Kirkland Debt Finance exits for NSPs Forum

[Anonymous User]

I know we’ve got a million K&E people on here. I’m looking at lateraling into their debt finance practice in the next year or so as a midlevel (currently a rising 5th year at a V50), probably NY or SF.

What kind of in-house exits do NSPs tend to land out of K&E finance?

Anything weird about making NSP as a midlevel lateral around my year? Just need to get a couple years of 2s or 1s?

[Anonymous User]

Also interested

[Anonymous User]

I know we’ve got a million K&E people on here. I’m looking at lateraling into their debt finance practice in the next year or so as a midlevel (currently a rising 5th year at a V50), probably NY or SF.

What kind of in-house exits do NSPs tend to land out of K&E finance?

Anything weird about making NSP as a midlevel lateral around my year? Just need to get a couple years of 2s or 1s?

My firm - large cap private equity fund hired an equivalent of a Kirkland NSP (Ropes / Goodwin / Simpson Thacher financing lawyer with 8 years of experience) as a principal level capital markets professional who focuses on finding debt financing for our infrastructure and private equity deals. My understanding is he was competing against director level leverage finance folks at investment banks.

[Anonymous User]

I don't work at K&E, but I was extremely interested in them when I was recruiting. Thus, I spoke to a ton of people working there and to 3L's at my school who summered there. The general consensus is that in the biglaw lateral market coming from Kirkland, everyone knows NSP Kirkland is just a glorified senior associate/of counsel. I've been told that the "partner" title actually holds some weight and may give you an advantage over your non-partner peers from other firms if you're applying to in-house positions where they are not familiar with Kirkland's practices. But obviously, if you're going in-house to a private equity firm that Kirkland consistently works with, they'll know that you're basically just a senior associate as well. In short, it depends on how familiar the in-house company is with Kirkland's policies.

[Anonymous User]

I know we’ve got a million K&E people on here. I’m looking at lateraling into their debt finance practice in the next year or so as a midlevel (currently a rising 5th year at a V50), probably NY or SF.

What kind of in-house exits do NSPs tend to land out of K&E finance?

Anything weird about making NSP as a midlevel lateral around my year? Just need to get a couple years of 2s or 1s?

I can’t directly answer your question but if you are considering lateraling to Kirkland, just keep in mind that Kirkland will probably make you take a partnership credit haircut, so you wouldn’t make NSP in your 6th year like your peers. Also keep in mind that Kirkland NSPs pay much higher taxes (K-1) than associates, don’t get their 7th year raise until February, and no longer get any subsidy from the firm for their health insurance premium (NSPs have to use a high deductible plan that has truly awful coverage). All short-term considerations but the pay cut relative to other firms’ 7th year is pretty massive.

[Anonymous User]

I don't work at K&E, but I was extremely interested in them when I was recruiting. Thus, I spoke to a ton of people working there and to 3L's at my school who summered there. The general consensus is that in the biglaw lateral market coming from Kirkland, everyone knows NSP Kirkland is just a glorified senior associate/of counsel. I've been told that the "partner" title actually holds some weight and may give you an advantage over your non-partner peers from other firms if you're applying to in-house positions where they are not familiar with Kirkland's practices. But obviously, if you're going in-house to a private equity firm that Kirkland consistently works with, they'll know that you're basically just a senior associate as well. In short, it depends on how familiar the in-house company is with Kirkland's policies.

This is true for all firms with non-equity partners.

Also wanted to bump this to get more insight.

[Anonymous User]

I don't work at K&E, but I was extremely interested in them when I was recruiting. Thus, I spoke to a ton of people working there and to 3L's at my school who summered there. The general consensus is that in the biglaw lateral market coming from Kirkland, everyone knows NSP Kirkland is just a glorified senior associate/of counsel. I've been told that the "partner" title actually holds some weight and may give you an advantage over your non-partner peers from other firms if you're applying to in-house positions where they are not familiar with Kirkland's practices. But obviously, if you're going in-house to a private equity firm that Kirkland consistently works with, they'll know that you're basically just a senior associate as well. In short, it depends on how familiar the in-house company is with Kirkland's policies.

This is true for all firms with non-equity partners.

Also wanted to bump this to get more insight.

Not necessarily. Some firms make a much smaller proportion number of non-equity partners (and a much larger proportion of non-share partners make share partner), and it's not obvious to outsiders who's who. Kirkland, you can just go to their website and see who has a P.C. behind their name. I know there's a few exceptions where share partners don't have the "P.C.", but in most cases it's a good indication.

Even for a two-tier firm, Kirkland just makes an unusually large number of "partners."