The story
Founded by Robert Rutherford McCormick in 1909, in Chicago.1
20th century
In 1909, two attorneys, Stuart G. Shepard and Robert R. McCormick, formed the Chicago-based partnership that would eventually become Kirkland & Ellis. McCormick was the grandson of Joseph Medill, who had founded the Chicago Tribune. McCormick became president of the Tribune Company in 1914 and, in 1925, sole publisher of the Tribune.
Weymouth Kirkland and his associate Howard Ellis joined the firm in 1915. Kirkland served as chief counsel to the Tribune and other newspapers in various free speech and defamation cases, including Near v. Minnesota.
In 1938, Kirkland and Ellis hired young trial lawyer Hammond Chaffetz from the U.S. Department of Justice. Chaffetz spent six decades with the firm, during which it grew to about 780 lawyers, making it one of the 30 largest in the country. Kirkland & Ellis has 20 offices in six countries.
Kirkland & Ellis opened its London office in 1994.
21st century
The firm earned nearly $5 billion in revenue in 2020. The increase came from what was attributed to heightened demand during the COVID-19 pandemic. As of 2022, Kirkland & Ellis reported 490 equity partners and 763 non-equity partners. The firm saw over $6 billion in annual gross revenues, which was the most of any law firm that year. In 2023, Kirkland & Ellis achieved $7.2 billion in gross revenue, securing the top spot on The American Lawyer's 2024 Am Law 200 ranking. The firm was also recognized as the highest-grossing law firm in the world in the 2024 Global 200 survey.
In 2023, Kirkland & Ellis was named as a defendant in a racketeering lawsuit filed in Texas as Michael Van Deelen v. David Jones, et al. The complaint alleged that the firm conspired with former U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David R. Jones and Jackson Walker LLP to conceal a romantic relationship between Jones and a Jackson Walker partner, Elizabeth Freeman. This concealed relationship allegedly resulted in the award of inflated legal fees in several Chapter 11 proceedings, from which Kirkland & Ellis was said to have benefited. The U.S. District Judge Alia Moses dismissed the suit, ruling that the plaintiff lacked standing because the challenged legal fees would have been lost regardless of which law firm handled the cases. Moses criticized Jones's conduct as reflecting a "specter of impropriety" but concluded there was no actionable harm connecting Kirkland & Ellis or Jackson Walker to the loss claimed by the plaintiff.
In 2024, the firm reached a 22% increase in revenue, reaching $8.8 billion, with profits per equity partner rising to $9.25 million. The firm's strong performance was driven by its success in private equity, litigation, and M&A practices. In the same year, the firm also expanded its European presence by opening a new office in Frankfurt, Germany, to cater to its growing business in the region. Kirkland & Ellis elevated 151 attorneys to partner in 2024, a record for the firm.
In 2025, during the targeting of law firms and lawyers under the second Trump administration, it agreed to a deal with President Donald Trump, committing to provide $125 million in pro bono legal work on behalf of causes endorsed by Trump. In July 2026, the Department of Justice subpoenaed Kirkland & Ellis in an investigation of the deal.
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Kirkland & Ellis became the first law firm to reach $10 billion in annual revenue, in 2025. doubling its income from 2020. That year, it expanded its Boston office by hiring three M&A partners, Graham Robinson, Laura Knoll, and Chadé Severin, along with around 15 associates.
From Wikipedia’s article on Kirkland & Ellis, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5