Kirkland leads law firms with six-year path to partnership

For associates wondering how long the road to partnership might be, the answer at most major law firms is pretty similar - around 12 years.

Publicly available data tracked by legal analytics company Pirical shows that 72% of the firms analysed sit within roughly two years of a 12.5-year partnership track, suggesting that despite differences in geography and partnership structures, much of the market works to a similar timetable.

One firm, however, stands out. Kirkland & Ellis lawyers who make partner do so after an average of just 6.1 years, roughly half the time of the market's main cluster.

The data looks at the top US and UK firms in London and measures the average time between law school graduation for US firms, or qualifying as a lawyer at non-US firms, and promotion to partner.

It covers lawyers globally who were promoted over the past 36 months and only counts lawyers who made partner at the firm itself. Recently merged Hogan Lovells Cadwalader, Ashurst Perkins Coie and Winston Taylor were excluded.

The top 10

Kirkland's 6.1-year figure comes with an important caveat: not every firm means the same thing when it makes someone a partner. The firm is well known for operating a two-tier partnership, with lawyers typically promoted first to non-equity partner before potentially progressing to equity partner later.

That makes its 6.1-year average difficult to compare directly with firms that operate all-equity partnerships such as Slaughters and Ropes & Gray, where promotion to partner means joining the firm’s ownership ranks.

Pirical said Kirkland's figure aligns with its unusually partner-heavy structure. The firm had 1,863 partners and just 1.2 lawyers for every partner, with its large non-equity partnership helping to compress the time to the partner title.

Second-placed Slaughter and May - which has made up an average of just six partners a year over the past five years, compared with 224 at Kirkland alone last year - averaged 8.8 years, followed by Goodwin at 9.8 years, Macfarlanes at 10.1 years and Charles Russell Speechlys at 10.3 years.

Baker McKenzie followed at 10.5 years, Travers Smith at 10.7 years, Simpson Thacher at 10.8 years and Gibson Dunn at 11.1 years. Osborne Clarke and Ropes & Gray rounded out the top ten positions, tied at 11.3 years.

The road to partner

Beyond the firms at the top of the ranking, the differences quickly become much smaller. White & Case averaged 11.5 years, while Latham and Weil were both at 11.8 years.

A&O Shearman came in at 12.1 years, with Freshfields, Milbank and Paul Hastings all at 12.2 years.

Clifford Chance and Norton Rose Fulbright both averaged 12.5 years, while Linklaters, DLA Piper, Quinn Emanuel and Skadden were all at 13.1 years, on average.

At the other end of the ranking, a smaller group recorded considerably longer paths to the partner title.

Pinsent Masons had the longest average at 16.1 years, followed by Clyde & Co at 15.3 years. HSF Kramer averaged 14.6 years and Fieldfisher 14.5 years.

That leaves a 10-year gap between the fastest and slowest firms in the ranking.