JLL traces its roots back to
Gilliam Joseph & Littlejohn, a
merchant bank founded in 1987 by William J. Gilliam, Peter A. Joseph, and Angus C. Littlejohn Jr. The three founders met in the mid-1980s at the Quadrex Corporation, a small New York
brokerage. They initially leased their office space from
Bennett S. LeBow, a 1980s
corporate raider and fellow
Drexel Burnham Lambert client. At Quadrex, Gilliam, the youngest of the three, managed the
mergers and acquisitions unit, and the other two reported to him. After a series of successful investments, the three decided to leave Quadrex and set up their own small
private equity firm. In 1988, Paul S. Levy, a lawyer and formerly a managing director at Drexel Burnham Lambert who focused on corporate restructurings and exchange offers, was recruited to join the firm, which was renamed
Gilliam Joseph Littlejohn & Levy. Earlier in his career Levy was CEO of
Yves Saint Laurent, Inc., New York, and an attorney with
Stroock & Stroock & Lavan. Levy helped his new partners secure $150 million of capital for buyout transactions from his former firm, Drexel Burnham Lambert. JLL experienced an early success with the
leveraged buyout of Rexene Corp, a
Texas-based chemical company, which made the partners multi-millionaires. Gilliam would eventually set up his own small investment firm Gilliam & Company to focus on investments in chemicals and plastics, and would serve as chairman of Rexene. In 1991, Gilliam faced a falling out with the board of Rexene and abruptly resigned. In 1996, Angus Littlejohn resigned from Joseph Littlejohn & Levy to form a new private investment firm,
Littlejohn & Co. The following year, in 1998, Peter Joseph left and joined Palladium Equity Partners, a middle-market private equity firm with a specialization in investments in the U.S. Hispanic market and also in Mexico, Spain, and Brazil, founded the prior year. In 2002, after a lengthy fund-raising process, the rechristened "JLL Partners" closed a new
private equity fund, JLL Partners Fund IV LP., with $750 million of investor commitments, representing a 25% decrease from its previous fund. In 2012 it managed $4 billion on behalf of its clients. In 2015, JLL Partners acquired Aviation Technical Services Inc., one of the largest third-party providers of maintenance, repair and overhaul services in the aviation and aerospace industry including for commercial and military use. In 2015, JLL Partners acquired Point Blank Enterprises, the largest supplier of ballistic and soft armor products for the U.S. military and law enforcement. Point Blank Enterprises manufactures and distributes bullet, stab resistant and other apparel and accessories. In March 2020, JLL Partners announced a partnership with Bart Doedens to form Renovo Health, Inc. ==Funds raised==