enronHouston’s Vinson & Elkins and Chicago’s Kirkland & Ellis are to fight the biggest financial claim ever levelled against a law firm after being included in the multi-billion dollar suit by former shareholders of collapsed energy giant Enron.

The firms were named on 8 April along with nine banks on an amended claim by class action specialist Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach, which is seeking to recover $25bn lost in Enron’s collapse last year.