Kirkland & Ellis ideology? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Anonymous because I am considering applying. I saw a study from years ago showing Kirkland & Ellis to be politically conservative by biglaw standards. Has this been diluted by the firm's rapid growth? Do current Kirkland & Ellis attorneys feel this at all in their day in, day out?

[Anonymous User]

Seems like you should just go to Paul’s Weiss instead.

[Ultramar vistas]

Anonymous because I am considering applying. I saw a study from years ago showing Kirkland & Ellis to be politically conservative by biglaw standards. Has this been diluted by the firm's rapid growth? Do current Kirkland & Ellis attorneys feel this at all in their day in, day out?

Feels as liberal leaning as any other workplace in 2021 corporate America. Diversity is huge, pro Bono efforts that are publicly praised tend to have a “liberal” stance (Paul Clement and his fine work notwithstanding). I expect many of the Partners I work with are Republicans, as older white dudes tend to be, but I don’t know anyone who was openly willing to admit to supporting Trump, although honestly politics are not heavily discussed.

Overall, I’d say it’s fairly neutral - we had a number of alums in the Trump administration but it was never celebrated (if anything, the opposite), and as I said above, while we all work for the man, the firm puts the same corporate gloss on as every F500 corporation so that we can all pretend to be great champions of good causes.

[Anonymous User]

KE Associate -- there are 2500 Attorneys working for KE and thousands of people who work in support staff roles. Some are conservative, some are center, some are very liberal. It also depends on the office just like any other job. I would not say KE NY is a very republican or a very democrat population, for example. This political stuff matters way less in a WFH environment. Some people have gone on to be big republican figures like Bill Barr/Brett Kavanaugh (ew, still standing with CBF).

KE so far hasn't been very big into representing politically disastrous groups/efforts, for example, like some big law firms. You may work in support roles on cases that are more politically charged, for instance, but another firm will likely handle the bulk of the case. So, you can feel relatively at peace knowing while you work there the firm committee is not suddenly going to take on an effort to overturn the 2024 election. I would say this to you: as someone who is extremely liberal, it's better to just not talk politics at work unless you know you are with people who are responsible enough to engage in the conversation (like friends). You're going to have to optimize for the least offensive (not saying political or personal identity is offensive) version of yourself and your beliefs to be able to participate in a bland and politically neutral work environment regardless of where you end up working.

This is what I would say the KE ideology is: business first, politics somewhere else on the list. People who work at this firm just want to do a good job, make their money, be successful and aren't looking to get involved with arguments about abortion in the hallway (not that anyone is really looking for that at any big law firm). To the extent that the firm committee has political leanings, I've not seen them. To the extent that partners have political leanings, I've only really met democrats who are out of the firm closet, so to speak. To the extent that your fellow associates have political leanings, don't worry about it.

[Anonymous User]

Anonymous because I am considering applying. I saw a study from years ago showing Kirkland & Ellis to be politically conservative by biglaw standards. Has this been diluted by the firm's rapid growth? Do current Kirkland & Ellis attorneys feel this at all in their day in, day out?

Is your concern that you think all conservatives are card carrying bigots who dedicate their lives to oppressing anyone and everyone other than straight white cis males?

To answer your question, no one feels ideology in their day in day out. Kirkland probably pays as much lip service to what you probably view as the "correct" opinions as any other firm. Lots of pro bono opportunities to help out all sorts of causes too. The most I ever saw conservatism come up at kirkland was in the rainmaking partner all-firm George Floyd email thread where everyone was saying "we have to do better" and there was one out of touch old white guy who kind of said "yeah that was a truly terrible incident, but the police aren't all pigs" or something to that effect, and he was swiftly and publicly put in his place.

As with most brutal sweatshops, you will find that whether or not the firm espouses bleeding heart platitudes, in practice it is as oppressive as the Gulag. In fact, one of the most vocal bleeding hearts at Kirkland is also very famous (and has been featured on ATL) for most brutally forcing his boot into the teeth of his associates.

Long-winded way of saying that purported ideology has almost no correlation to whether or not a place is a good place to work - if you truly believe your idealogy, that might actually have an affect, but as with the example above, the "bleeding heart" partner pays lip service harder than anyone I have ever seen, but deep down in his heart he might as well be Dick Cheney. You won't feel oppressed at Kirkland due to your color of skin, gender, sexual orientation, beliefs or anything like that. But you will generally be oppressed at Kirkland regardless of those things.

[Anonymous User]

This whole thread is kind of silly. Outside of a few exceptions, law firms (K&E included) are overwhelmingly liberal in a milquetoast corporate kind of way. I don't want to assume OP is one of those people who can't stand to be around someone from an opposing political ideology, but to the extent you are, I wouldn't worry about having your sensibilities offended at K&E.

[avenuem]

Anonymous because I am considering applying. I saw a study from years ago showing Kirkland & Ellis to be politically conservative by biglaw standards. Has this been diluted by the firm's rapid growth? Do current Kirkland & Ellis attorneys feel this at all in their day in, day out?

we all work for the man

Who is this man? What does this even mean? Aren't "WE" the man?

There's really nobody more powerful and important than a biglaw attorney, except another biglaw attorney.

There is an idea of an avenue m.
Some kind of abstraction, but there is no real me.
Only an entity-- something illusory.
And though I can hide my cold gaze...
and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours...
and maybe you can even sense our life styles are probably comparable,
I simply am not there.

[Anonymous User]

litigation is probably different, but if you're in corporate I doubt this will ever matter

worst is that someone might make an off-hand joke or comment, but it's far more likely to be one from centrist liberal leanings, like others have said

[lolwutpar]

Anonymous because I am considering applying. I saw a study from years ago showing Kirkland & Ellis to be politically conservative by biglaw standards. Has this been diluted by the firm's rapid growth? Do current Kirkland & Ellis attorneys feel this at all in their day in, day out?

we all work for the man

Who is this man? What does this even mean? Aren't "WE" the man?

There's really nobody more powerful and important than a biglaw attorney, except another biglaw attorney.

There is an idea of an avenue m.
Some kind of abstraction, but there is no real me.
Only an entity-- something illusory.
And though I can hide my cold gaze...
and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours...
and maybe you can even sense our life styles are probably comparable,
I simply am not there.

We're big, bad biglaw attorneys. We're very important - we drive our BMWs and order the second cheapest bottle of wine at dinner.

At night, we let the business folks put on their stilettoes and crush our big, swollen genitals and spit in our open mouths.

[Anonymous User]

It’s essentially the Ayn Rand of law firms. Sexual derangement included.

[Anonymous User]

Still salty the KE partner who funded my law school scholarship didn’t show to the scholarship banquet.

[Sackboy]

Still salty the KE partner who funded my law school scholarship didn’t show to the scholarship banquet.

This is the weirdest thing to be salty about. "I'm so upset I didn't get to meet the person who gave me a ton of money."

[Anonymous User]

(was thinking the same thing as sackboy^)

It’s essentially the Ayn Rand of law firms. Sexual derangement included.

Its SPPP* is off the charts. And if it makes OP feel any better, the biggest rainmakers in the SPPP department are the openly liberal partners, and it is not even close.



*Subordinate Propositions Per Partner

[toast and bananas]

We're big, bad biglaw attorneys. We're very important - we drive our BMWs and order the second cheapest bottle of wine at dinner.

I think I saw an interesting psychological study on this once that suggested restaurants should put the wine with the highest margin at the second cheapest slot, because people tend to order them more than anything else on the wine list.

[Anonymous User]

Still salty the KE partner who funded my law school scholarship didn’t show to the scholarship banquet.

This is the weirdest thing to be salty about. "I'm so upset I didn't get to meet the person who gave me a ton of money."

Quoted anon. Salty is the wrong word (felt dramatic when posting). Disappointed is better; I would have liked to meet the partner. I get that a scholarship banquet is the bottom priority. Super grateful for their generosity.

[LittleRedCorvette]

Still salty the KE partner who funded my law school scholarship didn’t show to the scholarship banquet.

This is the weirdest thing to be salty about. "I'm so upset I didn't get to meet the person who gave me a ton of money."

Quoted anon. Salty is the wrong word (felt dramatic when posting). Disappointed is better; I would have liked to meet the partner. I get that a scholarship banquet is the bottom priority. Super grateful for their generosity.

At least you got to tell everyone about your scholarship

[Anonymous User]

Still salty the KE partner who funded my law school scholarship didn’t show to the scholarship banquet.

This is the weirdest thing to be salty about. "I'm so upset I didn't get to meet the person who gave me a ton of money."

Quoted anon. Salty is the wrong word (felt dramatic when posting). Disappointed is better; I would have liked to meet the partner. I get that a scholarship banquet is the bottom priority. Super grateful for their generosity.

At least you got to tell everyone about your scholarship

Vain self-promotion is what I’m all about, baby.

[Anonymous User]

This whole thread is kind of silly. Outside of a few exceptions, law firms (K&E included) are overwhelmingly liberal in a milquetoast corporate kind of way. I don't want to assume OP is one of those people who can't stand to be around someone from an opposing political ideology, but to the extent you are, I wouldn't worry about having your sensibilities offended at K&E.

OP here. I have no trouble with conservatives! I made this thread after reading an Excess of Democracy post showing Kirkland was over 60% republican (much higher than other biglaw firms). I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything. Milquetoast corporate is fine by me.

[Anonymous User]

This whole thread is kind of silly. Outside of a few exceptions, law firms (K&E included) are overwhelmingly liberal in a milquetoast corporate kind of way. I don't want to assume OP is one of those people who can't stand to be around someone from an opposing political ideology, but to the extent you are, I wouldn't worry about having your sensibilities offended at K&E.

OP here. I have no trouble with conservatives! I made this thread after reading an Excess of Democracy post showing Kirkland was over 60% republican (much higher than other biglaw firms). I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything. Milquetoast corporate is fine by me.

I’m at KE and there is 100% no way that this is true. Like, bet-my-life zero chance. Kirkland, like all biglaw firms, is mostly liberal. Perhaps it is less liberal/Democratic than most other V10s (I don’t know), but it’s still quite liberal. I actually think there was an analysis during the 2020 election showing something like a 15- or 20-to-1 Biden-Trump donation split among Kirkland attorneys.