Kirkland & Ellis is raking in the dollars these days and isn’t ashamed to let everyone know about it. Kirkland’s so far and away ahead of the competition that a recent study suggested that it’s worth almost double its nearest competitor, even dunking on Toys R Us. No one is missing the newsflash that it’s now Kirkland’s world and we all live in it.
At least until the private equity space collapses.
But we’ve received reports that the firm must have worried that U.S. associates were missing out on the news because the firm convened its routine firm meeting and offered an hour-long town hall to tell everyone about how rapidly the firm is growing, how efficiently the firm has cut costs, and how much more the partners are taking home in profits. Equity partners, anyway.
It’s the sort of presentation that one wouldn’t expect an associate would need to forfeit a billable hour to attend… unless it was setting up some exciting news. Perhaps this was the prelude to: “And therefore without even dimming our dreams of a new summer home in the South of France, we’re giving you all $5K to spend this summer!”
Alas, the presentation just sort of ended after telling all the young lawyers about the partner largesse. During the Q&A period, someone allegedly asked about summer bonuses and the firm responded that those certainly weren’t planned unless the market moved, prompting Gunderson Dettmer to wonder when they became chopped liver over here.
Apparently associates overlooked the small part they had inadvertently played in “how efficiently the firm has cut costs.”
While Kirkland is, in many ways, the model of “Biglaw firm as corporate business,” taking as many cues from the Fortune 100 as it does the Am Law 100, an all-hands meeting to gloat about share price is one they probably should have left on the cutting room floor. When a megacorporation invites everyone to see how profitable the company is, the reason that doesn’t end in guillotines is that even the lowliest staff members have some stock options in their pockets and see the slightest profitability jump as impacting them directly — if ever so slightly. But when the partners in a law firm boost PPP by another $200K, the associates don’t get anything out of the deal.
Unless they get a gratuitous summer bonus, that is.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.