Font Size: 
Kirkland Looks to Trim Several Senior Associates, Income Partners
The National Law Journal
January 09, 2009
Kirkland & Ellis is edging some senior associates and income partners toward the door as part of its regular annual evaluation process, perhaps being carried out with a bit more gusto given the difficult economic times.
The Chicago-based firm has asked the lawyers to look for other work in the wake of the reviews and as the economy slows work in some areas, said Chicago-based legal recruiters who have heard from some of the attorneys. The legal Web site Above the Law reported earlier that the firm may have asked 15 to 25 non-equity or "non-share partners" to leave. Some recruiters said the number may be closer to 15. Kirkland didn't immediately return calls seeking comment.
The law firm has long had a large 250-to-300-lawyer group of income partners, also known at the firm as non-share partners, because it tends to promote lawyers to this level earlier in their careers than some other firms, typically moving them up the chain from associate level after they've been at the firm a little more than six years. It's not surprising that the firm might trim from the large group amid difficult economic times because the lawyers are well-paid, making between $275,000 and $400,000, and unlikely to leave on their own, recruiters said.
"They stay until the checks quit coming," said John Cashman, a recruiter in the Chicago for Major, Lindsey & Africa.
The downturn in the U.S. economy has slowed work in a variety of practices, including the real estate, corporate, securitization and transactional areas. While some practice groups, such as restructuring and bankruptcy, have seen a rise in demand from clients lately, the firms don't shift lawyers from one area to another as much as they have in the past, especially at higher levels, preferring instead to hire specialists if they're available, recruiters have said.
Kirkland is not alone in trimming from the ranks of income partners. Other Chicago-based firms, which are more likely to have the two-tier partner system than some other parts of the country, have done the same during the past couple years. Jenner & Block, Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal and Mayer Brown are among the firms that have asked some of their non-equity partners to exit. Kirkland has also has done the same type of pruning in the past, recruiters said.
Income partners get squeezed between the business-generating equity partners and the lower-paid senior associates, sometimes hoarding work in difficult economic times and keeping it from trickling down to less expensive associates that could perform the work at lower rates for clients.
"They're the most expensive non-rainmakers in the firm," said Art Gunther, a recruiter with the Chicago-based Gunther Group. "The income partners always have a tenuous existence, even in a good economy."
