20 May 2022 - The Lawyer
Kirkland loses London top spot to Latham
Latham & Watkins has dethroned Kirkland & Ellis as London’s largest US firm by revenue after overtaking its closest rival over 2021. Latham’s broad City practice, powered by consistent investment over recent years, sees it reclaim the number one spot in The Lawyer’s exclusive ranking of US firms in the UK by revenue it last […]
Beware of the London Office of Kirkland & Ellis - this office is telling people that “there were no redundancies due to COVID-19”, that they are “very busy”, and the lies just go on and on, and on....
The reality is that they are conducting stealth layoffs across the board to keep departures hidden, both administrative staff and fee earners. Do not join this firm thinking that your job is safe or that the firm is doing well because this is absolutely not true and is a lie.
This firm has the largest portion of “partners” in name-only, who have no business of their own and who are not capable of generating it because they lack credibility in the market - the people who make salaried partner here are those who were no where close to getting it at their magic or silver circle firms. Once there’s a dip in business people are out the door in a frenzy. Clients are also not willing to pay Kirkland’s fees when they can appoint counsel elsewhere, such as by engaging magic circle or silver circle firms, with lower fees and also higher quality work, as mentioned by others below.
This office is made up of a bunch of liars - do not trust them.
I can confirm this office is doing stealth layoffs because it has hired too many people last year. Stay away!
Beware of stealth layoffs in the London office! As reported elsewhere, this office has also been impacted by the cost cutting measures: lawyers of all levels and support staff are affected.
This office is not doing redundancies but is getting rid of people through backdoor in order to keep up appearances in the market. In reality this office has been severely impacted both as a result of Brexit and even more so as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
More bad news for Kirkland, particularly for its London office:
As reported in Global & Regional M&A Report for 2020 so far:
Kirkland drops in M&A/deals rankings as it loses business to more established players:
* European league table by value *
* European league table by deal count *
Kirkland placed number 13 in the rankings (down two places from 2019).
* U.K. *
Kirkland’s U.K. office saw the most dismal performance ever recorded:
* UK league table by value *
Kirkland ranked number 13! Down from number 2 in 2019.
UK league table by deal count:
Kirkland ranked number 9. Down from 5th place last year.
—
www.mergermarket.com
The situation at K&E is desperate! Freshfields won more M&A even though this office hired David Higgins from Freshfields at a rate of $10m guaranteed.
“Slaughters and Kirkland Slide Down European Rankings as M&A Collapses“
“Freshfields has topped the European rankings against a backdrop of depressed M&A activity.”
“Kirkland & Ellis and Slaughter and May slipped down the European M&A rankings in the first half of 2020, according to data from Mergermarket which shows the extent of the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on dealmaking activity.”
https://www.law.com/international-edition/2020/07/03/slaughters-and-kirkland-slide-down-european-rankings-as-ma-collapses/
Finally, Blackstone & CVC make their preferred choice for external counsel known and they have chosen Clifford Chance. Good for them.
Why would they pay more in fees for the over priced and second rate quality legal services provided by Kirkland when they could use a top quality magic circle firm like Clifford Chance? It really is a no brainer.
US clients are finally starting to understand the way legal services work in Europe/U.K. and that European/British firms do the job better and keep costs lower.
https://www.law.com/international-edition/2020/06/26/clifford-chance-proves-most-popular-adviser-to-top-tier-private-equity-clients/
“Clifford Chance Proves Most Popular Adviser to Top-Tier Private Equity Clients
The Magic Circle firm beat the likes of Kirkland and Freshfields to the bulk of Blackstone and CVC European mandates over the past 12 months.”
And only a few days later after the below was posted we read this:
https://www.thelawyer.com/linklaters-david-irvine-kirkland/
Linklaters brings back partner after five years at Kirkland
***
You bet David Irvine would return to Linklaters from Kirkland. Why on earth would you continue working for this pressure cooker when you could work for a steady pair of hands like magic circle firm Linklaters.
If only people knew the large number of partners and associates who would like to rejoin their former firm after working at Kirkland & Ellis no one would ever join this office to begin with.
https://www.law.com/international-edition/2020/06/22/paul-hastings-private-equity-trio-rejoins-hogan-lovells/
Do not join the London office unless you want to be abused on a daily basis. The lies that the partners at this firm are spreading are out of this world.
https://www.thelawyer.com/us-top-50-simpson-thacher-tops-rpl-rankings-for-first-time/
Well done to STB in London that has made it to the top of the revenue per lawyer rankings in London without thriving on stealth dismissals like Kirkland.
Management at Kirkland are reeling about this and desperately trying to reduce head count and whipping lawyers like slaves chained to a desk to improve its financials.
To anyone reading:
Do not join this firm as it will ruin your career.
No matter how much they try to sway you to join, remember that this firm has the worst reputation in London and no practice group is an exception, from Tax to Funds to Debt Finance to IP and all the rest - they are all the same.
The share partners here have only one thing in mind: no interest in promoting people as this reduces their pot of money.
The salaried partners here also have no interest in helping juniors. They all fear being replaced by the juniors given that the time of a salaried partner at the firm is like a time-bomb ready to explode. Salaried partners here know they will be booted out at some point, so they try to gain extra time at the firm by booting juniors out at the first opportunity to avoid them from progressing and building client relationships. In fact, this place is the worst place for Associates hence what others have said below.
Saw this posted elsewhere and thought it should be posted here too...and this is just one example of the turnover at K&E pre-crisis, let alone what it’s going to look like now.
« « « « « Here is a comparison of the 2014/2015 K&E UK recruitment brochure and the 2014/2015 Linklaters UK graduate recruitment brochure to see whether the persons interviewed are still working at those firms in 2020:
K&E features 5 lawyers on pages 1, 2, 7, 10 and 14 —> Only 1 lawyer still works at the firm (the training principal on pg. 1)
Linklaters features 5 lawyers on pages 8, 14, 18, 22 and 28 —> 4 out of the 5 lawyers are still working at the firm.
Link to K&E brochure:
https://www.lawcareers.net/BrochureSolicitor/GetPdf?OfficeRef=5047
Link to Linklaters brochure:
https://targetjobs.co.uk/sites/targetjobs.co.uk/files/public/linklaters-brochure-2015.pdf
« End quote »
Voted the most hated US law firm in London in 2017 by Associates and Trainees in a survey by The Lawyer - this office deserves that vote three times as much three years later in 2020.
AVOID * AVOID * AVOID * AVOID * AVOID
unless you’re desperate don’t join this firm, it is throwing people out at the first opportunity. It is not doing as well as they would you to think.
This firm thrives on stealth layoffs and uses them as a means to bully its employees into working to improve its financial performance unlike no other office in London.
Do not allow this firm to use you in this manner when there are several other US outfits in London.
If you have not yet joined the firm, DO NOT JOIN and do not fall victim to it’s marketing propaganda, if you are unfortunate enough to be at K&E during this period, do not allow them to bully you and expose them for what they really are.
K&E is a smokescreen for abusive behaviour. There is no such thing as high standards at this office and most of the people who’ve joined have only done so after having failed to succeed at their previous shop (exceptions to those very senior who’ve only joined because they’ve been guaranteed large pay packages for several years).
Kirkland may be trying to recruit junior/cheaper associates as a result of too many salaried partners and other expensive senior associates in a number of its groups. Junior associates need to be very careful because as soon as they start becoming expensive they will be axed very quickly! Do NOT trust this firm, no matter what excuse they give you (because of course they will come up with an excuse to try to justify the extremely high turnover of people and will try to sound as reasonable as possible) DO NOT BELIEVE THEM.
Appears that K&E is trying to spread dismissals and cover up as much as possible to avoid suspicion. It is also trying to give mixed messages to the market by telling agencies it is still recruiting yet laying off various people at the same time.
Stealth dismissals taking place across various practice groups this office - shame on you K&E. You are the worst of the worse. Management are busy trying to cover up.
K&E is one of the most - if not the most - abusive law firms in London.
Do not join this firm because they will lie to your face throughout the whole process and time at the firm.
The situation at this firm is truly desperate and like no other. Not surprising it has the worst reputation in London with trainees and associates - it does not deserve anything better and if there is any reputation it deserves it is precisely that one.
There is no exception across all its departments, do not think that joining one department over another will spare you. Also do not believe recruiters and HR because the former are only interested in earning their fee whilst the latter are only interested in plugging gaps as a result of the horrendous turn-over of people inside the London office.
The people who’ve made a “career” at this firm are not even the best in the market, particularly those who’ve stuck around since its early days. The salaried partners are nothing more than associates who did not make it at their magic circle or silver circle firms and are now giving it a second chance.
The people who’ve joined laterally a very senior level from other firms have only done so because they’ve been guaranteed their share in advance of joining for a number of years - they would otherwise not have joined!
You will regret having joined this firm.
K&E is one of the most - if not the most - abusive law firms in London.
Do not join this firm because they will lie to your face throughout the whole process and time at the firm.
The situation at this firm is truly desperate and like no other. Not surprising it has the worst reputation in London with trainees and associates - it does not deserve anything better and if there is any reputation it deserves it is precisely that one.
There is no exception across all its departments, do not think that joining one department over another will spare you. Also do not believe recruiters and HR because the former are only interested in earning their fee whilst the latter are only interested in plugging gaps as a result of the horrendous turn-over of people inside the London office.
The people who’ve made a “career” at this firm are not even the best in the market, particularly those who’ve stuck around since its early days. The salaried partners are nothing more than associates who did not make it at their magic circle or silver circle firms and are now giving it a second chance.
The people who’ve joined laterally a very senior level from other firms have only done so because they’ve been guaranteed their share in advance of joining for a number of years - they would otherwise not have joined!
You will regret having joined this firm.
Beware - this office is engaging in stealth layoffs
Kirkland is indeed binning people in London
How many impacted?