Todd F. Maynes

Todd Maynes focuses his practice on the tax aspects of debt restructurings, bankruptcy and insolvency, and tax litigation. Todd has served as Chair of the Planning Committee for both the University of Chicago Federal Tax Conference and the Chicago-Kent College of Law Federal Tax Institute. He teaches bankruptcy taxation at Northwestern University School of Law and the Law School at the University of Chicago, previously taught advanced income taxation at Chicago-Kent College of Law, and has lectured frequently at the University of Michigan.

Todd is the only active tax attorney to be a member of the National Bankruptcy Conference, an organization created by Congress to provide advice and counsel in connection with the federal bankruptcy laws. He is also the editor of all tax chapters and sections for Collier’s on Bankruptcy, the leading academic treatise on bankruptcy law. Todd is one of only three tax attorneys in Illinois to be rated Band One by Chambers U.S.A. In 2020, Todd was inducted as a Fellow of the 31st Class of the American College of Bankruptcy, one of the first tax attorneys to ever be so honored.

Todd is co-chairman of the Kirkland & Ellis Finance Committee, chairman of the Kirkland & Ellis Benefits Committee, member of the Firm’s Administrative Committee, administrator for the Firm's retirement plans, and is Tax Matters Partner for the Firm. Todd was named Lawyer of the Year for Tax Law in Chicago for 2015 and 2018, as awarded by Best Lawyers in America. In 2017, he was named one of the inaugural 500 members of Law360’s Hall of Fame, and in 2016, he received the Brigham Young University Law School’s Alumni Achievement Award. From 2013 to 2017, he served as the President of the Lawyers’ Committee for Better Housing, where he led that organization’s efforts to provide clean, safe and affordable housing for all Chicagoans.

Todd has been the lead tax advisor in some of the largest bankruptcies and restructurings of all time, including TXU (Energy Future Holdings), United Airlines, Conseco, Calpine, Charter Communications, Visteon, Tronox, Linn Energy, and WR Grace. Todd has obtained favorable IRS rulings in many transactions, including the Charter Communications bankruptcy that was called by the federal bankruptcy court as perhaps the “largest and most complicated prepackaged bankruptcy in history.” Chambers USA has praised him as a “terrific lawyer” with a “spectacular” reputation in the bankruptcy tax area, and as a “talented and very smart man.”

In addition to his experience in handling major bankruptcies and restructurings, Todd has been involved extensively in the representation of airlines and automobile manufacturers. Among his prominent court victories are his victories for United Airlines in the United States Tax Court and in the United States Court of Claims, both of which dealt with the tax treatment of per diem payments made by airlines to flight crews, and his victory in the United States Tax Court on behalf of General Motors to determine the tax treatment of low interest-rate loans offered by car manufacturers through their financing subsidiaries.

Todd was the principal tax attorney for United Airlines during its bankruptcy, and was special tax counsel to each of Delta Airlines and Northwest Airlines in their bankruptcies. Todd was the lead attorney representing members of the airline industry in obtaining a favorable ruling from the IRS on the tax treatment of service fees, such as baggage fees, cancellation fees, change fees and related service offerings.

Todd has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America, The Legal 500 U.S. and as one of Illinois' Super Lawyers. He has published many articles on tax matters, speaks frequently at tax conferences, and is the author of the BNA Portfolio on Start-Up Expenses. The Legal 500 U.S. reports that Todd "is rated as 'a brilliant lawyer' who is 'a fighter, but canny enough to know when to take a deal.'"