Interesting selling points
- Known for its buy-side private equity practice, Kirkland & Ellis is a leading firm for high-stakes financial transactions. The firm has accordingly been recognised as Law 360’s “Private Equity Group of the Year” multiple times.
- The firm’s “free-market” system encourages attorneys to work with colleagues across practice areas and offices, promoting the sharing of expertise and fostering strong professional relationships.
- Chambers and Partners has awarded Kirkland & Ellis its ‘Band 1’ ranking for the following departments: Banking & Finance: Big-Ticket, Banking & Finance: Sponsors, Restructuring/Insolvency, Tax, Investment Funds: Private Equity, Investment Funds: Private Equity: Secondaries and Private Equity: Buyouts: £500 million and above departments.
- The firm has consistently ranked as the largest law firm in the world by revenue, bringing in six billion dollars in 2021 alone.
- The firm has established several diversity and inclusion initiatives including its Professional Networks, its Leaders Among Us and its DEI Task Force.
- Dedication to providing pro bono legal services to clients in need, Kirkland’s lawyers committed 139,000 hours to pro bono work in 2020 alone.
- Notable clients include IPO Counsel, Facebook, Tesla, TPG, BETA Technologies and Morgan Stanley.
We cover these selling points in more detail below, alongside other relevant firm facts and characteristics.
Practice areas / services
Kirkland & Ellis is a full-service law firm, with a broad range of practice areas including:
- Banking & Financial Institutions
- Capital Markets
- Class Action Litigation
- Derivatives
- Employment & Labor
- Energy & Infrastructure
- Environmental
- Financial Technology "FinTech"
- Government Contracts
- Intellectual Property
- International Arbitration
- Litigation
- Mergers & Acquisitions
- Private Equity
- Real Estate
- REITs
- Restructuring
- Tax
- Technology & IP Transactions
- Trusts & Estates
Chambers and Partners, a leading analyst of the legal market, has awarded Kirkland & Ellis its ‘Band 1’ ranking for the following departments: Banking & Finance: Big-Ticket, Banking & Finance: Sponsors, Restructuring/Insolvency, Tax, Investment Funds: Private Equity, Investment Funds: Private Equity: Secondaries and Private Equity: Buyouts: £500 million and above. See here for more information.
Key sectors / industries
Kirkland & Ellis services a broad range of industries, with some of its highest-value clients operating in the following sectors:
In addition, Kirkland & Ellis services the following industries: automotive; chemicals; energy and utilities; fintech; healthcare; industrials; infrastructure and transport; insurance; mining; real estate and leisure; sports; technology; and telecoms.
Work
Kirkland & Ellis advises on complex legal matters that draw on all elements of the firm’s international network. Some examples of recent projects include:
- TPG: The firm advised TPG on its investment in Vinted, which is Europe’s leading second-hand C2C marketplace focused on fashion. The TPG-led group of investors acquired €340 million of shares, valuing Vinted at €5 billion.
- BETA Technologies: Kirkland & Ellis advised electric aerospace company BETA Technologies on raising more than $300 million of equity capital.
- Morgan Stanley: The firm represented Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners on co-control equity investment in Flexential.
- Facebook: Kirkland & Ellis’ litigation team represented Facebook against a high-profile lawsuit launched in the wake of a terrorist attack, successfully defending the business against the allegation that the social network’s platform enabled the attack. The case set an important precedent for the liability of online networks in the wake of major incidents of this kind.
- Tesla: Kirkland & Ellis’ finance team advised on the funding required to facilitate the integration of SolarCity and Tesla, a transaction that produced the first vertically integrated sustainable energy company.
Offices / global footprint / expansion
Headquarters: in line with its commitment to operating as an ‘integrated whole’ across its international network, Kirkland & Ellis has no official headquarters.
Offices: Kirkland & Ellis has an international network that spans 18 cities around the world, with locations including Beijing, Brussels and New York.
Insights, internships and other opportunities
Kirkland & Ellis offers a number of opportunities for individuals wishing to gain experience in the legal industry and learn more about life at the firm. Opportunities for interested applicants include: meeting firm representatives at career events and law fairs throughout the year; two open days a year, during which first and second year university students can visit the London office and learn more about life at the firm; and spring and summer vacation schemes, which are open to penultimate-year law students and final-year non-law students.
Training contract
Kirkland & Ellis offers a four-seat training contract, with each seat lasting six months. Trainees are expected to take a seat in each of the firm’s three central practices: debt finance, investment funds, and corporate. When first joining, the (comparatively small) trainee intake goes through an induction process that introduces trainees to every department in the London office, which helps to ensure trainees gain a broad awareness of the firm’s operations.
Lunchtime training sessions are provided during the first four months, representing the more formalised side of the training programme, while on-the-job training ensures that trainees develop their legal skills. Feedback is provided throughout the process through seat supervisors and the firm’s training principle.
Secondments
Kirkland & Ellis offers trainees a chance to spend their final seat in an international office or undertaking a client secondment, with previous international locations including New York and Hong Kong.
Technology and innovation
Kirkland & Ellis is committed to utilising technology to provide clients with flexible and innovative legal services, with related initiatives including:
- Fintech: Kirkland & Ellis has a uniquely deep experience in FinTech, bringing together a multidisciplinary team of lawyers with deep experience in a number of FinTech sub-sectors, including: payments and transaction processing; banking, alternative lending and real estate technologies; and InsurTech.
- FT Innovative Lawyers Awards: Kirkland & Ellis has been repeatedly recognised by the FT Innovative Lawyers Awards, including placing first in the “Practice of Law – Finance: Unlocking Capital” category in 2020.
- BTI Innovation: Kirkland & Ellis was recognised by BTI Consulting Group as a top 10 ‘Innovation Champion’ in its 2019 Legal Innovation and Technology Outlook report.
Corporate social responsibility
Kirkland & Ellis is committed to providing pro bono legal services to clients that cannot afford counsel, with its lawyers committing 139,000 hours to such work in 2020 alone. Some recent examples include:
- Refugee Legal Support: Since 2022, the firm has partnered with Refugee Legal Support to provide pro bono assistance to refugees in Europe who are seeking to reunite with family members in the UK.
- A4ID: Kirkland & Ellis partnered with A4ID, a global charity that partners with law firms to provide free access to legal advice for non-governmental organisations, on its SDG Legal Initiative.
- Zacchaeus 2000 Trust (Z2K): The firm partnered with Zacchaeus 2000 Trust, which is an anti-poverty charity that provides direct help for Londoners living in poverty and campaigns for social security and housing systems that work for all. Kirkland lawyers represent clients of Z2K who have been wrongly denied critical benefits, supporting them through the first-tier tribunal appeals process.
Diversity and inclusion
Kirkland & Ellis is committed to building and maintaining a culture that values and gains strength from diversity, and has committed to a number of initiatives and programs to cultivate this working culture. Some examples include:
- Professional Networks: The firm has eight professional networks which include its Access Professional Network (attorneys with disabilities), Asian Pacific Islander (API) Professional Network, Black Professional Network, Military Service Professional Network, Pride Professional Network (LGBTQ+ attorneys), South Asian Professional Network, Unidos Professional Network (Latinx attorneys), and Women’s Professional Network.
- Leaders Among Us: Kirkland & Ellis runs an internal Leaders Among Us mentorship programme which features rising diverse firm leaders to help them develop their leadership potential.
- DEI Task Force: Kirkland's DEI Task Force is a select group of Executive Committee members and Firm DEI leaders who oversee strategic DEI priorities.