So yes, Kirkland is officially trying to make beautiful music in Music City. And judging by the size of the band they\u2019re assembling, this isn\u2019t a quiet acoustic set \u2014 it\u2019s a stadium tour.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kirkland Opens in Nashville, Calling It \u2018an Ideal Environment\u2019 for More Growth<\/a> [American Lawyer]<\/p>\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\u00a0email<\/a>\u00a0her 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 World\u2019s Richest Law Firm Takes The Stage In Music City<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n Kirkland & Ellis just dropped a new track in Music City \u2014 and yes, it\u2019s a full-on Biglaw power ballad.<\/p>\n The world\u2019s richest law firm is officially opening a Nashville office, calling the city \u201can ideal environment\u201d for more \u201caggressive\u201d growth, referring to the office launch as \u201cpart of its strategy to attract top legal talent and meet growing client demand\u201d \u2014 which in Kirkland-speak translates to: we\u2019re not here for karaoke night, we\u2019re here for a multi-album deal.<\/p>\n The firm is launching its Nashville presence with a lineup of litigation partners that reads like a touring supergroup: Tara Blake, Matt Smith, Paul Rosenblatt, and Travis Swearingen, relocating in from Houston, the Bay Area, and D.C. And that\u2019s just the opening act. Kirkland says around 10 litigators have joined or will join the office soon, with more partners and associates coming across both litigation and transactional practices. Nashville may be a secondary market, but this isn\u2019t just a satellite office for the firm \u2014 it\u2019s a full-stage production with backup singers, lighting, and a pyrotechnics budget.<\/p>\n Chairman Jon Ballis praised Nashville as a \u201cvibrant and growing city\u201d with a strong talent pool and law school community \u2014 which is corporate code for the city having money, lawyers, and momentum, and Kirkland wants to remix all three. The firm is pitching the move as part of its broader national growth strategy, and if recent history is any guide, that strategy sounds a lot like: open new offices, hire aggressively, dominate markets, repeat. \u201cWe\u2019re excited to open our doors in the Music City with a terrific group of lawyers across our litigation and transactional practice areas,\u201d Ballis said in a statement. <\/p>\n This Nashville office isn\u2019t a side project for the firm, it\u2019s another verse in a very loud growth anthem. As noted by the American Lawyer<\/a>, Kirkland has been on a nationwide expansion tour: Salt Lake City, Miami, Philadelphia, and now Nashville. Secondary markets like Austin, Atlanta, Denver, Miami, and Nashville are becoming Biglaw\u2019s hottest venues, driven by client migration, remote work, and business-friendly climates. Firms aren\u2019t just following the money \u2014 they\u2019re following the vibes.<\/p>\n So yes, Kirkland is officially trying to make beautiful music in Music City. And judging by the size of the band they\u2019re assembling, this isn\u2019t a quiet acoustic set \u2014 it\u2019s a stadium tour.\u00a0<\/p>\n Kirkland Opens in Nashville, Calling It \u2018an Ideal Environment\u2019 for More Growth<\/a> [American Lawyer]<\/p>\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\u00a0email<\/a>\u00a0her 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":" Kirkland & Ellis just dropped a new track in Music City \u2014 and yes, it\u2019s a full-on Biglaw power ballad. The world\u2019s richest law firm is officially opening a Nashville office, calling the city \u201can ideal environment\u201d for more \u201caggressive\u201d growth, referring to the office launch as \u201cpart of its strategy to attract top legal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":143868,"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-143867","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\/2026\/02\/Staci-Zaretsky-TWJTLf.jpg?fit=150%2C100&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143867","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=143867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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