Kirkland & Ellis


Kirkland & Ellis LLP is an American law firm. Founded in 1909 in Chicago, Illinois, Kirkland is the largest law firm in the world by revenue, and the seventh largest by its number of attorneys. Kirkland is the first law firm in the world to reach US$4 billion in revenue. The highest-grossing law firm in the world, Kirkland is ranked second globally with respect to estimated profits per equity partner.
While Kirkland was historically considered a firm focused on litigation, during the 2010s, it expanded private equity and restructuring practices which, together with large-scale commercial litigation, comprise the core economic “pillars” of the firm.
Kirkland has represented many prominent and controversial clients, such as British Petroleum, billionaire and child-sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, Bain Capital, and a group of major investors in the international fishmeal industry, in relation to their claims against China Fishery.
Prominent attorneys of the firm have included Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh; former White House Counsel Neil Eggleston; former appellate court Judge Robert Bork; Clinton-era Special Counsel Ken Starr; and various Trump administration officials, including former National Security Adviser John R. Bolton. Attorney General William Barr, former Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta, and Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar.

Firm history

In 1909, two attorneys, Stuart G. Shepard and Robert R. McCormick, formed the Chicago-based partnership that would eventually become Kirkland & Ellis. McCormick was the grandson of Joseph Medill, the founder of the Chicago Tribune. By 1920, McCormick left the firm to take over as the publisher of the Tribune.
Weymouth Kirkland and his associate Howard Ellis joined the firm in 1915. Kirkland served as chief counsel to the Tribune and other newspapers in various free speech and defamation cases, including Near v. Minnesota. In 1938, Kirkland and Ellis hired young trial lawyer Hammond Chaffetz from the U.S. Department of Justice. Chaffetz spent six decades with the firm, during which it grew to about 780 lawyers, making it one of the 30 largest in the country. As of 2017, Kirkland has 13 offices internationally.
According to a 2016 study, which evaluated the political ideology of the top 20 American law firms, Kirkland & Ellis was among the most conservative.
The American Lawyer ranked Kirkland as the 2018 Law Firm of the Year. "Mergers & Acquisitions" ranked Kirkland as the 2019 Law Firm of the year for advising on 400 U.S. based-deals and for advising on the largest number of global deals, in each case, in 2019. As of 2020 Kirkland is the largest law firm in the US in terms of gross revenue, with US$4.16 billion in revenue, with an estimated profit per equity partner of US$5.20 million. Kirkland was ranked second in the 2017 ATL Power 100 law firm rankings. Vault ranks Kirkland as the most prestigious firm in Chicago and the number-one firm in the U.S. for private equity, restructuring and business outlook.
In 2020, "Kirkland, along with some other out-of-town firms like Sidley Austin and Latham & Watkins," have been reported in media as using "aggressive lateral recruiting to draw from New York’s dealmaking talent pool."

Notable clients and cases

The firm has endowed professorships in its name at four law schools: Harvard Law School, Northwestern University School of Law, University of Michigan Law School, and University of Chicago Law School.