Christian’s Career Story

Everyone is super welcoming, and it's a lighthearted place. You can hang out and get a coffee with a senior partner and not feel intimidated. I'm very happy, and I feel fulfilled here.

I'm proud of the work that we do. The teams I've been a part of are extremely service-oriented, we are constantly delivering great results for our clients and pushing the market. I'm also proud of the team we've developed. Even though we're a large firm, we've cultivated a team that is welcoming, team-oriented and positive.

I constantly feel challenged here, and that's so important to me. Every day is different; it's engaging, fun and exciting. Our clients, if they're coming to Kirkland, they're coming with big deals, novel deals, complicated deals — and I love that.

Hard work and a good attitude are rewarded and welcomed here. And that's all I could have asked for. It's a huge part of why I have stayed here until today.

Kirkland's culture is very teamwork-oriented. Collaboration is key to what we do here; whether its associates asking other associates for precedent or partners picking each other's brains. Kirkland is a place where information is freely traded. For example, on the debt finance side, we might be working with our IP team or our real estate team, or we frequently work with our M&A team, and so the job necessitates collaboration. Kirkland empowers us to do that.

I have strong mentor-mentee relationships with multiple senior partners that have developed organically and have been a huge source of growth for me. I was a 1L summer associate here, and for my second summer in law school, I had to decide if I should go back to Kirkland or check out another firm. I decided to go back to Kirkland because, even in my first summer, I formed good relationships with the associates and partners. I saw mentors in the partners in the Los Angeles office, and I knew that my time was best used building on those relationships. For me, it has always been about the people here.

I'm constantly growing professionally, and that's exciting to me. As a fifth-year associate, partners are placing me in front of clients more and helping me develop relationships that are going to be important in the coming years. It's great to have senior associates and partners actively supporting me.

When I was a first-year associate, I was asked to join the team on the Neiman Marcus restructuring. It was interesting because there was a lot on the line; our client was distressed at the time and needed to revisit their financial package. It was an exciting opportunity to be brought on to the team since not a lot of first-years get to have an active role on a restructuring of that magnitude, simply because there were so many matters that had not yet been addressed by the court. It was really complex.

I got to see the full cycle of the transaction. The following year, we went through an actual in-court bankruptcy financing for Neiman Marcus. We handled the exit financing out of the bankruptcy proceeding, and I'm happy to say that they're doing well today.

Recruiting is very important to me because I'm a first-generation college student. I was very fortunate to summer at Kirkland and get early exposure. I am very passionate about being a part of that early exposure for the law students we're recruiting.

As a diverse attorney, I wasn't sure what to expect from a Big Law firm, but I could not be more excited to be a part of Kirkland. I have had nothing but positive experiences. Everyone is so welcoming. It really does feel like a team, and I feel supported. It's important for students to see that lawyers can look and be different from what you might expect and still be successful at Kirkland.

I have nothing but positive things to say about my training exposure at Kirkland. Through Kirkland University, we're getting consistent training that's tailored to our class years and practice groups. Kirkland does such a good job of making sure the trainings stay relevant for each year.