Tony’s Career Story

Kirkland's culture is, in one word, collaborative. The Kirkland platform is built on teamwork across offices and practice groups. Everyone's really friendly and personable. It's easy to just grab the phone or send an email and get the help you need from an experienced professional. We're all on the same team working towards the best solution. That's why we do such good work for our clients — because we lean on each other to get the best results.

From the start, I've grown professionally because of the exposure I’ve had to substantive work really early on. When you're leading or helping to orchestrate the transactions in a project, you develop a project management toolkit. With this, I'm more organized and thoughtful about the process in ways that allow me to provide good service on a good timeline.

There are a couple of things that make the experience at Kirkland unique. First, for a lot of the transactions we work on, our clients are trying to do something new that makes the transactions bespoke and interesting. Second, you can take on as much responsibility as you want, so I've had opportunities to progress my legal career faster in ways that I might not have been able to at other firms. Early in my career, I had substantive drafting experience on key deliverables and even helped to lead closings.

Two and a half years in, I helped lead a closing for an underwritten bond offering where I also drafted some of the key offering documents. As a junior lawyer, this was significant and shows how Kirkland allows you to personally and professionally challenge yourself as much as you're willing to. I was proud to have been a part of the full transaction and to lead an outcome where all parties were happy with the result.

What I like most about Kirkland’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion initiatives is that all attorneys are welcome to attend any events, which makes them truly inclusive. If I want to attend a Women's Leadership Initiative (WLI) event, I am accepted and welcome; if I want to attend the Unidos Professional Network events, I am accepted and welcome. This provides spaces for all of us to be part of important conversations impacting the world around us so that we can become allies to friends and colleagues in our own way.