Aubrey’s Career Story

Kirkland is a group of motivated attorneys who work tirelessly to achieve the best outcomes for our clients. One result of that objective is every single attorney at this Firm wants to see you succeed and achieve excellence. My experience has been one of immense support and mentorship, with the backing of senior attorneys who want to see me succeed in everything I do. Among the colleagues I regularly work with, I can sing nothing but praises and express a deep gratitude for their willingness to invest in me.

I take immense pride in my work and in calling myself a Kirkland lawyer. The transactions we handle are of the most complicated types, and my colleagues are among the smartest and most competent in the world. I find it incredible that I’m given the opportunity to work among them and on the same transactions. This is a market-leading law firm that affords incredible developmental opportunities and the chance for junior attorneys to take a substantial role in sophisticated transactions.

From day one, I’ve been given the opportunity to run workstreams and challenge myself. I don’t think a single other firm offers more opportunities to junior associates.

I’ve been involved in debt transactions ranging from smaller financings to cross-border megadeals. Each transaction has significantly helped me grow. On the smaller financings, I played an integral role in pushing the deal along, managing ancillary problems as they arose and generally making sure we kept pace to close. On the large transactions, little can be said that explains the feeling of participating in an exchange of billions of dollars in assets.

I am on the Bay Area Associates Committee, serve as a formal mentor for other junior attorneys, regularly attend student recruitment events at my alma mater, and have spent hundreds of hours working on pro bono cases and projects that cover broad swaths of the law ranging from criminal to immigration to civil.

Many of my colleagues and I find profound significance in helping and supporting others. As a result, my involvement in Firm initiatives is very important to me, whether that means supporting my coworkers or representing a pro bono client who otherwise wouldn’t receive legal representation. I’ve benefited much from the kindness and sincerity of others in the legal profession, and I truly hope to pass that along. I’m fortunate to work at a firm that encourages me to do so.

Working and learning from such well-respected attorneys has helped me immensely and given me confidence as a developing lawyer. I know that I’ll become the best attorney I can be because of the vast opportunities for development afforded here.

As I continue to practice, I couldn’t imagine a better place to be. I owe my development as a practitioner to those who have invested in me, and I continue to look forward to a future at Kirkland, because it’s an excellent place to learn.

Kirkland’s formal training program is tailored to provide junior attorneys the skills they need to succeed at the Firm. Kirkland’s LearningLink offers on-demand trainings in dozens of topics covering broad areas of the law.

What has truly set my time at Kirkland apart are the teams I’ve worked on. I’ve been fortunate to work with some phenomenal people, each willing to take the time to train me and very patiently answer my questions.

The open assignment system has tremendous upsides. The short of it is that from day one, if you’re entrepreneurial and humble, you’ll have an unparalleled opportunity to control the direction of your career.