Kirkland & Ellis slugged it out in court during long, complex trials and subsequent appeals, and struck heavy-duty settlements to get big corporations and institutions out of trouble. Its recoveries for clients such as Tronox Inc. and C.R. Bard Inc. amounted to billions. But it also found time to represent a pair of raisin farmers pro bono at the U.S. Supreme Court.
When chemical manufacturer Tronox went bankrupt, Kirkland represented a litigation trust in a suit that challenged the 2005 spinoff of the company by Kerr-McGee Corp. (now owned by Anadarko Petroleum Corp.). After a 34-day trial in 2012, a U.S. bankruptcy judge agreed in December 2013 that the deal was a fraudulent transfer, intended to strip Tronox of assets and leave it saddled with environmental liabilities. He awarded damages of $14.1 billion; Anadarko settled for $5.15 billion.
