Kirkland Launches Basic Training Academy for New Transactional Associates
In September 2019, Kirkland & Ellis welcomed more than 190 first-year corporate and transactional associates to its Basic Training Academy (BTA), a redesigned immersive learning experience for new associates across the Firm. This program exemplifies Kirkland’s commitment to providing associates with early exposure to a variety of client assignments and on-the-job experience, and reinforces both the skills and behaviors that are essential to achieving success within the Firm and to providing world-class client service.
BTA consists of practice-specific discussions as well as team and skill-building activities led by Kirkland partners. Associates learn topics such as the life cycle of a deal, project management, how to effectively leverage technology and how to build business acumen.
More than 50 Kirkland corporate and transactional partners and senior associates from offices across the globe apprenticed new associates. New associates left BTA with more clarity into Kirkland’s culture and practice group expectations and the context of their work. One first-year associate reported enjoying “working on real legal documents,” while another noted that “the most valuable thing I’ve learned is the role of a first-year associate in a closing."
“Consistent with our historical approach, we continue to invest in helping our associates build their human capital and cultivate a substantive skill set that is advanced well beyond their legal years, enabling them to comfortably take on outsized responsibility throughout their careers and deliver real value to clients,” said corporate M&A/private equity partner Leo Greenberg, who participated as a panelist in this year’s BTA.
BTA supports the growth of the next generation of exceptional deal lawyers and reflects the Firm’s position in the marketplace. Kirkland has the largest deal flow of any law firm, ranking first each of the last eight years on Mergermarket’s League Tables of Legal Advisors to Global M&A for private equity buyouts by deal count in the United States and globally.
BTA consists of practice-specific discussions as well as team and skill-building activities led by Kirkland partners. Associates learn topics such as the life cycle of a deal, project management, how to effectively leverage technology and how to build business acumen.
More than 50 Kirkland corporate and transactional partners and senior associates from offices across the globe apprenticed new associates. New associates left BTA with more clarity into Kirkland’s culture and practice group expectations and the context of their work. One first-year associate reported enjoying “working on real legal documents,” while another noted that “the most valuable thing I’ve learned is the role of a first-year associate in a closing."
“Consistent with our historical approach, we continue to invest in helping our associates build their human capital and cultivate a substantive skill set that is advanced well beyond their legal years, enabling them to comfortably take on outsized responsibility throughout their careers and deliver real value to clients,” said corporate M&A/private equity partner Leo Greenberg, who participated as a panelist in this year’s BTA.
BTA supports the growth of the next generation of exceptional deal lawyers and reflects the Firm’s position in the marketplace. Kirkland has the largest deal flow of any law firm, ranking first each of the last eight years on Mergermarket’s League Tables of Legal Advisors to Global M&A for private equity buyouts by deal count in the United States and globally.
