Wall Street duo Weil Gotshal & Manges and Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz have bagged the lead roles on the $22bn (£11.6bn) buy-out of energy giant Kinder Morgan as big-ticket private equity deals continue to drive the US market.

The deal, the largest management buy-out ever, sees the company taken private by a consortium led by company chairman and CEO, Richard Kinder, and backed by the private equity houses American International, Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, Riverstone and Carlyle.