Kirkland & Ellis

Kirkland & Ellis LLP
Headquarters	300 North LaSalle, Chicago, Illinois, United States
No. of offices	10 total, 4 international
No. of attorneys	1,419 (2010)
Major practice areas	General practice
Revenue	$1.63 billion (2010)
Date founded	1909
Company type	Limited liability partnership
Website
www.kirkland.com

Kirkland & Ellis LLP is an international law firm with headquarters in Chicago, known for its profitability and its litigation, bankruptcy, intellectual property and private equity departments. Kirkland & Ellis is currently ranked by Vault as the most prestigious firm in Chicago, as well as the ninth most prestigious law firm in the United States. As of 2008, it was the fifth largest law firm in the United States and the ninth largest in the world by revenue. Kirkland has offices in Chicago, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Munich, New York, Palo Alto, San Francisco, Shanghai and Washington, D.C.

The firm had gross revenue of approximately $1.73 billion in 2010, an 14% increase from 2009. Kirkland is also one of the most profitable law firms in the country, with estimated profits per partner of $3.08 million in 2010, a 23% increase from 2009. Kirkland is the only of the top ten most profitable firms that is not based in New York City.

History

The firm was founded in 1909 by attorneys Stewart G. Shepherd and Robert R. McCormick, a graduate of Northwestern University School of Law and a member of the prominent McCormick family, who would later become the publisher of the Chicago Tribune. The firm's modern namesakes, Weymouth Kirkland and Howard Ellis, joined the firm in 1915. In 1938, former United States Department of Justice lawyer Hammond Chaffetz joined the firm. The firm now consists of approximately 1,400 attorneys in ten domestic and foreign offices, with particular strength in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Palo Alto and Washington, D.C.

Notable clients

The firm has represented a number of high-profile clients, including United Airlines in that company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. Other major clients of the firm have included General Motors, Brown & Williamson, Motorola, Conseco, Honeywell, S. C. Johnson & Son, Apple, Intel, Raytheon, Schering-Plough, Samsung Electronics, Siemens AG, Charter Communications and Westinghouse Electric Company. The firm is presently representing BP in the litigation arising out of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Political contributions

Kirkland, through its employees, was a top-20 contributor to Barack Obama in 2008, giving at least $493,735. The firm's attorneys leaned heavily (77%) Democratic in their political contributions during the 2008 election cycle, which were substantial ($579,976 as of 10/29/07).

The firm has its own Political Action Committee (PAC), which gave 97% of its contributions to Democrats during the 2008 election cycle, as of 12/7/07. The firm's members have given more money to Illinois Senator Dick Durbin (by some measures the most liberal Democrat in the Senate) since 1989 than donors from any other company or organization.

Endowed professorships

The firm has endowed professorships in its name at four of the leading law schools in the United States:

• $1,500,000 endowment of The Kirkland & Ellis Professor of Law Chair at Harvard Law School (currently Michael Klarman).
• $1,250,000 endowment of The Kirkland & Ellis Professor of Law Chair at Northwestern University School of Law (currently Dorothy Roberts).
• $1,175,000 endowment of The Kirkland & Ellis Professor of Law Chair at The University of Michigan Law School (currently vacant).
• $1,000,000 endowment of The Kirkland & Ellis Professor of Law Chair at The University of Chicago Law School (currently Eric Posner).

Notable staff

Among its most well-known current and former lawyers, including three of the last ten U.S. Solicitors General, are:

• John R. Bolton, former United States ambassador to the United Nations;
• Robert H. Bork, Yale Law School professor, former U.S. Solicitor General, former acting U.S. Attorney General, former judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, rejected nominee for Justice of the United States Supreme Court by President Ronald Reagan;
• Steven G. Bradbury, former Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice;
• Paul D. Clement, former U.S. Solicitor General;
• Mark Filip, former deputy U.S. Attorney General and former federal district court judge;
• Brett Kavanaugh, current judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and former Associate Counsel to the Independent Counsel under Kenneth Starr;
• Jay Lefkowitz, former Special Envoy for Human Rights in North Korea and former domestic policy advisor to President George W. Bush;
• Michael W. McConnell, Stanford Law School professor and former judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit;
• John H. Morrison, former President of the Association of American Rhodes Scholars; and
• Kenneth Starr, Dean of the Pepperdine University School of Law, former U.S. Solicitor General, former judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and former independent counsel that investigated President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Whitewater scandal.

External links

• Firm website
• Kirkland & Ellis on Twitter