Kirkland & Ellis

Kirkland & Ellis (K&E), the world’s largest law firm by revenue for seven consecutive years, has reshaped the London legal market with its aggressive hiring and promotion policy, coupled with a proficiency in securing some of the biggest private equity mandates in the City. In 2023, K&E’s London office generated about 8% of the firm’s $7.2 billion global revenue and contributed 25 out of 200 partner promotions worldwide. While the London-specific figures are not disproportionately large for a firm with 21 offices, they are significant enough to demonstrate K&E’s strong commitment to ongoing growth in the City. K&E London strategy is centred around transactional services for its cornerstone private equity clients, including Apollo, KKR, Bain Capital, Thoma Bravo, and Vista Equity Partners, while also actively growing relationships with real estate and infrastructure managers like Brookfield and Antin Infrastructure Partners. In 2024, K&E received nine Band 1 rankings in the Legal 500 for £500-and-above private equity transactions, restructuring and insolvency, acquisition finance, investment fund formation and management (including real estate fund formation), fund finance, and infrastructure M&A. In addition, K&E’s latest expansion in London signals a move to strengthen its structured finance offerings. In October 2024, the firm welcomed Suril Patel, a former A&O Shearman partner, as the first lawyer in the UK office to join its global structured finance team, which tripled in size only in the second half of 2024. K&E’s integrated private equity and acquisition finance practice defines its brand globally and in London. Globally, the firm topped the Preqin 2023 chart for advising on private equity-backed buyout deals across nearly all size categories - less than $50 million, $100-499 million, $500-999 million, and more than $1 billion - while also being the most prominent law firm for European private-backed equity buyout deals. K&E London’s combined corporate M&A and debt finance teams advise top asset managers on sponsor-backed transactions on both equity and debt aspects, with a strong track record in take-privates and buyouts. In 2024, the two teams joined hands to advise Apollo on its £506 million all-cash acquisition of The Restaurant Group plc, as well as KKR on the acquisition of a 25% stake in Enilive, a subsidiary of the Italian energy tech company Eni. Furthermore, the firm maintains a competitive edge in take-privates, which it has recently leveraged to assist US-based managers in acquiring value-depressed UK-listed companies. Even in a year of transaction slowdown like 2024, K&E secured several high-profile take-private mandates, representing the sponsors in the £5.4 billion acquisition of Hargreaves Lansdown by a consortium including CVC, Nordic Capital, and ADIA, Thoma Bravo’s $5.3 billion acquisition of Darktrace plc, Brookfield’s £557 million purchase of Tritax Eurobox, and EQT’s £2.1 billion acquisition of Keywords Studios Plc. K&E is also the top choice for private equity managers on the fundraising mandates. Globally, the firm secured the top spot in Private Equity International’s 2023 Fund Formation League Table for both value of funds raised and total fund count. In 2023, the firm advised 131 private equity funds that, between them, raised $206 billion, or about 30% of the total amount raised by all private equity funds in the market in 2023. These included several mega-funds such as the $24.3 billion Thoma Bravo Fund XV, the $17.3 billion Warburg Pincus Global Growth XIV and the $3.9 billion debut fund Patient Square Equity Partners. The global investor base of these funds often requires extensive collaboration among different K&E offices to conduct investors' negotiation, structure different fund vehicles and draft investors-facing documents in compliance with local financial promotions rules. Looking ahead, K&E expects infrastructure and energy, particularly decarbonisation efforts, to continue to be active areas of fundraising, as well as GP stakes funds (where funds are raised and managed for the purpose of investing in minority stakes in other asset management businesses). In addition, K&E leads the Legal 500 2025 rankings for restructuring & insolvency and patent litigation in London. The two teams both complement K&E’s offerings to their key US client base while also providing counter-cyclical revenue streams for the London office. K&E London restructuring & insolvency team handles high-profile European restructurings for their private equity sponsor clients as investors in restructuring situations and for the clients’ portfolio companies as debtors. In a case that went on to secure them the “Restructuring Team of the Year” title at the Legal Business Awards 2024, K&E represented McDermott International on its highly-contested $4 billion restructuring via parallel Dutch WHOAs and a UK restructuring plan. In addition to being the longest-ever sanction hearing, this restructuring featured several firsts: the first restructuring plan in parallel to settlement negotiations, the first restructuring plan to compromise an ICC arbitration award, and the first restructuring plan to extend the maturity of letter of credit facilities. In the patent and intellectual property space, K&E not only excels in transactional support to its M&A practice but also builds a standalone reputation in patent litigation, defending blue-chip technology and life sciences clients. For example, in 2024, K&E London team represented Xiaomi against a series of global enforcement proceedings launched by Panasonic in the UK, Germany, and China, and Pfizer as lead counsel in strategic patent litigation against Amgen on a patent alleged to cover Pfizer’s antibody Elranatamab. However, K&E’s dominance in the premium segment of the City legal market has not gone unchallenged. Since the summer of 2023, the firm has lost nearly 20 partners to Paul Weiss, which has adopted a “K&E 2.0” model in London - offering competitive pay packages to attract top talent while focusing on private equity clients in areas such as M&A, acquisition finance, funds, and restructuring. This exodus sent ripples through the London legal market, raising questions about K&E’s future without some of its star performers and their client portfolios. However, as the world’s largest law firm for seven consecutive years and also the second most profitable one, K&E’s sustained war chest, global reputation, and proven remuneration model suggest it is well-equipped to weather the impact of these departures.