Kirkland & Ellis PEP Approaches $10m Mark

Tom Borman, LawFuel Contributing Writer

If you’re keeping score at home (and who isn’t in this profession?), Kirkland & Ellis just dropped some financial numbers that would make even the most jaded BigLaw partner spit out their single malt. The Chicago-based legal juggernaut posted a staggering $8.8 billion in revenue for 2024 — yes, that’s billion with a B — representing a 22 percent increase from last year.

Not satisfied with merely breaking the Am Law 100 revenue record, Kirkland also saw its profits per equity partner (PEP) shoot up 16 percent to $9.25 million. Yes, the average equity partner at Kirkland is taking home nearly $10 million. Remember when breaking $1 million in PEP was a big deal?

And last year we were breathless talking about their $8 million men.

This isn’t just a one-off performance either. Kirkland has been on a tear, posting 10 percent and 8 percent revenue increases in the two previous years. This latest surge mirrors their blockbuster 2021, when they blew past the $6 billion mark with a 25 percent increase during the deal frenzy of that year.

Leaving the Competition in the Dust

Kirkland’s closest competitor, Latham & Watkins, isn’t exactly hurting with its $7 billion in revenue (up 23 percent) and $7.1 million PEP (up 29 percent), but the gap is widening.

White & Case, another heavy hitter that’s reported numbers, saw revenue climb 12.5 percent to $3.3 billion with PEP jumping 27 percent to $4 million.

What makes Kirkland’s PEP growth even more impressive is that they managed it while expanding their equity partnership by 6.3 percent to 573 partners. Revenue per lawyer also jumped 12 percent to nearly $2.3 million.

So much for the idea that adding more partners dilutes profits.

Global Domination Continues

Kirkland continues its march across the globe, setting up shop in Frankfurt, Germany in 2024 after planting its flag in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 2023. The message is clear: no market is safe from Kirkland’s expansion plans.

Despite what many would call a challenging year for deals, Kirkland maintained its iron grip on the M&A market, topping the global rankings by deal value.

They handled an eye-watering $448.2 billion worth of deals, grabbing 14 percent market share. Among their trophy deals: representing EQT on its $35 billion merger with Equitrans Midstream and advising Thoma Bravo on its £4.3 billion acquisition of cyber security company Darktrace.

In the funds space, Kirkland flexed its muscles by representing Oaktree Capital Management on closing a fund with approximately $16 billion in commitments and helping Ares Management Corporation form a €17.1 billion European direct lending fund. Not content with their already massive 600-lawyer funds practice, they poached teams from Goodwin Procter in the US and snagged fund finance expert Andrew Husdan from Clifford Chance in London.

While Kirkland’s London office did see some partner defections to Paul Weiss (who hasn’t these days?), they countered by hiring their first structured finance partner in London. The firm is clearly betting big on structured finance and structured private credit as demand surges across private equity and private credit sectors.

Litigation Powerhouse Too

But Kirkland isn’t just about deals, their litigation team knocked it out of the park too. They successfully defended Samsung in a $4 billion semiconductor patent infringement lawsuit and represented EQT and Gulfport Energy in a case where landowners were seeking over $100 million for alleged mineral trespassing.

The firm kicked off 2025 by recruiting a mass tort team from Skadden led by trial lawyer extraordinaire Allison Brown, even opening a new Philadelphia office in the process. Clearly, Kirkland doesn’t do anything small.

The Secret Sauce

Kirkland’s meteoric rise from respected Chicago institution to the undisputed revenue king of BigLaw represents one of the most remarkable transformations in law. Their strategic pivot to private equity in the early 2000s was a master stroke, allowing them to ride the PE wave all the way to the bank.

Their two-tier partnership model has proven to be equally successful, enabling them to attract lateral talent with eye-popping compensation while keeping those all-important profitability metrics sky-high. It’s a playbook that has left competitors scrambling to keep up.

By doubling down on their core strengths – private equity, M&A, restructuring, and high-stakes litigation – while strategically expanding into complementary areas, Kirkland has created a legal powerhouse that shows no signs of slowing down.