Kirkland Megathread Forum

[Anonymous User]

As a general matter, you will be actively encouraged to work on matters within many different corporate groups both during your summer and in your first 2-3 years as an associate at the firm — M&A (both public and private), debt, funds, capital markets, etc. At some point around years 3-4 (or earlier if you so choose) you will generally be expected to begin to focus and narrow the scope of your practice primarily to one of the corporate groups (those mentioned above being among the main, but certainly not only, options).

Have been at K&E for a while, glad to answer any other questions as well.

Thanks! I have browsed attorney profiles on K&E's site dozens of times and somehow completely missed that junior attorney profiles have no specialization and only say "Transactional". This is all making a lot of sense and I'm glad we'll have ample time to sample work from several different groups before choosing.

When it is time to specialize, do associates choose what area they want to focus in? I would assume the answer is yes but I have come across a few anecdotes about people not being able to specialize in their preferred areas due to an imbalance in bodies in other groups. Is this a thing at K&E? It seems that all of their practice groups are very busy so hopefully not.

Thanks again!!

[Anonymous User]

As a general matter, you will be actively encouraged to work on matters within many different corporate groups both during your summer and in your first 2-3 years as an associate at the firm — M&A (both public and private), debt, funds, capital markets, etc. At some point around years 3-4 (or earlier if you so choose) you will generally be expected to begin to focus and narrow the scope of your practice primarily to one of the corporate groups (those mentioned above being among the main, but certainly not only, options).

Have been at K&E for a while, glad to answer any other questions as well.

Thanks! I have browsed attorney profiles on K&E's site dozens of times and somehow completely missed that junior attorney profiles have no specialization and only say "Transactional". This is all making a lot of sense and I'm glad we'll have ample time to sample work from several different groups before choosing.

When it is time to specialize, do associates choose what area they want to focus in? I would assume the answer is yes but I have come across a few anecdotes about people not being able to specialize in their preferred areas due to an imbalance in bodies in other groups. Is this a thing at K&E? It seems that all of their practice groups are very busy so hopefully not.

Thanks again!!

Yes, at least for the big transactional groups present in your office. Those groups are large enough that one person isn’t going to cause or meaningfully exacerbate a perceived imbalance. If you want to join a group that is very limited in size or is very slow at that moment, there may be a bit more to it than that, but those are edge cases by and large.

[Anonymous User]

Can anyone speak to paternity leave at Kirkland? Especially at the mid level m&a stage?

[Anonymous User]

Anyone have a sense of the DC office (specifically lit)? Seems like one of the most attainable top-firm DC offices looking at my school's OCI history.

[Anonymous User]

Anyone have a sense of the DC office (specifically lit)? Seems like one of the most attainable top-firm DC offices looking at my school's OCI history.

Curious; what is the median GPA for K&E DC at your school? I think the DC office is the only office my school has no data for. The Chicago office's numbers are by far the most competitive with a 3.7-3.8 median depending on the year. 25th is 3.6-3.8.

[Anonymous User]

Just picked up a six-pack of "Woodsman's Underwear" from them. They're extra thick to wick away sweat when you hike and have a strategically designed "resting pouch" to give added comfort. Has anyone had experience with Kirkland-brand Woodsman's Underwear? Curious to hear anecdotes or data before I try them out myself on my first hiking trip.

Thanks in advance.

[Anonymous User]

Can anyone speak to paternity leave at Kirkland? Especially at the mid level m&a stage?

Six months paid paternity leave, and maternity can be longer if there are birth complications. Multiple NSPs that I work with (not in M&A) took the full six months within the last couple years. I criticize KE on a lot but they get parental leave right.

[Anonymous User]

Can anyone speak to paternity leave at Kirkland? Especially at the mid level m&a stage?

Six months paid paternity leave, and maternity can be longer if there are birth complications. Multiple NSPs that I work with (not in M&A) took the full six months within the last couple years. I criticize KE on a lot but they get parental leave right.

its only 6 months for NSPs right? For associates, 10 weeks? Either way, pretty awesome.

[Anonymous User]

Can anyone speak to paternity leave at Kirkland? Especially at the mid level m&a stage?

Six months paid paternity leave, and maternity can be longer if there are birth complications. Multiple NSPs that I work with (not in M&A) took the full six months within the last couple years. I criticize KE on a lot but they get parental leave right.

its only 6 months for NSPs right? For associates, 10 weeks? Either way, pretty awesome.

For associates it’s 18 weeks for the mother, 10 weeks for the father (or other non-birthing partner). That’s fully paid leave, so it doesn’t count extensions under a leave of absence, reduced schedule, disability leave, unpaid FMLA leave, etc.

Bonus hours etc are prorated so there’s not really any loss from the leave on that front.

[Anonymous User]

Can anyone speak to paternity leave at Kirkland? Especially at the mid level m&a stage?

Six months paid paternity leave, and maternity can be longer if there are birth complications. Multiple NSPs that I work with (not in M&A) took the full six months within the last couple years. I criticize KE on a lot but they get parental leave right.

its only 6 months for NSPs right? For associates, 10 weeks? Either way, pretty awesome.

For associates it’s 18 weeks for the mother, 10 weeks for the father (or other non-birthing partner).

I understand giving birthing mothers more time because of the physical/emotional strain of giving birth, but an eight-week difference seems like a bit much. Ten weeks really isn't great. I think my firm used to distinguish between birthing parent/primary caregiver or non-birthing parent/non-primary caregiver, but now they give 14 weeks for both. Ideally it would be much longer for both parents. Regardless, I definitely wouldn't describe 10 weeks as "pretty awesome" as the previous poster did.

[Anonymous User]

Can anyone speak to paternity leave at Kirkland? Especially at the mid level m&a stage?

Six months paid paternity leave, and maternity can be longer if there are birth complications. Multiple NSPs that I work with (not in M&A) took the full six months within the last couple years. I criticize KE on a lot but they get parental leave right.

its only 6 months for NSPs right? For associates, 10 weeks? Either way, pretty awesome.

For associates it’s 18 weeks for the birthing person, 10 weeks for the father (or other non-birthing partner).

I understand giving birthing mothers more time because of the physical/emotional strain of giving birth, but an eight-week difference seems like a bit much. Ten weeks really isn't great. I think my firm used to distinguish between birthing parent/primary caregiver or non-birthing parent/non-primary caregiver, but now they give 14 weeks for both. Ideally it would be much longer for both parents. Regardless, I definitely wouldn't describe 10 weeks as "pretty awesome" as the previous poster did.

Fixed in bolded.

Kidding aside, as a non-birthing partner who has taken advantage of a full 10 week paternity leave, and also did a much shorter paternity leave back when I was trying to "impress" folks, 10 weeks for a non-birthing partner is pretty amazing. It is peak privilege to say someone who didn't push a baby out of their non-gender specific birthing canal should get paid 300k+ to stay at home in excess of 10 weeks - like I find it hard to believe you have any concept about what most ppl in america (not even mentioning the world) do for jobs, or the financial struggles they deal with.

Lots of things to criticize KE and other biglaw firms about, but the paternity policy is not one of them.

[Anonymous User]

Anyone have a sense of the DC office (specifically lit)? Seems like one of the most attainable top-firm DC offices looking at my school's OCI history.

Curious; what is the median GPA for K&E DC at your school? I think the DC office is the only office my school has no data for. The Chicago office's numbers are by far the most competitive with a 3.7-3.8 median depending on the year. 25th is 3.6-3.8.

We don't have GPAs, but looking at comparables, KE DC goes well below median while GDC/Wilmer/Cov all need at least above.

[Anonymous User]

Anyone have a sense of the DC office (specifically lit)? Seems like one of the most attainable top-firm DC offices looking at my school's OCI history.

Curious; what is the median GPA for K&E DC at your school? I think the DC office is the only office my school has no data for. The Chicago office's numbers are by far the most competitive with a 3.7-3.8 median depending on the year. 25th is 3.6-3.8.

We don't have GPAs, but looking at comparables, KE DC goes well below median while GDC/Wilmer/Cov all need at least above.

Why is KE DC comparable to DC based firms? Skadden DC dips well below median at my school too

[Anonymous User]

Anyone have a sense of the DC office (specifically lit)? Seems like one of the most attainable top-firm DC offices looking at my school's OCI history.

Curious; what is the median GPA for K&E DC at your school? I think the DC office is the only office my school has no data for. The Chicago office's numbers are by far the most competitive with a 3.7-3.8 median depending on the year. 25th is 3.6-3.8.

We don't have GPAs, but looking at comparables, KE DC goes well below median while GDC/Wilmer/Cov all need at least above.

Why is KE DC comparable to DC based firms? Skadden DC dips well below median at my school too

I'm at Kirkland DC. I do think we are a notch less selective than Gibson and Covington (and other obvious candidates like Williams & Connolly). I think we are about on par with Wilmer, Skadden, Latham, Hogan etc. in terms of selectivity. Maybe Wilmer is more selective, IDK (but I have worked closely with them on matters and the associates on their side did not seem unusually well credentialed compared to K&E).

I don't think macro-level selectivity should be used by any 2L for deciding which summer offer to accept. There are some real differences between DC shops. One of the biggest is about regulatory/government facing litigation. Kirkland does very little of that; the litigation cases here are mostly commercial with some government investigations/state AG matters as well. A place like Covington, on the other hand, has a lot of regulatory-flavored litigation. Some people like that; other people (me) don't want to do it.

[Anonymous User]

Can anyone speak to paternity leave at Kirkland? Especially at the mid level m&a stage?

Six months paid paternity leave, and maternity can be longer if there are birth complications. Multiple NSPs that I work with (not in M&A) took the full six months within the last couple years. I criticize KE on a lot but they get parental leave right.

its only 6 months for NSPs right? For associates, 10 weeks? Either way, pretty awesome.

For associates it’s 18 weeks for the birthing person, 10 weeks for the father (or other non-birthing partner).

I understand giving birthing mothers more time because of the physical/emotional strain of giving birth, but an eight-week difference seems like a bit much. Ten weeks really isn't great. I think my firm used to distinguish between birthing parent/primary caregiver or non-birthing parent/non-primary caregiver, but now they give 14 weeks for both. Ideally it would be much longer for both parents. Regardless, I definitely wouldn't describe 10 weeks as "pretty awesome" as the previous poster did.

Fixed in bolded.

Kidding aside, as a non-birthing partner who has taken advantage of a full 10 week paternity leave, and also did a much shorter paternity leave back when I was trying to "impress" folks, 10 weeks for a non-birthing partner is pretty amazing. It is peak privilege to say someone who didn't push a baby out of their non-gender specific birthing canal should get paid 300k+ to stay at home in excess of 10 weeks - like I find it hard to believe you have any concept about what most ppl in america (not even mentioning the world) do for jobs, or the financial struggles they deal with.

Lots of things to criticize KE and other biglaw firms about, but the paternity policy is not one of them.

[Anonymous User]

Can anyone speak to paternity leave at Kirkland? Especially at the mid level m&a stage?

Six months paid paternity leave, and maternity can be longer if there are birth complications. Multiple NSPs that I work with (not in M&A) took the full six months within the last couple years. I criticize KE on a lot but they get parental leave right.

its only 6 months for NSPs right? For associates, 10 weeks? Either way, pretty awesome.

For associates it’s 18 weeks for the birthing person, 10 weeks for the father (or other non-birthing partner).

I understand giving birthing mothers more time because of the physical/emotional strain of giving birth, but an eight-week difference seems like a bit much. Ten weeks really isn't great. I think my firm used to distinguish between birthing parent/primary caregiver or non-birthing parent/non-primary caregiver, but now they give 14 weeks for both. Ideally it would be much longer for both parents. Regardless, I definitely wouldn't describe 10 weeks as "pretty awesome" as the previous poster did.

Fixed in bolded.

Kidding aside, as a non-birthing partner who has taken advantage of a full 10 week paternity leave, and also did a much shorter paternity leave back when I was trying to "impress" folks, 10 weeks for a non-birthing partner is pretty amazing. It is peak privilege to say someone who didn't push a baby out of their non-gender specific birthing canal should get paid 300k+ to stay at home in excess of 10 weeks - like I find it hard to believe you have any concept about what most ppl in america (not even mentioning the world) do for jobs, or the financial struggles they deal with.

Lots of things to criticize KE and other biglaw firms about, but the paternity policy is not one of them.

This isn't about comparing to "most ppl in america." It's about comparing people in similar positions. If a less profitable firm can give associates more time off, why shouldn't people expect a firm like K&E to give them more time off? And, for the record, I probably have more perspective on what most people in America deal with at work than the vast majority of posters here.

[Anonymous User]

Can anyone speak to paternity leave at Kirkland? Especially at the mid level m&a stage?

Six months paid paternity leave, and maternity can be longer if there are birth complications. Multiple NSPs that I work with (not in M&A) took the full six months within the last couple years. I criticize KE on a lot but they get parental leave right.

its only 6 months for NSPs right? For associates, 10 weeks? Either way, pretty awesome.

For associates it’s 18 weeks for the birthing person, 10 weeks for the father (or other non-birthing partner).

I understand giving birthing mothers more time because of the physical/emotional strain of giving birth, but an eight-week difference seems like a bit much. Ten weeks really isn't great. I think my firm used to distinguish between birthing parent/primary caregiver or non-birthing parent/non-primary caregiver, but now they give 14 weeks for both. Ideally it would be much longer for both parents. Regardless, I definitely wouldn't describe 10 weeks as "pretty awesome" as the previous poster did.

Fixed in bolded.

Kidding aside, as a non-birthing partner who has taken advantage of a full 10 week paternity leave, and also did a much shorter paternity leave back when I was trying to "impress" folks, 10 weeks for a non-birthing partner is pretty amazing. It is peak privilege to say someone who didn't push a baby out of their non-gender specific birthing canal should get paid 300k+ to stay at home in excess of 10 weeks - like I find it hard to believe you have any concept about what most ppl in america (not even mentioning the world) do for jobs, or the financial struggles they deal with.

Lots of things to criticize KE and other biglaw firms about, but the paternity policy is not one of them.

This isn't about comparing to "most ppl in america." It's about comparing people in similar positions. If a less profitable firm can give associates more time off, why shouldn't people expect a firm like K&E to give them more time off? And, for the record, I probably have more perspective on what most people in America deal with at work than the vast majority of posters here.

OK, that is fair -- you made it sound like some basic human right that paternity should be in excess of 10+ weeks. But if you are just comparing apples to apples, that is totally fair and valid, but you need to back up your claim w/ data. List the paternity policies of comparable firms.

[Anonymous User]

Six months paid paternity leave, and maternity can be longer if there are birth complications. Multiple NSPs that I work with (not in M&A) took the full six months within the last couple years. I criticize KE on a lot but they get parental leave right.

its only 6 months for NSPs right? For associates, 10 weeks? Either way, pretty awesome.

For associates it’s 18 weeks for the birthing person, 10 weeks for the father (or other non-birthing partner).

I understand giving birthing mothers more time because of the physical/emotional strain of giving birth, but an eight-week difference seems like a bit much. Ten weeks really isn't great. I think my firm used to distinguish between birthing parent/primary caregiver or non-birthing parent/non-primary caregiver, but now they give 14 weeks for both. Ideally it would be much longer for both parents. Regardless, I definitely wouldn't describe 10 weeks as "pretty awesome" as the previous poster did.

Fixed in bolded.

Kidding aside, as a non-birthing partner who has taken advantage of a full 10 week paternity leave, and also did a much shorter paternity leave back when I was trying to "impress" folks, 10 weeks for a non-birthing partner is pretty amazing. It is peak privilege to say someone who didn't push a baby out of their non-gender specific birthing canal should get paid 300k+ to stay at home in excess of 10 weeks - like I find it hard to believe you have any concept about what most ppl in america (not even mentioning the world) do for jobs, or the financial struggles they deal with.

Lots of things to criticize KE and other biglaw firms about, but the paternity policy is not one of them.

This isn't about comparing to "most ppl in america." It's about comparing people in similar positions. If a less profitable firm can give associates more time off, why shouldn't people expect a firm like K&E to give them more time off? And, for the record, I probably have more perspective on what most people in America deal with at work than the vast majority of posters here.

OK, that is fair -- you made it sound like some basic human right that paternity should be in excess of 10+ weeks. But if you are just comparing apples to apples, that is totally fair and valid, but you need to back up your claim w/ data. List the paternity policies of comparable firms.

Yeah, when I was at Latham, women got like 22 weeks and men got 4. I think they have somewhat fixed it as there was almost a riot amongst male associates with young kids when they increased women to 22 weeks and told men that it was actually better for them to have shorter leaves that way people might take it.

[Anonymous User]

Super random question. This is for lawyers in the Kirkland DC office. What is the general dress code for women? I don’t like dresses or skirts. Do I have to wear heels everyday? Do women wear nice and professional looking flats? Can I wear a cardigan or should I wear a blazer everyday? I have my summer internship coming up and need to prepare a wardrobe. Thank you for any input.

[Anonymous User]

Super random question. This is for lawyers in the Kirkland DC office. What is the general dress code for women? I don’t like dresses or skirts. Do I have to wear heels everyday? Do women wear nice and professional looking flats? Can I wear a cardigan or should I wear a blazer everyday? I have my summer internship coming up and need to prepare a wardrobe. Thank you for any input.

KE DC is pretty casual, but women dress up more than men. Nice flats are fine. No need to wear a dress if you don't want; slacks or whatever should be great.

[MK2021]

Super random question. This is for lawyers in the Kirkland DC office. What is the general dress code for women? I don’t like dresses or skirts. Do I have to wear heels everyday? Do women wear nice and professional looking flats? Can I wear a cardigan or should I wear a blazer everyday? I have my summer internship coming up and need to prepare a wardrobe. Thank you for any input.

KE DC is pretty casual, but women dress up more than men. Nice flats are fine. No need to wear a dress if you don't want; slacks or whatever should be great.

Perfect. Thank you

[Anonymous User]

Lots of things to criticize KE and other biglaw firms about, but the paternity policy is not one of them.
[/quote]

This will also depend on what partners you work for. I was 'encouraged' by several SPs to not take the full 10 weeks because we were so busy. I didn't take the full 10 and very much regret it. Can't say that wouldn't happen somewhere else, but the idea that I should suck it up and not take advantage of the full time because xyz PE client had a bunch of deals coming up was definitely a factor in my choosing to leave.

[Anonymous User]

Lots of things to criticize KE and other biglaw firms about, but the paternity policy is not one of them.

This will also depend on what partners you work for. I was 'encouraged' by several SPs to not take the full 10 weeks because we were so busy. I didn't take the full 10 and very much regret it. Can't say that wouldn't happen somewhere else, but the idea that I should suck it up and not take advantage of the full time because xyz PE client had a bunch of deals coming up was definitely a factor in my choosing to leave.
[/quote]

In contrast, the SPs in my group encouraged everyone to take their full leave and took an associate to task for asking when an NSP would be back and if the NSP would be using the full leave period.

[Anonymous User]

Lots of things to criticize KE and other biglaw firms about, but the paternity policy is not one of them.

This will also depend on what partners you work for. I was 'encouraged' by several SPs to not take the full 10 weeks because we were so busy. I didn't take the full 10 and very much regret it. Can't say that wouldn't happen somewhere else, but the idea that I should suck it up and not take advantage of the full time because xyz PE client had a bunch of deals coming up was definitely a factor in my choosing to leave.

In contrast, the SPs in my group encouraged everyone to take their full leave and took an associate to task for asking when an NSP would be back and if the NSP would be using the full leave period.
[/quote]

As an associate at a v50 with a very touted gender-neutral leave policy, I (male) was pressured to come back within days because we were busy... I didn't give in that early, but did give in way earlier than the full leave and very much regret it. I think attitudes towards leave will be much more driven by workloads and the partners you work with than the firm you're at.

[Anonymous User]

Kirkland SF - anyone have any thoughts? Specifically for the debt group. Considering a move from a different city at a v10 to SF for my partners job and my firm doesn't have an office there.