An infrastructure trust created by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel whose mission is to pump private funding into public works projects has enlisted Kirkland & Ellis as its pro bono legal counsel.

Crain’s Chicago Business reported Friday that Kirkland is one of three pro bono advisers to the Chicago Infrastructure Trust, along with recruiting firm Spencer Stuart and financial adviser PFM Group. Announced in March, the trust is expected to raise $1.7 billion from private investors to be used for “transformative” infrastructure work, including energy efficiency projects in the city’s government buildings.

Emanuel has identified the $7 billion, three-year initiative dubbed “Building a New Chicago”—which the mayor has said could generate up to 30,000 construction jobs—as one potential recipient of the trust’s largesse.

Chicago-based Kirkland corporate partners R. Scott Falk and R. Henry Kleeman are heading the firm’s efforts on behalf of the trust, according to a firm spokeswoman. Falk generally handles M&A work for Kirkland clients, and was named The Am Law Daily‘s “Dealmaker of the Week” in April in connection with his role advising Molson Coors Brewing Company on its $3.54 billion purchase of Prague-based brewer StarBev. Kleeman, who specializes in corporate and securities law, has served as pro bono outside general counsel for another Chicago-based public/private partnership—the city’s Millennium Park civic center—since 1998. Last year, Emanuel hired former Kirkland litigation partner Stephen Patton to serve as the city’s corporation counsel.

Through the firm spokeswoman, Falk and Kleeman both declined The Am Law Daily‘s request for comment.

Kirkland isn’t the only Am Law 100 firm with ties to the trust. Former Chicago inspector general and current Sidley Austin appellate partner David Hoffman is one of the organization’s five board members. (Former Boeing Co. executive vice president James Bell will chair the board.)

Emanuel may have named Hoffman to the trust’s board in order to head off a potential controversy, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Hoffman’s successor in the inspector general’s post, Joe Ferguson, openly complained earlier this year that Emanuel was not allowing his office free rein to investigate the trust’s members and operations. In August, though, the trust’s board—including Hoffman—voted to give Ferguson that power, the Sun-Times reported, in order to prevent any misuse of funds collected for public use.