Kirkland & Ellis appointed a record number of partners in its annual October intake, according to research by Pirical, which reveals there were “at least 225 partner promotions”.
The research, which is based on publicly available data, throws fresh light on the promotions round following the global giant’s decision to break with years of tradition by not publicly announcing its new partners in early October.
According to Law.com, a source familiar with the firm put the move down to the fact that “so many of the names are non-equity partners and some of them ultimately leave soon after promotions are announced, putting negative attention on the list”.
The firm, which grew revenue 80% in the five years to 2024, when it hit $8.8bn, has long been known for rapidly elevating associates to non-equity partner status in a bid to attract and retain talent.
Kirkland did not respond to a request for comment.
Pirical’s research confirms that the latest round of promotions comfortably surpassed Kirkland’s previous record of 205 promotions, which it set in 2023.
As in previous years, the vast majority of the promotions (90%) were in the US, where all of the firm’s offices, except its newly opened Philadelphia base, saw lawyers made up.
According to Pirical, Kirkland’s Chicago office registered the most promotions, with 58, followed by New York City (45) and Houston (20). Meanwhile, the cities that saw the biggest partner headcount growth relative to their size were Salt Lake City (+31%), Miami (+29%) and the Bay Area (+23%).
The remainder of the promotions were spread across Kirkland’s international offices, mostly in London – now its third biggest office globally, where 19 made partner, followed by Hong Kong (2), Beijing (1) and Paris (1).
In line with previous rounds, M&A lawyers led the way among this year’s promotion class, with 41 getting the nod. Litigation (32), investment funds (26) and corporate (26) followed suit as the next most common practices, while restructuring and insolvency gained 16 new partners and banking and finance 14.
Kirkland, the world’s largest law firm by turnover, was ranked fourth in the London Stock Exchange Group’s global M&A advisory league table by deal value in the first nine months of the year, having topped the table in 2024. It worked on $383.2bn worth of deals in the first nine months, compared to $448.2bn of deals in the whole of 2024.
Its M&A team has been prominent on some of the year’s biggest deals, including EA’s $55bn acquisition by a consortium of investors, the largest take-private in history, and the $40bn acquisition of Aligned Data Centres.
In May, the firm hired a large team of M&A lawyers in Boston from Skadden, led by rainmaker Graham Robinson, though it has also lost M&A heavyweights to Ropes & Gray and Paul Hastings this year.
Last year, it was reported that Kirkland had introduced a new policy that would enable it to hold back the deferred pay of partners who were defecting to rival firms, having lost partners to Freshfields and Paul Weiss earlier in the year in New York and London.
Law.com reported that around two-thirds of Kirkland’s 1,600-strong partnership is now made up of salaried rather than equity partners. It said that around one in 10 of the 200 partners made up in 2024 had already left the firm.
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