Mr. Karafiol is currently Of Counsel at Kirkland & Ellis LLP where he is primarily involved in structuring, negotiating, and documenting legal aspects of complex business transactions, including venture capital investments, leveraged buyouts, mergers and acquisitions, corporate divestitures, recapitalizations, and private placements. He also has experience in the formation of venture capital and leveraged buyout funds.

His regulatory practice includes federal banking laws and regulations affecting equity investing by bank holding companies, and formation and regulation of Small Business Investment Companies licensed by the Small Business Administration. He has represented private equity funds and the merchant banking division of numerous bank holding companies in connection with their investments, regulatory matters, and compensation plans.

Mr. Karafiol is currently a member of the Advisory Boards of several private equity funds, including ACP-I, L.P., based in Cleveland, Ohio and Cheyenne Capital Fund, LP, based in Denver, Colorado and Cheyenne, Wyoming.

From 1960 to 1977, Mr. Karafiol was on the faculty of The University of Chicago where he taught 17th and 18th century Central European history. He is fluent in German, French, and Yiddish, and speaks some Polish (he was born in Warsaw, Poland).

Mr. Karafiol received his A.B. from Princeton University (Class of 1955), his Ph.D. from Cornell University, and his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School (1979).