Richard J. Birns

Richard Birns is Co-Chair of Gibson Dunn’s Private Equity Practice Group. He regularly represents private equity firms and companies on domestic and cross-border leveraged buyouts, strategic mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, carve-outs, minority investments, and joint ventures.

Richard's work advising leading private equity firms has earned him consistent recognition from the industry's most respected rankings and publications. Richard was named a Notable M&A Dealmaker by Crain's New York Business in 2025 and was recognized in Forbes' America's Top Lawyers for excellence in Mergers & Acquisitions that same year. Additionally, he is recognized as a leading lawyer by Legal 500 and Chambers USA, where clients describe him as "smart and tenacious." The American Lawyer named Richard a 2023 Dealmaker of the Year and he has previously been named a Private Equity MVP by Law360.

Richard also has a leading sports, entertainment and media practice where he is named among the 500 Leading Global Entertainment, Sports & Media Lawyers by Lawdragon in 2026. He was also named as one of The Hollywood Reporter's Top Dealmakers of 2024.

His recent experience includes advising:

• Elliott Investment Management L.P. on numerous acquisitions and dispositions, including its $1.1 billion acquisition of City Office REIT with Morning Calm Management, $7.1 billion acquisition of Syneos Health, Inc., $16.5 billion acquisition of Citrix Systems, Inc., and $16 billion acquisition of Nielsen Holdings plc. He also advised Elliott Management on its acquisitions and dispositions of Gigamon, athenahealth, Travelport, LogMeIn, and Cubic Corporation
• RedBird Capital Partners and RedBird-IMI on numerous acquisitions, dispositions and joint ventures, including its £1.15 billion acquisition of All3Media from Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. and Liberty Global Ltd. and subsequent combination of All3Media with Banijay Entertainment, the sale of the Telegraph Media Group to Axel Springer Group
• The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia in connection with its $55 billion take private of Electronic Arts and its proposed investment in Paramount Skydance as part of Paramount Skydance’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery
• J.P. Morgan Asset Management in numerous equity investments, including in Anthropic and Databricks
• Hazel, the independent fintech launched in partnership with Walmart and investment firm Ribbit Capital, on their acquisition of fintech platforms Even and ONE

Richard is also Chair of the firm’s Sports Law Practice Group, and has extensive experience in the technology, media, sports and entertainment sectors. He advises on some of the most high-profile transactions in these sectors, including representing:

• RedBird Capital Partners in a number of significant acquisitions, including its acquisition of Italy’s Associazione Calcio Milan (AC Milan Football Club), the acquisition of a majority stake in the Toulouse Football Club; and the acquisition from The Walt Disney Company of the YES Network, a regional sports network, by an investor group that included Yankee Global Enterprises, Sinclair Broadcasting Group, Blackstone, and Amazon.com
• Yankee Global Enterprises on its $2.6 billion financing agreement with Apollo Sports Capital, and affiliates of Yankee Global Enterprises and the Dallas Cowboys in connection with a sale of Legends Hospitality to Sixth Street
• AC Milan and RedBird Capital Partners in the joint acquisition (alongside Oaktree-managed funds and FC Internazionale Milano) by AC Milan of the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza and its surrounding district, from the Municipality of Milan, and in the establishment of the related joint venture to redevelop the site and construct a new stadium designed by Foster + Partners and MANICA
• New York Arena Partners LLC on a successful joint venture development of the UBS Arena, home of the New York Islanders professional hockey team, in Belmont Park, New York. The development included a structured parking garage, hotel and other entertainment and community facilities

Graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in History from Georgetown University, Richard earned his Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and member of the Columbia Law Review. He clerked for Judge Milton Pollack of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, from 1997 to 1998.

Richard is a leader in the community and active in a number of non-profit organizations, including serving as Co-Chair of the U.S. Soccer Foundation’s New York Leadership Council.

Capabilities

• Private Equity
• Mergers and Acquisitions
• Shareholder Activism
• Sports Law

Credentials

Education:

• Columbia University - 1997 Juris Doctor
• Georgetown University - 1994 Bachelor of Arts

Admissions:

• New York Bar