KIRKLAND & Ellis revelled in 2005’s booming private equity market (its core practice area globally), increasing gross revenue by 16 per cent to reach £533m. The Chicago-based firm converted this into a reasonable increase in PEP, which went up by 7 per cent to hit £1.165m, conclusively placing Kirkland in the exclusive £1m club.

The firm notably achieved the results off the back of a 45 per cent increase in headcount over the past five years. Since 2001 the firm has grown from 725 lawyers to 1,056 in 2005. More impressively, the uplift has been in conjunction with a solid increase in revenue per lawyer (RPL), up from $730,000 (£401,000) to $985,000 (£541,000) over the same period. However, Kirkland is notorious for ruthlessly culling young lawyers in order to keep its equity tight and profit high.

Last year’s revenue growth was across all four of the firm’s core areas: transactional (which includes corporate, tax and private equity), litigation, IP and restructuring. But it was mandates within the transactional team, such as Citadel Broadcasting’s $2.7bn (£1.43bn) acquisition of most of ABC Radio’s assets, that stole the limelight.

Meanwhile, the restructuring practice, which has been another key focus of growth in recent years, suffered the loss of Chicago-based head James Sprayregen to Goldman Sachs.

Chicago remains Kirkland’s largest office with more than 500 lawyers. The firm has a further four US offices, as well as growing presences in London and Munich, both of which focus on private equity, in line with the firm’s global strategy. Munich, which was launched in late 2004 with the hire of rated private equity specialist Volker Kullman from Clifford Chance, had a solid first year.

At the time of publication, Kirkland was targeting a Hong Kong launch in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2006 or Q1 2007, again focusing on private equity to service client demand within the LBO market.