Kirkland & Ellis LLP is an American multinationallaw firm headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1909, Kirkland & Ellis has been the largest law firm in the world by revenue since 2017 and, as of 2025, is the seventh-largest by number of attorneys.[5] It was the first law firm in the world to reach US$7 billion in annual revenue.[6] With a revenue of US$8.8 billion and a profit per equity partner of US$9.25 million, Kirkland & Ellis is the highest-grossing and most profitable law firm in the world.[7][8]
London office at 30 St Mary Axe, popularly known as the Gherkin
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, who had founded the Chicago Tribune. McCormick became president of the Tribune Company in 1914 and, in 1925, sole publisher of the Tribune.[11]
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.[12] Kirkland & Ellis has 20 offices in six countries.[13]
The firm earned just under $5 billion in revenue in 2020.[4] The increase came from heightened demand, induced by the COVID-19 pandemic.[14]
As of 2022, Kirkland & Ellis claimed 490 equity partners and 763 non-equity partners. The firm saw over $6 billion in annual gross revenues, which was the most of any law firm that year.[15]
In 2023, Kirkland & Ellis achieved $7.2 billion in gross revenue, securing the top spot on The American Lawyer's 2024 Am Law 200 ranking. The firm was also recognized as the highest-grossing law firm in the world in the 2024 Global 200 survey.[16]
In 2024, the firm reached a 22% increase in revenue, reaching $8.8 billion, with profits per equity partner rising to $9.25 million. The firm's strong performance was driven by its success in private equity, litigation, and M&A practices.[17] In the same year, the firm also expanded its European presence by opening a new office in Frankfurt, Germany, to cater to its growing business in the region.[18]
In 2024, Kirkland & Ellis elevated 151 attorneys to partner, marking a record class size for the firm.[19]
In 2025, it agreed to a deal with Donald Trump to do pro bono work on behalf of causes promoted by Trump.[20]
In May 2025, the firm expanded its Boston office by hiring three M&A partners, Graham Robinson, Laura Knoll, and Chadé Severin, along with around 15 associates.[21]
Rankings
The American Lawyer ranked Kirkland & Ellis as the 2018 Law Firm of the Year.[22] "Mergers & Acquisitions" ranked Kirkland & Ellis as the 2019 Law Firm of the Year for advising on 400 U.S. based-deals (more than twice that of the firm ranked second), and for advising on the largest number of global deals, in each case, in 2019.[23] As of 2021, Am Law lists Kirkland & Ellis as the largest law firm in the United States by gross revenue and third greatest in profits per equity partner.[24] Kirkland & Ellis was ranked second in the 2017 ATL Power 100 law firm rankings.[25]Vault ranked Kirkland & Ellis as the most prestigious firm in Chicago and the number-one firm in the U.S. for private equity, restructuring and business outlook in 2018.[26]
Bristol-Myers Squibb in its US$90 billion acquisition of Celgene, the largest biopharmaceutical deal in history by terms of transaction value[30]
AbbVie in its US$63 billion acquisition of Allergan,[31] which received the New York 2020 Healthcare, Pharma & Biotech Deal of the Year award by The Deal (magazine).[32]
GLP in its sale of U.S. Logistics Business to Blackstone for US$18.7 billion, the largest ever private real estate transaction globally in terms of trade value[33]
MedTronic in a patent suit won against Atlas IP, LLC[36]
Miller UK Ltd., acquired a $73.6 million trade secrets misappropriation jury award against Caterpillar Inc.[37]
Jeffrey Epstein in a case of sex-trafficking with minors, resulting in a reduced charge plea bargain with limited penalties, which later garnered "accusations that the lenient sentence enabled Epstein to continue his abuse."[38] Evaded legal obligation[39] to notify victims of the plea bargain, thereby violating victims rights under the CVRA, by holding secret meetings with Alex Acosta's staff in the Marriott hotel[40]
A group of major investors in the international fish meal industry, in connection with their claims against China Fishery[42]
Cariol Horne 2020 action for reinstatement to the Buffalo Police Department, having been fired in 2008 for intervening in an arrest that she perceived as being potentially lethal[43]
Kirkland & Ellis represented Boeing in relation to the Boeing 737 MAX disaster. Controversially, the U.S. Attorney in the case, Erin Nealy Cox, let Boeing executives off the hook for their role in the disaster in the prosecution agreement signed by her and Kirkland & Ellis. She was subsequently made a partner at Kirkland & Ellis.[44]
Kirkland & Ellis represented the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association in its case against Kevin Bruen, Superintendent of New York State Police.[45] The case struck down as unconstitutional New York State’s concealed carry law that required an individual to prove “proper cause” existed before a license would be issued allowing that person to carry a concealed pistol or revolver in public.[46]
Pro bono work
The firm represented separated families, asylum seekers and other migrants, and nationwide class of immigrant teens held in ICE detention centers, in opposition to Trump administration family separation policy.[47][48]
Kirkland attorney Michael D. Jones represented alumni and supporters of Maryland's historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in a 15-year legal battle against the State of Maryland.[49] The case, brought in federal court, claimed that the state had systemically underfunded the schools for decades.[50] The matter was finally settled in 2021 when lawmakers approved $577 million in extra funding for the HBCUs in future state budgets.[51] As part of the settlement, the state of Maryland agreed to pay $22 million in legal fees and costs, with $12.5 million going to Kirkland & Ellis. The remaining $9.5 million went to the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law, which also provided legal representation for plaintiffs in the lawsuit.[52] Kirkland's $12.5 million portion of the fees was later donated by the firm[53] to a series of organizations that benefitted HBCUs and promoted civil rights.[52] The allocation of fees included: $5 million to the Center for Racial Justice at Dillard University in New Orleans; $3 million to Morgan State University's Robert M. Bell Center for Civil Rights in Education; $2 million for the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law; $1 million to the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education; $600,000 to Howard University's Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center; $600,000 to the Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education; and $250,000 to the African Methodist Episcopal Church Second District.[52]
Notable attorneys and alumni
Notable alumni of the firm include, among others, more than two dozen attorneys who resigned when appointed to roles in government.[54] Alumni include:
Paul Clement – former Solicitor General under President George W. Bush[66] In June 2022, following his clients' Supreme Court victory in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, Clement separated from Kirkland & Ellis, after the firm announced it would "no longer handle Second Amendment litigation".[67] Subsequently, Clement opened a boutique law firm, Clement & Murphy PLLC, with Erin Murphy, another former partner at Kirkland & Ellis.[68][69]
In 2023, Kirkland & Ellis was named as a defendant in a racketeering lawsuit filed in Texas by Morton Bouchard (former CEO of Bouchard Transportation Company). The complaint alleged that the firm conspired with former U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David R. Jones and Jackson Walker LLP to conceal a romantic relationship between Jones and a Jackson Walker partner, Elizabeth Freeman. This concealed relationship allegedly resulted in the award of inflated legal fees in several Chapter 11 proceedings, from which Kirkland & Ellis was said to have benefited.[97]
The U.S. District Judge Alia Moses dismissed the suit, ruling that the plaintiff lacked standing because the challenged legal fees would have been lost regardless of which law firm handled the cases. Moses criticized Jones’s conduct as reflecting a "specter of impropriety" but concluded there was no actionable harm connecting Kirkland & Ellis or Jackson Walker to the loss claimed by the plaintiff.[97]
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