Kirkland & Ellis Hires Paul Clement, Viet Dinh -- And All Of Bancroft's Lawyers!
Whoa -- this is some big Biglaw news!
Ahoy, Kirkland & Ellis!
Huge news in the world of law firm lateral moves: Kirkland & Ellis, one of Biglaw’s biggest and best names, has hired former U.S. solicitor general Paul Clement, former assistant attorney general Viet Dinh, and all of Clement and Dinh’s colleagues at the elite boutique of Bancroft PLLC. Wow!
From the K&E press release:
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Kirkland & Ellis LLP is pleased to announce that Paul D. Clement, former U.S. Solicitor General and top U.S. Supreme Court and appellate lawyer, will join the Firm as a partner in the Washington, D.C., office. Mr. Clement is currently a partner of Bancroft PLLC, a top appellate litigation boutique in Washington, D.C., founded by Viet D. Dinh, former U.S. Assistant Attorney General for Legal Policy. Mr. Dinh and all of Bancroft’s 15 other attorneys, including Chris Bartolomucci, Erin Murphy, George Hicks and Jeff Harris, will also join Kirkland with Mr. Clement by Oct. 1, in time for the new Supreme Court Term.
Returning to Biglaw is a homecoming of sorts for Paul Clement. Recall that he was at King & Spalding for a short stint after serving as solicitor general, before he left for Bancroft in 2011, amid the controversy surrounding his defense of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
Clement was said to earn $5 million a year at King & Spalding. His pay at Kirkland — one of Biglaw’s most lucrative firms, with average profits per partner of $3.6 million, #5 in the Am Law 100 — should be well into the mid-seven figures. As noted in the K&E press release, the 50-year-old Clement “has argued more Supreme Court cases since 2000 than any lawyer in or out of government,” with more than 80 arguments before SCOTUS.
Viet Dinh
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Viet Dinh — the 48-year-old founder and head of Bancroft, a leading litigator and constitutional law expert, and highly sought-after counselor to America’s top corporations, especially on corporate-governance issues — should also get a huge payday. Launched in 2003, Bancroft has thrived over its 13-year-history, so K&E must have made Dinh and his partners an offer that was simply too good to refuse.
Kirkland is hiring all 17 of Bancroft’s attorneys (including young Supreme Court superstar Erin Murphy). This shouldn’t be a surprise; Bancroft is Above the Law’s top firm by law school pedigree, and its lawyers boast pretty much every elite credential under the sun. Per the press release:
“The accomplishments of the Bancroft team are amazing, with 120 U.S. Supreme Court arguments, nine Supreme Court clerkships, 17 courts of appeals clerkships, and five Presidential appointments,” added Gene Assaf, a litigation partner and member of Kirkland’s Global Management Executive Committee based in Washington, D.C. “We see immense opportunity in combining forces.”
Note, by the way, that this appears as a technical matter to be a “mass lateral hire” (à la Morgan Lewis and Bingham, or Andrews Kurth and Kenyon & Kenyon). In other words, it’s not a “law firm merger” per se, even if the final outcome still involves all of Bancroft’s attorneys getting absorbed into Kirkland.
Congratulations to Kirkland on the incredible influx of tremendous talent, and congratulations to Bancroft lawyers on their impressive new home!
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UPDATE (2:10 p.m.): Here’s coverage of the news from Big Law Business and Law360.
UPDATE (2:45 p.m.): And here’s the story of Law.com.
UPDATE (2:55 p.m.): We’re getting positive reactions from our sources at Bancroft, who it seems will all benefit economically from this deal. The senior partners will be paid handsomely, as noted above; the junior partners will have enhanced equity opportunities (making share partner at K&E isn’t easy, but Bancroft has just a handful of equity partners); and Bancroft associates will be paid on the Kirkland pay scale (market salaries and handsome bonuses). Folks are also excited about the synergies between Bancroft’s top-flight appellate and Supreme Court practice and Kirkland’s strong trial practice. We understand that Bancroft support staffers are being invited to join K&E as well.
We hear that the deal came together very quickly, in a matter of weeks. A key player was federal judge turned Kirkland partner Mark Filip, who sits on Kirkland’s Global Management Executive Committee. Filip is quoted in the press release: “I’ve known Paul and Viet for over 25 years, and it’s no surprise how successful and respected they are. We welcome them and their talented team to Kirkland.”
How does Filip know Clement and Dinh? They all overlapped at Harvard Law School — Filip and Clement graduated in 1992, Dinh in 1993 — and Filip and Clement clerked together for the late Justice Scalia (October Term 1993). So law students and young lawyers, be nice to your law school classmates and your co-clerks; you never know when those relationships will come in handy.
UPDATE (3:32 p.m.): The response from in-house counsel — i.e., clients — is positive as well. “Quite a snag for Kirkland,” said Paul Cappuccio, executive vice president and general counsel of Time Warner (and a former K&E partner himself). “Paul is the best. And Kirkland already has Chris Landau, who is also a great appellate advocate, so this is quite a combined team.”
UPDATE (5:05 p.m.): Another noteworthy point: this isn’t just Paul Clement’s return to Biglaw, but to Kirkland & Ellis specifically (where he overlapped with Paul Cappuccio). Clement was an associate at K&E after his SCOTUS clerkship and before he went over to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
UPDATE (6:15 p.m.): Chiming in from the West Coast, former Facebook general counsel and former K&E partner Ted Ullyot, now a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, had this to say: “Great move for both Kirkland and Bancroft. Two world-class organizations joining forces.”
UPDATE (9/13/2016, 5:00 p.m.): For more on this news, see my interview with Viet Dinh: A Closer Look At Kirkland & Ellis’s Pickup Of The Bancroft Lawyers.
Former Solicitor General and renowned Supreme Court advocate Paul D. Clement and former Assistant Attorney General and Bancroft PLLC founder Viet D. Dinh and entire Bancroft firm to join Kirkland & Ellis [Kirkland & Ellis (press release)]
David Lat is the founder and managing editor of Above the Law and the author of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at [email protected].
