World’s Richest Biglaw Firm Announces Another HUGE Partnership Class
Kirkland & Ellis is recognized as one of the nation’s greatest law firms. Not only does the firm offer a compelling combination of prestige, profitability, and pay, but it continues to shatter the market on partners — in a HUGE way.
Bigger is still better at Kirkland, but sometimes moderation is best. The firm just announced one of its largest partnership classes ever at 200 lawyers strong, down slightly from last year’s partner class of 205. As noted by the American Lawyer, this is the first time in at least the last eight years that Kirkland’s new partner class has decreased in size year-over-year.
Prior to the Kirkland’s announcement of its 2024 partner class, the firm welcomed a record class of 205 in 2023, up from 2022’s then-record class of 193, up from 2021’s then-record class of 151, up from 2020’s then-record class of 145, up from 2019’s then-record class of 141, and up from 2018’s then-record class of 122. Noticing a trend here? Kirkland is very generous when it comes to handing out partnership titles.
But how many of these new partners will enter the firm’s equity ranks? Last year, Kirkland had 539 equity partners (up 6.7% from the year prior) and 969 nonequity partners (up 10% from the year prior). It sure would be nice to be an equity partner at the firm, because its profits per equity partner soared to about $8 million last year. The firm recently made it easier for nonequity partners to become equity partners — down from four years as a salaried partner to three — but it’s still quite difficult to make equity at the firm.
Congratulations to Kirkland’s latest partnership class. You earned it — and hopefully in the future, you’ll really earn it with one of the firm’s multimillion-dollar equity partner paydays!
Kirkland Keeps New Partner Promotion Class at 200 Lawyers [American Lawyer]
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on X/Twitter and Threads or connect with her on LinkedIn.
