You can admire the strategy, disdain or fear it. But no one can deny that Kirkland & Ellis has used its overflowing coffers to aggressively recruit lateral partners - including from rival firms that once seemed untouchable.

The 2,200-lawyer Chicago-founded firm, whose $3.165bn in revenues last year allowed it to supplant Latham & Watkins at the top of the Am Law 100, this month nabbed M&A litigator Sandra Goldstein, a former practice leader at Cravath Swaine & Moore.