{"id":133918,"date":"2025-09-25T14:38:21","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T22:38:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/09\/25\/is-this-elite-biglaw-firm-allowing-its-offices-in-china-to-flounder\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T14:38:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T22:38:21","slug":"is-this-elite-biglaw-firm-allowing-its-offices-in-china-to-flounder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/09\/25\/is-this-elite-biglaw-firm-allowing-its-offices-in-china-to-flounder\/","title":{"rendered":"Is This Elite Biglaw Firm Allowing Its Offices In China To \u2018Flounder\u2019?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many Biglaw firms are fleeing from China, closing offices left and right. Firms that haven chosen to remain, however, are seeing their partners do the exits for them. Kirkland & Ellis, arguably the most successful law firm on the planet, is one of those firms, and the legal community has taken notice, leading many to wonder if the firm has \u201cmisplayed\u201d Asia. Law.com International<\/a> has additional details: <\/p>\n

\n

Eleven partners have left Kirkland & Ellis in Hong Kong since February of this year. Their departures follow those of\u00a010 additional partners who left the firm<\/u><\/a>\u00a0in 2024.<\/p>\n

Twenty-one partner departures from one firm in a single region in less than two years is noteworthy for any law firm, even for\u00a0the world\u2019s richest and most prominent<\/u><\/a>\u00a0practice. The exodus calls into question the health and viability of Kirkland\u2019s business and strategy in Asia, where it has long focused on Greater China with three offices in the region.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Kirkland is said to have conducted layoffs<\/a> in its Hong Kong office last March, claiming that its team was \u201ctoo big.\u201d Other attorneys in the area have pointed out a reported \u201cnoxious culture\u201d at the firm, where the name of the game for lawyers is to \u201ckill or be killed.\u201d An insider at the firm claims that the Shanghai and Beijing offices \u201chave not been making money for a very long time\u201d \u2014 and yet the firm has chosen to retain all three of its offices in China.<\/p>\n

For its part, Kirkland & Ellis doesn\u2019t see a problem. \u201cWe remain deeply committed to our long-term strategy and presence in Asia, which includes fostering a collaborative culture where our talent can thrive,\u201d the firm\u2019s spokesperson told Law.com International.<\/p>\n

Will Kirkland soon become one of the next Biglaw firms to say z\u00e0iji\u00e0n to its offices in China? You can\u00a0email us<\/a>\u00a0or text us (646-820-8477<\/a>) if you have any intel. Thank you.<\/p>\n

The Kirkland Effect: Has the Firm Misplayed Asia?<\/a> [Law.com International]<\/p>\n

\n
\"Staci
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Staci Zaretsky<\/a>\u00a0is the managing editor of Above the Law, where she\u2019s worked since 2011. She\u2019d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email<\/a> her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on\u00a0Bluesky<\/a>,\u00a0X\/Twitter<\/a>, and\u00a0Threads<\/a>,\u00a0or connect with her on\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Is This Elite Biglaw Firm Allowing Its Offices In China To \u2018Flounder\u2019?<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Many Biglaw firms are fleeing from China, closing offices left and right. Firms that haven chosen to remain, however, are seeing their partners do the exits for them. Kirkland & Ellis, arguably the most successful law firm on the planet, is one of those firms, and the legal community has taken notice, leading many to wonder if the firm has \u201cmisplayed\u201d Asia. Law.com International<\/a> has additional details: <\/p>\n

\n

Eleven partners have left Kirkland & Ellis in Hong Kong since February of this year. Their departures follow those of\u00a010 additional partners who left the firm<\/u><\/a>\u00a0in 2024.<\/p>\n

Twenty-one partner departures from one firm in a single region in less than two years is noteworthy for any law firm, even for\u00a0the world\u2019s richest and most prominent<\/u><\/a>\u00a0practice. The exodus calls into question the health and viability of Kirkland\u2019s business and strategy in Asia, where it has long focused on Greater China with three offices in the region.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Kirkland is said to have conducted layoffs<\/a> in its Hong Kong office last March, claiming that its team was \u201ctoo big.\u201d Other attorneys in the area have pointed out a reported \u201cnoxious culture\u201d at the firm, where the name of the game for lawyers is to \u201ckill or be killed.\u201d An insider at the firm claims that the Shanghai and Beijing offices \u201chave not been making money for a very long time\u201d \u2014 and yet the firm has chosen to retain all three of its offices in China.<\/p>\n

For its part, Kirkland & Ellis doesn\u2019t see a problem. \u201cWe remain deeply committed to our long-term strategy and presence in Asia, which includes fostering a collaborative culture where our talent can thrive,\u201d the firm\u2019s spokesperson told Law.com International.<\/p>\n

Will Kirkland soon become one of the next Biglaw firms to say z\u00e0iji\u00e0n to its offices in China? You can\u00a0email us<\/a>\u00a0or text us (646-820-8477<\/a>) if you have any intel. Thank you.<\/p>\n

The Kirkland Effect: Has the Firm Misplayed Asia?<\/a> [Law.com International]<\/p>\n

\n
\"Staci
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Staci Zaretsky<\/a>\u00a0is the managing editor of Above the Law, where she\u2019s worked since 2011. She\u2019d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email<\/a> her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on\u00a0Bluesky<\/a>,\u00a0X\/Twitter<\/a>, and\u00a0Threads<\/a>,\u00a0or connect with her on\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many Biglaw firms are fleeing from China, closing offices left and right. Firms that haven chosen to remain, however, are seeing their partners do the exits for them. Kirkland & Ellis, arguably the most successful law firm on the planet, is one of those firms, and the legal community has taken notice, leading many to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":133919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-133918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Staci-Zaretsky-9Za5bG.jpg?fit=150%2C100&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}