Global law firm was first to earn over US$10bn in revenue in 2025
In a letter to American Lawyer, multinational law firm Kirkland & Ellis LLP revealed its decision to cease disclosing information after 2026 regarding its revenue and profits to media publications covering the business of law, Financial Times reported.
Bloomberg Law reviewed the letter the firm sent on Oct. 7 to the following: American Lawyer; David Gialanella, American Lawyer editor; and Gina Passarella, group chief content officer at Centellic, the global intelligence platform that runs the law magazine.
According to the law firm’s leaders, publicly disclosing the firm’s financial performance neither offers its clients meaningful value nor sufficiently shows the quality of its legal services.
“Specifically, we believe the rankings could incentivize quantitative metrics over qualitative strengths while failing to capture the most important attributes of legal work — the quality of legal service and the outcomes achieved for clients,” the letter from Kirkland & Ellis reportedly stated.
Bloomberg Law dubbed Kirkland & Ellis the wealthiest law firm globally, noting that it had over 4,000 lawyers worldwide and was the first firm to report revenue exceeding US$10 billion last year.
Scope of moratorium
Per Bloomberg Law, Kirkland & Ellis’s recently announced decision covers publications reporting on the business of law, including American Lawyer, a law magazine that annually ranks law firms according to their revenue and profits, information that firms generally disclose willingly.
According to Gialanella, on the “rare” occasions when firms refuse to reveal their financial performance, American Lawyer relies on “rigorous reporting methods.”
“The result is a ranking that provides a reliable picture of the market over time,” he added.
Reactions to Kirkland & Ellis’s decision
The Bloomberg Law story included the following quotes in response to the global law firm’s decision.
”It will be tougher to use AmLaw rankings as a benchmark if more elite firms like Kirkland also decline to release their numbers,” said Katherine Loanzon, Kinney Recruiting’s managing director. “This news will make partner compensation difficult to gauge since there will no longer be transparency in pay.”
“You’ve got clients that are looking at the average profits per equity partner and, at the same time, seeing really significant billing growth and asking is that the right use of our legal spend,” said Kristin Stark, a law firm consultant and principal at Fairfax Associates.
More international news on law firms
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