Kushner’s Thrive Capital Taps Kirkland for New General Counsel

Thrive Capital Management LLC, a venture firm founded by Joshua Kushner that touted a major deal this week, has hired Kirkland & Ellis partner Marian Fowler to be one of its top in-house lawyers.

Fowler has joined Thrive as general counsel and chief compliance officer, the firm disclosed in a securities filing earlier this month. Fowler confirmed the move in a statement posted to her LinkedIn profile.

Her move to Thrive, which has made key investments in the technology sector, comes as the firm sells a stake to investors led by Walt Disney Co. CEO Robert Iger, KKR & Co. co-founder Henry Kravis, and Indian oil mogul Mukesh Ambani.

Bloomberg News reported that the deal—at a $5.3 billion valuation for New York-based Thrive—pushed Kushner’s net worth to $3.7 billion. That makes him wealthier than his brother, Jared Kushner, and former President Donald Trump.

Fowler didn’t respond to a comment request. She joined Kirkland’s investment funds and regulatory solutions practice in Washington as a partner in 2017. She previously spent more than five years at the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC hired Fowler in 2012 from Ropes & Gray, where she spent five years as an associate.

Thrive and its chief legal officer and operating partner Jed Feldman didn’t respond to requests for comment about Fowler’s hire. Feldman, a former associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore and Gunderson Dettmer, joined Thrive as general counsel in 2014.

Fowler joins Thrive after the firm saw fellow ex-Kirkland partner Jaclyn Rabin leave her role as an associate general counsel and compliance chief late last year. Michael Buscher, a counsel and deputy compliance chief at Thrive, also left last year to return to Morgan Stanley as an executive legal director in the bank’s private funds group.

Thrive currently has about a handful of lawyers on staff, including Feldman and Fowler. The firm has grown after investing in technology startups like Instagram Inc., Plaid Inc., Robinhood Markets Inc., Spotify Technology SA, and Stripe Inc.

Kirkland has long enjoyed close ties to the private equity industry, which has often turned to the legal giant to advise on transactions and provide it with a pipeline of talent to stock their own legal and compliance ranks.

Jared Kushner formed his own Miami-based private equity firm, Affinity Partners, in late 2021 after leaving the White House. Affinity subsequently hired two former Trump administration lawyers—Chad Mizelle and Ian Brekke—to serve as its general counsel and compliance officer, respectively.