More so than any other U.S. firm, Kirkland & Ellis is renowned for making splashy lateral hires in London—with compensation packages to match. The firm’s latest big-name arrival is Weil, Gotshal & Manges banking head Stephen Lucas, who joined Kirkland in May in one of the U.K. legal market’s biggest lateral hires in years.
Kirkland awarded Lucas, one of London’s top leveraged finance partners, 60 points of firm equity, according to two sources familiar with the circumstances of his hire. With each point currently worth $130,000, that puts his annual salary just shy of $8 million, which Kirkland has guaranteed for three years, according to the same two sources, making him one of the highest-paid partners in London.
