Biglaw, Money

Who Is Biglaw's $9 Million Man?

Whoa, talk about an eye-popping salary! Which law firm does he work for?

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Earlier this month, we had the pleasure of introducing the world to Stephen Lucas, who’s now better known as Biglaw’s $8 million man. This fellow now earns that hefty sum courtesy of Kirkland & Ellis, a firm that managed to lure Lucas away from his banking department chairmanship at Weil Gotshal.

At the time, we wondered, “Just how much does it cost to woo a successful partner away from a prestigious and profitable firm?” We now know that the answer is a few million dollars, but K&E’s guaranteed compensation offer of virtually $8 million was unheard of. Now, just a few weeks later, we’ve found out that Kirkland decided to one-up itself with yet another huge hire, for an even bigger chunk of money.

In what’s being called a sign of the times for the legal profession, Kirkland just poached James Hurst from Winston & Strawn for the extraordinary price of $9 million a year. Hurst had been at Winston for 25 years, where he served as chair of the firm’s 500-lawyer litigation department. Hurst was also a member of Winston & Strawn’s
executive committee and compensation committee. He starts work at K&E on Monday.

Law firm consultants are fascinated by Hurst’s eye-popping compensation guarantee. Here’s Bruce MacEwen’s take, per Casey Sullivan of Reuters Legal (sub. req.):

That level of pay is considered extraordinary, even in an industry that has seen ramped up partner mobility, according to Bruce MacEwen, a law firm consultant.

“It’s huge,” said MacEwen. “The biggest deal I have ever heard of was the notorious Mort Pierce at Dewey who made $8 million a year.”

What’s even more fascinating is the fact that Hurst is going to become a member of Kirkland’s 15-member executive committee the second he steps in the door. Here’s more information on Hurst’s prestigious position, per Crain’s Chicago Business:

It’s unusual, though not unheard of, for law firms to make a lateral hire a member of the executive committee, unless they negotiate it on the front end, said John Smock, a partner at Smock Law Firm Consultants in Lake Forest.

“The firm will bring in a lateral, and they’re sort of being tested,” he said. “They’re not going to put them on the executive committee right away.”

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Hurst was a finalist in American Lawyer’s “Litigator of the Year” in 2012 for his work defending Abbott Laboratories in GlaxoSmithKline’s $1.7 billion drug-pricing antitrust suit. Why was he inspired to ditch the firm where he’d worked for his entire career?

Winston & Strawn’s managing partner Thomas Fitzgerald says Hurst was likely drawn—at least in part—to the opportunity to represent branded pharmaceutical companies at Kirkland.

“We have a very significant generic practice at Winston & Strawn, which precludes representation of branded pharmaceutical companies,” Fitzgerald says.

That could very well be why he decided to move to Kirkland, but Hurst explained it thusly: “I have the good fortune to go from one elite firm to another.” We love a wealthy man who keeps things short and sweet. Best of luck to him at his new firm.

For what it’s worth, Kirkland has thrown its weight around throughout 2014, extending multimillion-dollar compensation guarantees to a handful of partners. Given that K&E is acting like the big man on Biglaw’s campus with all of these flashy hires, we’ve got to wonder how big the firm’s bonuses will be. We’ll likely find out shortly before Christmas. Let’s see if Kirkland is capable of shattering the market.

(If you’re interested, you can flip to the next page to see James Hurst’s bio, before it’s scrubbed from Winston & Strawn’s website.)

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