{"id":136313,"date":"2025-11-04T16:33:52","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T00:33:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/11\/04\/are-kirkland-deal-lawyers-the-biggest-asshles-or-what\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T16:33:52","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T00:33:52","slug":"are-kirkland-deal-lawyers-the-biggest-asshles-or-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/11\/04\/are-kirkland-deal-lawyers-the-biggest-asshles-or-what\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Kirkland Deal Lawyers THE Biggest Assh*les Or What?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kirkland & Ellis \u2014 the world\u2019s richest law firm \u2014 has received some harsh and pretty public feedback. According to reporting from the Financial Times<\/a>, last year, during a limited partners industry event hosted by Institutional Limited Partners Association, attendees were asked if they could \u201cwave a magic wand,\u201d\u00a0what would they change about private equity groups? Amongst the suggestions for industry improvement: \u201cFire K&E.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yikes. <\/p>\n

Apparently the firm\u2019s \u201cuncooperative\u201d behavior is well known in PE circles, as is their penchant for rejecting investor proposals with little more than a \u201cWe respectfully decline.\u201d<\/p>\n

But K&E is taking the less-than-constructive feedback in stride and trying to right the ship and smooth over their relationships with fund investors. They hired\u00a0a senior director of global fund partnerships, Greg Durst, a former senior managing director from ILPA, to \u201cstrengthen the firm\u2019s relationships\u201d with fund investors. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the matter of etiquette, and K&E embarked upon communication training for attorneys to push back against their rep for being difficult. The firm has also reportedly banned its attorneys from using the irksome phrase \u201cWe respectfully decline.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Kirkland said, \u201cOur firm values the relationships we have built within the funds industry, and we are proud of the trusted counsel and advocacy our lawyers provide to clients as they build partnerships with their investors.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe continue to evolve our business, collaborate with our counterparts, and provide strong support for our clients, including in the relationships with their investors, as market dynamics shift in the fund formation process,\u201d they continued.<\/p>\n

Now, are the K&E attorneys really<\/em> that much more combative that others in the PE space? Eh, opinions are mixed with some fund investors saying the firm is no harsher than other Biglaw attorneys and it\u2019s Kirkland & Ellis\u2019s dominant position in the industry that makes their actions a lightening rod. <\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Are Kirkland Deal Lawyers THE Biggest Assh*les Or What?<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Kirkland & Ellis \u2014 the world\u2019s richest law firm \u2014 has received some harsh and pretty public feedback. According to reporting from the Financial Times<\/a>, last year, during a limited partners industry event hosted by Institutional Limited Partners Association, attendees were asked if they could \u201cwave a magic wand,\u201d\u00a0what would they change about private equity groups? Amongst the suggestions for industry improvement: \u201cFire K&E.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yikes. <\/p>\n

Apparently the firm\u2019s \u201cuncooperative\u201d behavior is well known in PE circles, as is their penchant for rejecting investor proposals with little more than a \u201cWe respectfully decline.\u201d<\/p>\n

But K&E is taking the less-than-constructive feedback in stride and trying to right the ship and smooth over their relationships with fund investors. They hired\u00a0a senior director of global fund partnerships, Greg Durst, a former senior managing director from ILPA, to \u201cstrengthen the firm\u2019s relationships\u201d with fund investors. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the matter of etiquette, and K&E embarked upon communication training for attorneys to push back against their rep for being difficult. The firm has also reportedly banned its attorneys from using the irksome phrase \u201cWe respectfully decline.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Kirkland said, \u201cOur firm values the relationships we have built within the funds industry, and we are proud of the trusted counsel and advocacy our lawyers provide to clients as they build partnerships with their investors.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe continue to evolve our business, collaborate with our counterparts, and provide strong support for our clients, including in the relationships with their investors, as market dynamics shift in the fund formation process,\u201d they continued.<\/p>\n

Now, are the K&E attorneys really<\/em> that much more combative that others in the PE space? Eh, opinions are mixed with some fund investors saying the firm is no harsher than other Biglaw attorneys and it\u2019s Kirkland & Ellis\u2019s dominant position in the industry that makes their actions a lightening rod. <\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @[email\u00a0protected].<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kirkland & Ellis \u2014 the world\u2019s richest law firm \u2014 has received some harsh and pretty public feedback. According to reporting from the Financial Times, last year, during a limited partners industry event hosted by Institutional Limited Partners Association, attendees were asked if they could \u201cwave a magic wand,\u201d\u00a0what would they change about private equity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":136286,"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-136313","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\/11\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-UMyxXt.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136313","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=136313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}