R. Scott Falk, a mergers and acquisitions specialist who helped clients with deals worth tens of billions of dollars in his 30-year career with Chicago law firm Kirkland & Ellis, was chairman of the Chicago Humanities Festival and a former chair of the Chicago and Northern Illinois Red Cross.
“Scott’s philanthropic leadership and dedication included not only his incredible generosity but also his personal embodiment of our mission,” said regional Red Cross CEO Celena Roldan. “His passion for service to others will be greatly missed at the Red Cross and in the city of Chicago.”
Falk, 55, died of natural causes Friday while in New York on business, according to sources close to the family. He was a longtime resident of Winnetka.
He was born in Detroit and attended Detroit Country Day School, where a teacher who was a Harvard graduate and a lawyer mentored him. He went on to Harvard for both undergraduate and law degrees.
Falk came to Chicago as a summer associate with Kirkland & Ellis in 1989, then returned in 1990 as a full-time associate. He made partner in 1995.
In a statement, Jeffrey Hammes, chairman of Kirkland’s Global Management Executive Committee, call Falk “an outstanding lawyer and one of our star public company M&A attorneys.”
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According to the Kirkland website, Falk did multibillion-dollar deals for clients that included Boeing, Charter Communications, Deere and Co. and Molson Coors Brewing Co. He also was an outside counsel for Tribune Publishing Co., helping to fend off an unsolicited acquisition proposal from Gannett Co. and working on the $500 million sale of the Los Angeles Times.
“There was so much more to him than his work,” Hammes said. “He was first and foremost a kind and generous man.”
Falk joined the board of the Chicago Humanities Festival, which offers programs throughout the year, in 2008 and for the last year was chairman.
“He was dedicated to the power of the humanities to change hearts, minds and lives,” Humanities Festival Executive Director Phillip Bahar and Artistic Director Alison Cuddy said in a joint statement. “He was committed to the Chicago Humanities Festival family and to ensuring our success.”
“He was just an amazing person,” Bahar said in a phone interview. “He was really concise and could get to the heart of an issue and get down to the brass tacks of what we had to be thinking about.”
In addition to a time as board chair of the Red Cross, he also chaired the Philanthropy Committee and the Heroes Breakfast fundraising event. On the national level, he served for four years as national philanthropic chair for the American Red Cross, where Red Cross representatives said he had an impact on national programs.
“Scott was one of those people that not only had a big impact, but he had an incredibly warm and generous character,” said Sanford Perl, who started his career at Kirkland & Ellis with Falk.
Survivors include his wife, Kimberly Anne; a daughter, Meredith; a son, John; sisters Tamara Dindoffer, Margaret Britvec and Rebecca; and a brother, Gordon.
A memorial service is planned for 10 a.m. Friday, May 24, in Fourth Presbyterian Church, 126 E. Chestnut St., Chicago.
Graydon Megan is a freelance reporter.