Give credit to Mark Filip, the former deputy U.S. attorney general and current Kirkland & Ellis partner, for the firm’s acquisition of appellate litigation boutique Bancroft and its marquee partner Paul Clement.
Kirkland approached Bancroft earlier this year, and Filip, now a member of Kirkland’s management committee, was the man who drove the deal. Filip, who joined Kirkland in 2009, has been friends with Clement and Bancroft founder Viet Dinh since their days at Harvard Law School. And when Clement and Filip clerked for former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia during the 1993-94 term, the two shared an office in the court’s chambers.
