Overview
The firm was founded in 1909 by attorneys Stewart G. Shepherd and Robert R. McCormick, a graduate of Northwestern University School of Law who would later become the publisher of the Chicago Tribune. The firm's modern namesakes, Weymouth Kirkland and Howard Ellis, joined the firm in 1915. In 1938, former United States Department of Justice lawyer Hammond Chaffetz joined the firm. The firm now consists of approximately 1,400 attorneys in ten domestic and foreign offices, with particular strength in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Palo Alto and Washington, D.C.
The firm had gross revenue of approximately $1.73 billion in 2010, an 14% increase from 2009. Kirkland is also one of the most profitable law firms in the country, with estimated profits per partner of $3.08 million in 2010, a 23% increase from 2009. Kirkland is the only of the top ten most profitable firms that is not based in New York City.
The firm has represented a number of high-profile clients, including United Airlines in that company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. Other major clients of the firm have included General Motors, Brown & Williamson, Motorola, Conseco, Honeywell, S. C. Johnson & Son, Apple, Intel, Raytheon, Schering-Plough, Samsung Electronics, Siemens AG, Charter Communications and Westinghouse Electric Company. The firm is presently representing BP in the litigation arising out of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
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