Kirkland Doubles Down on Contingency-Fee Commercial Cases
Kirkland & Ellis today announces the formation of a plaintiff-side trial group focused on alternative fee arrangements for commercial cases, including pure contingent fees.
For years, Kirkland has been routinely delivering verdicts for its clients in the largest trials around the nation and world. On the heels of a string of plaintiff-side successes, including an $80 million jury verdict for a company two weeks ago in Delaware, the Firm has decided to offer clients an easy, accessible resource for all plaintiff commercial cases in the form of a group of litigators specializing in this sort of work.
No firm can match the depth and breadth of Kirkland’s trial and litigation resources. Kirkland is now deploying those resources to form a group of some of its leading trial lawyers to help clients protect their rights and monetize their assets in plaintiff commercial matters — with the Firm’s full litigation resources and support behind it.
“We are not changing who we are. We will continue to focus our core on large-scale commercial defense work, but we will be breaking into the plaintiff-side commercial market in a more aggressive way,” said Andrew Kassof, a litigation partner and a member of Kirkland’s Global Management Executive Committee. “We believe we can be a market leader on this side of the ‘v’ as well.”
Jim Hurst, one of the leading trial lawyers in the country and also a member of Kirkland’s Global Management Executive Committee, added: “We have a diverse, dynamic and incredibly talented group of trial lawyers at the Firm. They are hungry to try more cases, and we view this as a way to open up our resources to new and existing clients to monetize their litigation assets through creative fee arrangements on the plaintiff side.”
For over 20 years, Kirkland has been a market leader on alternative fee arrangements, but mobilizing the Firm’s resources and litigators to try more of these types of plaintiff cases will reinvigorate the Firm’s special fee arrangement program said Reed Oslan, a litigation partner and chair of Kirkland’s Special Fee Arrangement Committee. “We are perfectly positioned to partner with our clients and share risk on plaintiff cases. I’m incredibly excited about the opportunities ahead.”
About Kirkland’s Litigation Practice
Renowned for experience in complex litigation and arbitration, clients rely on Kirkland attorneys to anticipate their needs and outperform their expectations. The Firm believes that the best litigation results — whether achieved in court or across the bargaining table — occur when the lawyers are fully prepared to try the case through verdict. Kirkland’s focus on trial-readiness drives successful and more cost-efficient results for clients, as critical issues are identified early and then used to maximum advantage in the litigation and negotiation processes.
Kirkland’s litigation team comprises over 700 attorneys worldwide. The Firm represents clients in trial and appellate courts at the federal and state level, before administrative tribunals, and in arbitrations and other dispute resolution proceedings. Kirkland also represents clients in connection with proceedings involving government agencies, such as the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the U.S. Department of Labor, the Internal Revenue Service and all 50 state Offices of Attorneys General.
About Kirkland & Ellis
Kirkland & Ellis is an international law firm with 2,500 attorneys representing clients in litigation, private equity, M&A and other complex corporate transactions, and dispute resolution/arbitration, restructuring, and intellectual property matters. The Firm has no headquarters location, and operates from 15 offices around the world: Beijing, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Munich, New York, Palo Alto, Paris, San Francisco, Shanghai and Washington, D.C.
