Rafael Kariyev is a tax partner and a member of the firm’s Tax Department who focuses his practice on tax planning in connection with private equity fund formation and M&A transactions. He regularly advises private equity funds on tax issues at all levels of the fund structure, including for Ara Partners Group Elliott Management, Morgan Stanley, Prosperity Life Insurance Company, Providence Equity Partners, PSG, KKR, Odyssey, Rithm Capital, TPG, Tikehau Capital and Wafra. In addition, Mr. Kariyev regularly advises clients on tax structuring the acquisition, holding and disposition of portfolio companies, both pass-throughs and corporations, as well as transactions involving the restructuring and sale of existing funds and sales of asset managers. Mr. Kariyev also leads the tax aspects in the firm’s Private Fund Transactions Group, where he regularly provides tax advice to general partners, secondaries fund sponsors, sovereign wealth funds and other investors on secondary transactions, GP-led restructurings and tender offers, co-investments and GP staking transactions.

Mr. Kariyev is recommended by Chambers USA (2024), where he is described as “very sharp” and “a hard-working, pragmatic and practical partner.” He is also recognized by The Legal 500 US (2024) for his experience in U.S. tax, where clients report that he “is highly skilled and extremely knowledgeable.”

Mr. Kariyev joined Debevoise and was admitted to the bar in New York in 2000. He received his B.A. from Queens College magna cum laude in 1995 in Accounting and his J.D. from Columbia University in 1999, where he was a Kent Scholar and a member of the Journal of Environmental Law. Mr. Kariyev received his LLM in Taxation from New York University in 2002.