Firm Profiles
IN-DEPTH RESEARCH REPORT
on K&L Gates LLP
- - Financial Information
- - Compensation
- - Billing Rates
- - Lateral Partner Moves
- - Pro bono
- - Key Contacts
K&L Gates
- Designation: National
- Head Count: 1,720
- Gross Revenues: $1,060,500,000
- Revenue Per Lawyer: $615,000
- Profits Per Partner: $900,000
- Year Over Year Change: 1
One has to feel for an historian researching the roots of K&L Gates. The firm has had more mergers than Larry King has had marriages. Luckily, its unions have worked out better: K&L ranked sixteenth on the 2011 Am Law 100 list with just over $1 billion in revenue. It has also proved to be the most “recession–proof” of the country’s big firms, ranking first on The American Lawyer’s Recession Performance Index, which measured growth—or lack thereof—between 2007 and 2009. While many of its peers took hits to the pocketbook, K&L Gates saw its revenue increase at a compound annual growth rate of 17 percent.
The firm—which bolted into the upper reaches of The Am Law 100 when a merger between Pittsburgh’s Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham and Seattle’s Preston Gates & Ellis was approved in December 2006—numbers some 1,800 lawyers (including nearly 300 equity partners), and is organized into six core practice areas: corporate and transactional, financial services, intellectual property, litigation and dispute resolution, real estate, and policy and regulatory. But its business model is what truly sets it apart.
There is the growth–via–merger strategy, of course, but also the firm’s legendary aversion to debt. K&L finances its operations solely through partner capital contributions—and insists that any firm it acquires pay off its debt.
Those capital contributions can be substantial, particularly given the firm’s comparatively low average partner compensation (129th on The American Lawyer’s 2011 survey). Revenue per lawyer and profits per partner are also middling (coming in at 129th and ninety–third, respectively, on the 2011 list). Along with its big–city offices, K&L also operates in secondary markets like Anchorage and Fort Worth, where billing rates are lower.
“It’s probably not a business model that’s everyone’s cup of tea, ” says K&L’s chairman and global managing partner, Peter Kalis. “ [But] a lot of those same cities that pull down the average [revenue per lawyer] also generate a lot of very substantial work for the large cities. ” Maybe too much work. Associate satisfaction is low compared to other large firms, with K&L turning in a 125th place finish on The American Lawyer’s 2010 Midlevel Associates Survey and a 105th place finish in 2011.
The firm has also suffered some high–profile embarrassments. In 2009 it was dumped from Microsoft Corporation’s preferred provider list—even though the Gates in its name refers to retired partner William H. Gates, Sr., father of Microsoft’s founder. And in August 2011, a former lawyer in K&L’s Hong Kong office admitted to stealing money from client accounts to pay his gambling debts (ironically, he was a member of the firm’s betting and gaming practice). Given K&L’s track record, he should have bet on the firm, instead.
—Updated as of 1/1/12
Firm Rankings
| Survey | Rank | Year Over Year Change | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Am Law 100 | 18 | 1 | Gross revenue |
| Am Law 200 | 18 | 1 | Gross revenue |
| NLJ 250 | 8 | no change | Lawyer head count |
| The A-List | NR | N/A | Overall excellence |
| Pro Bono Scorecard | 134 | 10 | Pro-bono commitment |
| Diversity Scorecard | 115 | 6 | Minority head count |
| Midlevel Associates Survey | 105 | no change | Job satisfaction |
| Summer Associates Survey | 51 | 6 | Summer programs |
In the News
Court Rules Agencies May Not Set Price in RFPs
Zack Needles : The Legal Intelligencer : May 23, 2013
The Commonwealth Court has ruled in a case of first impression that a state agency may not specify a price in a request for sealed competitive proposals because the Commonwealth Procurement Code requires an agency to consider cost among the factors in awarding a contract.
After Defections, CalPERS Wants Winston Disqualified
Cheryl Miller : The Recorder : May 22, 2013
South Carolina Bound: Adams and Reese Opens in Columbia
Brian Baxter : The Am Law Daily : May 21, 2013
Adams and Reese is the latest Am Law 200 firm to set up shop in South Carolina, announcing Tuesday its combination with 23-lawyer shop Ellis, Lawhorne & Sims in the Palmetto State's capital.
The Churn: Lateral Moves in The Am Law 200
Diane Jeantet : The Am Law Daily : May 21, 2013
K&L Gates hires two renewable energy partners in Portland; King & Spalding poaches from Bird & Bird to establish a London trade practice; and a fourth Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft lawyer leaves the firm for O'Melveny & Myers. The Churn is constant. Please send all announcements to thechurn@alm.com.
MOVERS
: The National Law Journal : May 20, 2013
Amy Beth Dambeck joins Constangy, Brooks & Smith as senior counsel to the Princeton, N.J., office. Plus more law firm movers in this week's column.
Summer Associates - charts
: Texas Lawyer : May 20, 2013
The Churn: Lateral Moves in The Am Law 200
Diane Jeantet : The Am Law Daily : May 17, 2013
Andrews Kurth heads to London; Bingham McCutchen grabs seven lawyers in Tokyo; and a Munger, Tolles & Olson partner plans a move to the Southern Poverty Law Center. The Churn is constant. Please send all announcements to thechurn@alm.com.
Asia Deal Digest: May 16, 2013
Tom Brennan : The Asian Lawyer : May 16, 2013
* Davis Polk on a $4 billion bond offering for China's CNOOC* Allen & Overy advising Sinopec Engineering on its $2.7 billion IPO* Four Wall Street firms take on AsiaInfo-Linkage's $890 million take-private deal
Pa. Natural Gas Industry Fuels a Surge in Legal Work
Zack Needles : The Legal Intelligencer : May 16, 2013
While it hasn't always been the case, attorneys and legal recruiters generally agree that, at the moment, the natural gas industry in Pennsylvania is creating a steady demand for oil and gas lawyers. The demand has shifted from attorneys being hired to do pure title work to include those with experience in oil and gas transactional work, says one recruiter.
Am Law Firms Aboard as Leagues Sink Kings, Coyotes Deals
Brian Baxter : The Am Law Daily : May 16, 2013
Lawyers from Covington, Katten Muchin, and Milbank were watching closely Wednesday as owners of the National Basketball Association's 30 teams voted against a $625 million deal that would have sent the Sacramento Kings north to Seattle. Meanwhile, in a move that might result in another major sports team heading to the Pacific Northwest, the National Hockey League and its attorneys from Skadden nixed a $278 million bid for the Phoenix Coyotes.
- Akerman Senterfitt
- Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld
- Allen & Overy
- Arthur Cox
- Ashurst
- Baker & Hostetler
- Baker & McKenzie
- Bingham McCutchen
- Bracewell & Giuliani
- Bradley Arant Boult Cummings
- Brown Rudnick
- Burr & Forman
- Cahill Gordon & Reindel
- Carlton Fields
- Clayton Utz
- Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
- Clifford Chance
- Cooley
- Davis Polk & Wardwell
- Dewey & LeBoeuf
- Diamond McCarthy
- Dickinson Wright
- DLA Piper
- Dorsey & Whitney
- Dreier LLP
- Freehills
- Freshfields
- Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
- Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson
- Greenberg Traurig
- Gross McGinley
- Harris Beach
- Haynes and Boone
- Herbert Smith
- Herrick, Feinstein
- Hogan Lovells
- Howrey
- Hughes Hubbard & Reed
- Jenner & Block
- Jones Day
- Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman
- Kilpatrick Townsend
- Kirkland & Ellis
- Kutak Rock
- Lane Powell
- Latham & Watkins
- Linklaters
- Lowenstein Sandler
- Margolis Edelstein
- McCarter & English
- McDermott Will & Emery
- McKenna Long & Aldridge
- McKool Smith
- Minter Ellison
- Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo
- Morrison & Foerster
- Moses & Singer
- Nixon Peabody
- Norris, McLaughlin & Marcus
- Norton Rose
- O?Melveny & Myers
- Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel
- Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe
- Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker
- Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison
- Perkins Coie
- Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pitman
- Potter Anderson & Corroon
- Proskauer Rose
- Pryor Cashman
- Reed Smith
- Richards, Layton & Finger
- Robinson & Cole
- Ropes & Gray
- Seyfarth Shaw
- Shea & Gould
- Shearman & Sterling
- Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton
- Shipman & Goodwin
- Simmons & Simmons
- Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
- Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young
- Stroock & Stroock & Lavan
- Sullivan & Cromwell
- Sullivan & Worcester
- Weil, Gotshal & Manges
- White & Case
- Wiley Rein
- Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr
- Winston & Strawn
- Young, Conaway, Stargatt & Taylor
