Kirkland and Ellis Partner Salary Forum

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bajablast

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Re: Kirkland and Ellis Partner Salary

Post by bajablast » Thu Sep 16, 2021 2:25 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Thu Sep 16, 2021 2:02 pm
Thank you all for your replies. It sounds like you can do very well for yourself as a perm NSP and it’s possible to become an equity partner. My next question is- why do I keep seeing threads that say you can’t become a millionaire as a lawyer? Say I become an equity partner at Kirkland and I am making at least 5,000,000 a year, how is it possible not to be a millionaire? What’s stopping me from affording the nice cars and a 3-4 million dollar dream home?
Nothing other than the decisions you make

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Re: Kirkland and Ellis Partner Salary

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Sep 16, 2021 3:10 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Thu Sep 16, 2021 2:02 pm
Thank you all for your replies. It sounds like you can do very well for yourself as a perm NSP and it’s possible to become an equity partner. My next question is- why do I keep seeing threads that say you can’t become a millionaire as a lawyer? Say I become an equity partner at Kirkland and I am making at least 5,000,000 a year, how is it possible not to be a millionaire? What’s stopping me from affording the nice cars and a 3-4 million dollar dream home?
If you want to sell your soul and destroy your personal life for 10 years and an uncertain, tiny prospect of getting shares in a specialist group, go for it. Enjoy the cars.

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Re: Kirkland and Ellis Partner Salary

Post by Moneytrees » Thu Sep 16, 2021 3:43 pm

bajablast wrote:
Thu Sep 16, 2021 2:25 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Thu Sep 16, 2021 2:02 pm
Thank you all for your replies. It sounds like you can do very well for yourself as a perm NSP and it’s possible to become an equity partner. My next question is- why do I keep seeing threads that say you can’t become a millionaire as a lawyer? Say I become an equity partner at Kirkland and I am making at least 5,000,000 a year, how is it possible not to be a millionaire? What’s stopping me from affording the nice cars and a 3-4 million dollar dream home?
Nothing other than the decisions you make
Good luck bringing home 4M on a 5M salary in New York haha.

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bajablast

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Re: Kirkland and Ellis Partner Salary

Post by bajablast » Thu Sep 16, 2021 4:30 pm

Moneytrees wrote:
Thu Sep 16, 2021 3:43 pm
bajablast wrote:
Thu Sep 16, 2021 2:25 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Thu Sep 16, 2021 2:02 pm
Thank you all for your replies. It sounds like you can do very well for yourself as a perm NSP and it’s possible to become an equity partner. My next question is- why do I keep seeing threads that say you can’t become a millionaire as a lawyer? Say I become an equity partner at Kirkland and I am making at least 5,000,000 a year, how is it possible not to be a millionaire? What’s stopping me from affording the nice cars and a 3-4 million dollar dream home?
Nothing other than the decisions you make
Good luck bringing home 4M on a 5M salary in New York haha.
Anon could decide to practice in Texas and still make market. It's all about the choices you make.

The Lsat Airbender

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Re: Kirkland and Ellis Partner Salary

Post by The Lsat Airbender » Thu Sep 16, 2021 4:35 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Thu Sep 16, 2021 2:02 pm
Thank you all for your replies. It sounds like you can do very well for yourself as a perm NSP and it’s possible to become an equity partner. My next question is- why do I keep seeing threads that say you can’t become a millionaire as a lawyer? Say I become an equity partner at Kirkland and I am making at least 5,000,000 a year, how is it possible not to be a millionaire? What’s stopping me from affording the nice cars and a 3-4 million dollar dream home?
1) Decamillionaire is the new millionaire thanks to inflation, and it's kinda a slog to get there even if you're making low 7 figures

2) "Say I become an equity partner at Kirkland" is doing an absurd amount of work in this hypothetical. Getting equity at a V10 is one way to make a lot of money, but it's a highly unlikely outcome for a talented junior associate, let alone any given 0L.

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Re: Kirkland and Ellis Partner Salary

Post by Sackboy » Thu Sep 16, 2021 10:52 pm

FFS, folks. I came in here to share some data and knowledge about the KE system, not to encourage any of you to want to be an equity partner.

As for the weird millionaire question, it's not remotely hard to become a millionaire if you make $100k+ and don't live in a super HCOL area. Literally just put your money in index funds and forget about it. If you start doing that in your 20s with a $100k plus salary, you'll have $2-$3M by retirement.

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Re: Kirkland and Ellis Partner Salary

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Sep 16, 2021 10:57 pm

I can't comment specifically on the group that has become the focus of this conversation but making equity at Kirkland generally is insanely hard and anyone who suggests otherwise hasn't seen all the cold bodies exiting through the doors over the years. The view among my NSP peers is that shares are few and far between and that the firm is making people wait for an increasingly long time before they're even considered for it. I've seen a ton of NSPs exit over the past 12-18 months because they've had enough and would rather get equity at a "lesser" firm (but where they'll be making more money immediately) than put up with the waiting game that the firm has perfected in exchange for some ephemeral promise that "maybe one day, you too will become an actual partner."

Also, this whole "permanent NSP" thing is a source of endless confusion for many of us because the firm keeps it in the dark for most people. I've had friends who have been told within a year or two of becoming an NSP that they would never be up for shares but are welcome to stay on permanently as an NSP. There's no way those folks were making a million dollars per year after that sort of talk. On the other hand, there are some very senior, respected attorneys at the firm who appear to be "non-equity" (NSP) and they may be making 7-figures in which case the "permanent NSP" is functioning the same way as "of counsel" was used 10 years ago. It's a very ambiguous situation without a lot of good public or even in-firm data for those outside the share partner circle.

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Re: Kirkland and Ellis Partner Salary

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Sep 16, 2021 11:07 pm

Do you have any reason to believe that it is materially harder to get shares at K&E than peer firms?

My view has been that the combination of non-lockstep compensation + double-digit growth + opportunity to demonstrate BizDev and managerial skills as an NSP are all that factors that would make it very slightly easier to get shares compared to other firms. But perhaps that is too rosy of a picture.

Anon because I am an associate at the firm.

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Re: Kirkland and Ellis Partner Salary

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Sep 16, 2021 11:19 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Thu Sep 16, 2021 11:07 pm
Do you have any reason to believe that it is materially harder to get shares at K&E than peer firms?

My view has been that the combination of non-lockstep compensation + double-digit growth + opportunity to demonstrate BizDev and managerial skills as an NSP are all that factors that would make it very slightly easier to get shares compared to other firms. But perhaps that is too rosy of a picture.

Anon because I am an associate at the firm.
I do think it's materially harder for a few reasons:

* Kirkland has one of the worst leverage ratios (equity partners:other attorneys) in the legal industry. It has to be approaching .2 which would put it in the rock bottom of the industry. Many of the tables tracking this falsely report Kirkland as midpack but that's because they make the basic error of including NSPs in the partner tally which is nonsensical. Leverage ratio is an easy back of the envelope way to judge odds of partnership promotion and the lower it is, the worse your odds.

* It's an open secret, particularly after that Bloomberg Law article came out at the beginning of last year, that NSPs are a key ingredient in Kirkland's profit engine. NSPs are billed out at ungodly rates, are highly profitable, are capable of running cases, and yet are compensated at a fraction of what the share partners are. The firm has every incentive to keep as many people stuck in the NSP slot as they can for as long as they can.

* Kirkland's own profitability has in a way shot itself in the foot. PPP and the value of a share allocation has grown so egregiously high over the past few years that there's a huge disincentive to invite people into the partnership because of how much you have to pay them from the getgo. Word is that entry level share allocation gets you close to $2m these days. Your bog standard NSP may be making 500, 600, 700k on the cusp of that promotion. That's a huge leap in comp. and it cuts out the profitability for other share partners in a way that a promotion from something like 350k to 600k that you might see at a midlaw firm (or even 500k to $1m at a big law firm) doesn't.

* Kirkland has shown a preference for giving equity to lateral hires over home-grown talent over the past 5 years especially. There seems to be a view among the share partners and especially the firm committee that talent doesn't need to be cultivated it can just be bought. That's a cultural thing and it could change but that's the sense you get.

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Re: Kirkland and Ellis Partner Salary

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Sep 16, 2021 11:31 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Thu Sep 16, 2021 11:07 pm
Do you have any reason to believe that it is materially harder to get shares at K&E than peer firms?

My view has been that the combination of non-lockstep compensation + double-digit growth + opportunity to demonstrate BizDev and managerial skills as an NSP are all that factors that would make it very slightly easier to get shares compared to other firms. But perhaps that is too rosy of a picture.

Anon because I am an associate at the firm.
P.S. Remember this for the rest of your career: the share partners aren't your friends. "Double digit growth" translates for them to "more money for us" not "more opportunities to make partners." 95% of them are wolves. If you're looking for a "we're all in this together" and "we can't wait for you to join the ranks of the partnership" mindset, leave Kirkland because you won't find it there. That mentality might have existed in 1981 or even 2001, but it doesn't exist now.

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Re: Kirkland and Ellis Partner Salary

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Sep 17, 2021 7:17 am

To put some numbers on it, here's the 2015 NSP class for corporate in New York (https://www.kirkland.com/news/press-rel ... w-partners).

8 NSPs originally
2 have PC on their website, so confirmed partners
2 remain at KE, but no PC. So probably still NSPs, possibly permanently. Equity would have come in 2019 or 2020 for this class. Business is so good right now, though, that I suspect they're not permanent NSPs but just haven't been told it's time to leave yet.
4 other outcomes:
Counsel at PW
Partner at Fried Frank
Partner at Vinson & Elkins
Partner at Latham & Watkins

Note, though, that these are numbers for a group of people who does a lot of PE/PE-related work, so their business is doing great. If they were in another area, this could look a lot more depressing. But even for this case, the odds are only 25% starting from NSP (and NSP is a long way from first-year associate or 1L). Maybe I'll do one for lit later if anybody cares.

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Re: Kirkland and Ellis Partner Salary

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Sep 17, 2021 7:29 am

Very interesting.

As a K&E NSP the biggest point for me has been understanding that there is no concept of fairness or merit in getting shares. It is highly political and is a question of who will be in the room backing you and whether they have enough clout to get you through. If you are in a non-transactional area then your chances are extremely slim. As the poster above says, the ESPs are not your friends and will keep you hanging around as long as they possibly can. I wish they would be more honest.

It is not a nice process but I don't know if it is truly that different to any other firm.

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Re: Kirkland and Ellis Partner Salary

Post by Lawsohard99 » Fri Sep 17, 2021 9:10 am

It’s important to remember that practice area is important for shares. A practice area that drives revenue to other aspects of the firm (like M&A/PE) is more likely to mint share partners than those that support other practices, and those areas with the least fee sensitivity are more likely to generate share partners than those with more fee sensitivity because the downside of paying someone $2m/year pays for itself easily if they can bring in one thing that generates at least $4m-6m in revenue (assuming 50% margin though this is lazy math as the partner salary would also impact the cost contributing to that 50% margin).

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Re: Kirkland and Ellis Partner Salary

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Sep 17, 2021 10:02 am

Anonymous User wrote:
Thu Sep 16, 2021 11:19 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Thu Sep 16, 2021 11:07 pm
Do you have any reason to believe that it is materially harder to get shares at K&E than peer firms?

My view has been that the combination of non-lockstep compensation + double-digit growth + opportunity to demonstrate BizDev and managerial skills as an NSP are all that factors that would make it very slightly easier to get shares compared to other firms. But perhaps that is too rosy of a picture.

Anon because I am an associate at the firm.
I do think it's materially harder for a few reasons:

* Kirkland has one of the worst leverage ratios (equity partners:other attorneys) in the legal industry. It has to be approaching .2 which would put it in the rock bottom of the industry. Many of the tables tracking this falsely report Kirkland as midpack but that's because they make the basic error of including NSPs in the partner tally which is nonsensical. Leverage ratio is an easy back of the envelope way to judge odds of partnership promotion and the lower it is, the worse your odds.

* It's an open secret, particularly after that Bloomberg Law article came out at the beginning of last year, that NSPs are a key ingredient in Kirkland's profit engine. NSPs are billed out at ungodly rates, are highly profitable, are capable of running cases, and yet are compensated at a fraction of what the share partners are. The firm has every incentive to keep as many people stuck in the NSP slot as they can for as long as they can.

* Kirkland's own profitability has in a way shot itself in the foot. PPP and the value of a share allocation has grown so egregiously high over the past few years that there's a huge disincentive to invite people into the partnership because of how much you have to pay them from the getgo. Word is that entry level share allocation gets you close to $2m these days. Your bog standard NSP may be making 500, 600, 700k on the cusp of that promotion. That's a huge leap in comp. and it cuts out the profitability for other share partners in a way that a promotion from something like 350k to 600k that you might see at a midlaw firm (or even 500k to $1m at a big law firm) doesn't.

* Kirkland has shown a preference for giving equity to lateral hires over home-grown talent over the past 5 years especially. There seems to be a view among the share partners and especially the firm committee that talent doesn't need to be cultivated it can just be bought. That's a cultural thing and it could change but that's the sense you get.
I’m also at KE and have heard the bolded. I don’t understand why the firm doesn’t do the equivalent of a stock split so that the entry level SP share value decreases to an amount that is profitable for both firm and promoted NSP. I guess the firm probably sees no need to do so at the moment when it can overpay for lateral partners at will.

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Re: Kirkland and Ellis Partner Salary

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Sep 17, 2021 10:11 am

Anonymous User wrote:
Fri Sep 17, 2021 10:02 am
Anonymous User wrote:
Thu Sep 16, 2021 11:19 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Thu Sep 16, 2021 11:07 pm
Do you have any reason to believe that it is materially harder to get shares at K&E than peer firms?

My view has been that the combination of non-lockstep compensation + double-digit growth + opportunity to demonstrate BizDev and managerial skills as an NSP are all that factors that would make it very slightly easier to get shares compared to other firms. But perhaps that is too rosy of a picture.

Anon because I am an associate at the firm.
I do think it's materially harder for a few reasons:

* Kirkland has one of the worst leverage ratios (equity partners:other attorneys) in the legal industry. It has to be approaching .2 which would put it in the rock bottom of the industry. Many of the tables tracking this falsely report Kirkland as midpack but that's because they make the basic error of including NSPs in the partner tally which is nonsensical. Leverage ratio is an easy back of the envelope way to judge odds of partnership promotion and the lower it is, the worse your odds.

* It's an open secret, particularly after that Bloomberg Law article came out at the beginning of last year, that NSPs are a key ingredient in Kirkland's profit engine. NSPs are billed out at ungodly rates, are highly profitable, are capable of running cases, and yet are compensated at a fraction of what the share partners are. The firm has every incentive to keep as many people stuck in the NSP slot as they can for as long as they can.

* Kirkland's own profitability has in a way shot itself in the foot. PPP and the value of a share allocation has grown so egregiously high over the past few years that there's a huge disincentive to invite people into the partnership because of how much you have to pay them from the getgo. Word is that entry level share allocation gets you close to $2m these days. Your bog standard NSP may be making 500, 600, 700k on the cusp of that promotion. That's a huge leap in comp. and it cuts out the profitability for other share partners in a way that a promotion from something like 350k to 600k that you might see at a midlaw firm (or even 500k to $1m at a big law firm) doesn't.

* Kirkland has shown a preference for giving equity to lateral hires over home-grown talent over the past 5 years especially. There seems to be a view among the share partners and especially the firm committee that talent doesn't need to be cultivated it can just be bought. That's a cultural thing and it could change but that's the sense you get.
I’m also at KE and have heard the bolded. I don’t understand why the firm doesn’t do the equivalent of a stock split so that the entry level SP share value decreases to an amount that is profitable for both firm and promoted NSP. I guess the firm probably sees no need to do so at the moment when it can overpay for lateral partners at will.
Maybe that's what Ballis is about to announce this morning at the town hall (1% chance lol). Many of us have had this same idea. Half the battle to retain talent is psychological; just getting into the ranks of the equity partnership, even if it meant starting at $1m rather than $2m, would be a huge deal for many people here and would make people feel more invested in the firm. Who cares if it spreads the comp. ratio if it lets you retain talented people at a time when the firm is growing.

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Re: Kirkland and Ellis Partner Salary

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Sep 17, 2021 2:33 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Fri Sep 17, 2021 10:11 am
Anonymous User wrote:
Fri Sep 17, 2021 10:02 am
Anonymous User wrote:
Thu Sep 16, 2021 11:19 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Thu Sep 16, 2021 11:07 pm
Do you have any reason to believe that it is materially harder to get shares at K&E than peer firms?

My view has been that the combination of non-lockstep compensation + double-digit growth + opportunity to demonstrate BizDev and managerial skills as an NSP are all that factors that would make it very slightly easier to get shares compared to other firms. But perhaps that is too rosy of a picture.

Anon because I am an associate at the firm.
I do think it's materially harder for a few reasons:

* Kirkland has one of the worst leverage ratios (equity partners:other attorneys) in the legal industry. It has to be approaching .2 which would put it in the rock bottom of the industry. Many of the tables tracking this falsely report Kirkland as midpack but that's because they make the basic error of including NSPs in the partner tally which is nonsensical. Leverage ratio is an easy back of the envelope way to judge odds of partnership promotion and the lower it is, the worse your odds.

* It's an open secret, particularly after that Bloomberg Law article came out at the beginning of last year, that NSPs are a key ingredient in Kirkland's profit engine. NSPs are billed out at ungodly rates, are highly profitable, are capable of running cases, and yet are compensated at a fraction of what the share partners are. The firm has every incentive to keep as many people stuck in the NSP slot as they can for as long as they can.

* Kirkland's own profitability has in a way shot itself in the foot. PPP and the value of a share allocation has grown so egregiously high over the past few years that there's a huge disincentive to invite people into the partnership because of how much you have to pay them from the getgo. Word is that entry level share allocation gets you close to $2m these days. Your bog standard NSP may be making 500, 600, 700k on the cusp of that promotion. That's a huge leap in comp. and it cuts out the profitability for other share partners in a way that a promotion from something like 350k to 600k that you might see at a midlaw firm (or even 500k to $1m at a big law firm) doesn't.

* Kirkland has shown a preference for giving equity to lateral hires over home-grown talent over the past 5 years especially. There seems to be a view among the share partners and especially the firm committee that talent doesn't need to be cultivated it can just be bought. That's a cultural thing and it could change but that's the sense you get.
I’m also at KE and have heard the bolded. I don’t understand why the firm doesn’t do the equivalent of a stock split so that the entry level SP share value decreases to an amount that is profitable for both firm and promoted NSP. I guess the firm probably sees no need to do so at the moment when it can overpay for lateral partners at will.
Maybe that's what Ballis is about to announce this morning at the town hall (1% chance lol). Many of us have had this same idea. Half the battle to retain talent is psychological; just getting into the ranks of the equity partnership, even if it meant starting at $1m rather than $2m, would be a huge deal for many people here and would make people feel more invested in the firm. Who cares if it spreads the comp. ratio if it lets you retain talented people at a time when the firm is growing.
What a boring town hall. Totally underwhelming. "We're hiring more people and opening more offices because we know your lives suck right now. Take comfort in the fact that eventually, after a lot more time, maybe they won't suck as much. Have a great morning."

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Re: Kirkland and Ellis Partner Salary

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Sep 17, 2021 4:27 pm

To continue my analysis from above, here are the outcomes for Chicago litigators from 2015:

11 NSPs originally
1 has PC on their website
3 remain at the firm, but no PC
7 other outcomes:
Redgrave
SEC
DOJ
Moore Tax Law Group
GC for Incloud Counsel
Eimer Stahl partner
ADM

So one of 11 in this case.

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Re: Kirkland and Ellis Partner Salary

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Sep 17, 2021 4:32 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Fri Sep 17, 2021 4:27 pm
To continue my analysis from above, here are the outcomes for Chicago litigators from 2015:

11 NSPs originally
1 has PC on their website
3 remain at the firm, but no PC
7 other outcomes:
Redgrave
SEC
DOJ
Moore Tax Law Group
GC for Incloud Counsel
Eimer Stahl partner
ADM

So one of 11 in this case.
Or maybe litigation SPs don't make enough to warrant PC?

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Re: Kirkland and Ellis Partner Salary

Post by Sackboy » Fri Sep 17, 2021 7:53 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Fri Sep 17, 2021 4:32 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Fri Sep 17, 2021 4:27 pm
To continue my analysis from above, here are the outcomes for Chicago litigators from 2015:

11 NSPs originally
1 has PC on their website
3 remain at the firm, but no PC
7 other outcomes:
Redgrave
SEC
DOJ
Moore Tax Law Group
GC for Incloud Counsel
Eimer Stahl partner
ADM

So one of 11 in this case.
Or maybe litigation SPs don't make enough to warrant PC?
I think OP implicitly is implying that with "in this case". OP clearly isn't daft. Also, I'd rather be a share partner at Eimer Stahl.

As for why not do a "stock split", it's already been reported that KE maintains one of the highest ratios between top- and "low"-comp partners. I believe KE used to be 7:1 or 8:1 and has since moved to 9:1. They don't want the bottom to fall out too hard, because they'll risk losing talent. At firms that maintain, let's say, a 7:1 but have very high PPP, KE can poach top corporate/lit talent easily because their scale goes higher for those folks. However, for people who are still very essentially to the business but are on the lower end of the compensation spectrum (i.e. specialists), their comp might actually be pretty comparable at a Fried Frank as long as Kirkland maintains a higher PPP overall. If, however, that PPP starts to become more equal to some of those firms just a ~$1-2M PPP less than KE, that 7:1 ratio starts doing a lot of work for lower compensated partners over KE's 9:1 ratio, and then they'd be better off financially elsewhere. If Kirkland keeps its PPP lead but then increases the ratio to say 10:1 or 11:1, they run into the same problem. All of a sudden, you're making the same or better as a specialist at Sidley.

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Re: Kirkland and Ellis Partner Salary

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Sep 18, 2021 12:15 am

Lawsohard99 wrote:
Fri Sep 17, 2021 9:10 am
It’s important to remember that practice area is important for shares. A practice area that drives revenue to other aspects of the firm (like M&A/PE) is more likely to mint share partners than those that support other practices, and those areas with the least fee sensitivity are more likely to generate share partners than those with more fee sensitivity because the downside of paying someone $2m/year pays for itself easily if they can bring in one thing that generates at least $4m-6m in revenue (assuming 50% margin though this is lazy math as the partner salary would also impact the cost contributing to that 50% margin).
I’ve talked to a lit partner who said only a couple homegrown lawyers per year get shares in lit across the whole firm. No idea if that’s true but he would know and had no reason to lie.

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Re: Kirkland and Ellis Partner Salary

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Sep 18, 2021 12:36 am

This is all very fascinating. Thank you all for sharing!

At my prior firm (a lower AmLaw 100 firm), a former K&E partner (assuming nonshare because he was only a partner for 4 years) came to our firm and was given a chair position. I heard from some people that his comp (I guess it was guaranteed for a few years) was in the $1.5m range which was significantly higher than the firm’s ppp.

So it seems that even people who “fail” to get shares at K&E end up doing very well for themselves a lot quicker than at other firms.

Anon because I don’t want the info about this partner’s comp getting out and I’ve written about my prior firm in other posts.

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Re: Kirkland and Ellis Partner Salary

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Sep 18, 2021 11:00 am

Here are the outcomes for all corporate NSPs from 2012:

19 total (across US offices)
5 PC (~25%, similar to the previous corporate group I did)
5 still at KE but no PC. More on this below...
Other outcomes:
Partners at Winston, Goodwin Procter, Dechert, Backer McKenzie, and Covington
In-house at Baxter, TPG, Barry Callebaut Group
One I couldn't find

Now of those 5 still at KE but not PCs, one is clearly a permanent NSP doing internal support type stuff (training, etc.). The other four are all either in transactional (securities offerings, securitization) or investment funds.

Of the 5 PCs, they're all associated with PE (whereas the non-PCs are not), four doing M&A/PE and the other in debt finance.

So 9 years out from making NSP (and 15 from graduating law school), half of this class is still at KE, and half of those have equity.

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Re: Kirkland and Ellis Partner Salary

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Sep 19, 2021 2:53 am

Anonymous User wrote:
Fri Sep 17, 2021 7:17 am
To put some numbers on it, here's the 2015 NSP class for corporate in New York (https://www.kirkland.com/news/press-rel ... w-partners).

8 NSPs originally
2 have PC on their website, so confirmed partners
2 remain at KE, but no PC. So probably still NSPs, possibly permanently. Equity would have come in 2019 or 2020 for this class. Business is so good right now, though, that I suspect they're not permanent NSPs but just haven't been told it's time to leave yet.
4 other outcomes:
Counsel at PW
Partner at Fried Frank
Partner at Vinson & Elkins
Partner at Latham & Watkins

Note, though, that these are numbers for a group of people who does a lot of PE/PE-related work, so their business is doing great. If they were in another area, this could look a lot more depressing. But even for this case, the odds are only 25% starting from NSP (and NSP is a long way from first-year associate or 1L). Maybe I'll do one for lit later if anybody cares.
Looks like the only two to make shares are in M&A. The V&E and Latham partners are M&A too. I know that at least two lateraled from other firms at third/fourth year, so it’s not like they were there for six years straight, either: something else to factor into calculating your chances of making it.

Is there a longer track for shares in fund formation than M&A? Seems to be the case based on this data.

mardash

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Posts: 105
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2020 1:38 am

Re: Kirkland and Ellis Partner Salary

Post by mardash » Sun Sep 19, 2021 5:53 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Fri Sep 17, 2021 4:32 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Fri Sep 17, 2021 4:27 pm
To continue my analysis from above, here are the outcomes for Chicago litigators from 2015:

11 NSPs originally
1 has PC on their website
3 remain at the firm, but no PC
7 other outcomes:
Redgrave
SEC
DOJ
Moore Tax Law Group
GC for Incloud Counsel
Eimer Stahl partner
ADM

So one of 11 in this case.
Or maybe litigation SPs don't make enough to warrant PC?
1 in 11 doesn’t seem bad vs the average biglaw litigation group, if you’re thinking associate->partner. But the fact that that’s NSP -> equity partner is kind of shocking to me at least.

Anonymous User
Posts: 428120
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am

Re: Kirkland and Ellis Partner Salary

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Sep 19, 2021 6:15 pm

mardash wrote:
Sun Sep 19, 2021 5:53 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Fri Sep 17, 2021 4:32 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Fri Sep 17, 2021 4:27 pm
To continue my analysis from above, here are the outcomes for Chicago litigators from 2015:

11 NSPs originally
1 has PC on their website
3 remain at the firm, but no PC
7 other outcomes:
Redgrave
SEC
DOJ
Moore Tax Law Group
GC for Incloud Counsel
Eimer Stahl partner
ADM

So one of 11 in this case.
Or maybe litigation SPs don't make enough to warrant PC?
1 in 11 doesn’t seem bad vs the average biglaw litigation group, if you’re thinking associate->partner. But the fact that that’s NSP -> equity partner is kind of shocking to me at least.
NSP to share partner is the same as associate to partner in other firms. You "make" NSP just by sticking around long enough to be a 7th year. It's not a funnel in and of itself any differently than the 6th to 7th year funnel would be at Other Biglaw Firm LLP.

Seriously? What are you waiting for?

Now there's a charge.
Just kidding ... it's still FREE!


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