of benefits issue for U.S. multinational companies—ranging from complicated investments and strategy for pension funds, to cross-border benefits issues in deals, to large-scale pension de-risking in the context of corporate restructuring,” said Todd Holleman, who chairs King & Spalding’s Corporate, Finance and Investments practice group. “His addition to this new practice will add a powerful dimension to the services we can provide our clients.”
Downing will be a key member of the new GHCC practice, led by Gardner, which focuses on helping multinational companies structure and administer their workforces and operate the human capital aspects of their businesses in a commercially advantageous and compliant way around the world. The team has successfully led hundreds of multi-jurisdictional strategic human capital and workforce compliance projects along with addressing the workforce issues arising from numerous cross-border transactions (mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and outsourcings) across 170 countries.
“Jake adds significant new depth to our Chicago office, to the great benefit of clients in this region as well as globally,” said Zachary Fardon, managing partner of the firm’s Chicago office. “Not only will Jake be a valuable asset to the GHCC team, he’ll also be a boon to our M&A, public companies and restructuring teams.”
Downing received his undergraduate degree from the University of Minnesota and his J.D. and tax certificate from Loyola University of Chicago Law School, magna cum laude. This year, he was recognized by The Legal 500 as a Next Generation Lawyer.
“I’m excited to bring my skills to King & Spalding and to the GHCC practice,” Downing said. “It’s gratifying to be re-joining a bench of fantastic human capital practitioners and to be part of an innovative new practice.”
