Sabrina’s Career Story

Kirkland’s culture is one of the first things that attracted me to the Firm. One thing I love about the New York office culture is that colleagues will pop into my office to talk about a case and then stick around to catch up on life or grab a coffee together.

The New York Litigation Practice Group is big enough where we feel supported on our matters and small enough that we all get to know each other personally. Another nice thing about Kirkland’s New York office is that we have a fantastic corporate group that we get to work with frequently, and the work is really collaborative across both groups.

What has surprised me most about Kirkland are the substantive experiences I received early on. When I first started working at Kirkland, I was preparing materials for hearings, writing briefs and speaking with clients.

I was the only associate on one of the first cases I worked on at Kirkland. Within my first few months at the Firm, I was emailing with the client, leading calls and running much of the day-to-day of the case.

I’ve been lucky to work on so many different types of cases. Kirkland is unique because we have a generalist litigation practice. This means that I’ve been able to do everything from securities litigation, breach of contract and white-collar work to data breach cases.

I feel proud to work at Kirkland when I win a case I’ve been working on for months. It’s always rewarding seeing your hard work pay off and telling a client that you secured a favorable result for them.

Before joining Kirkland, I wasn’t sure how to properly do legal research or write a brief. As a soon-to-be litigator, this kind of terrified me. Within my first few weeks at the Firm, I learned the most effective ways to communicate legal research and best practices for legal writing. I’ve always felt supported here, and the responsibility I’ve taken on early in my career has strengthened my confidence as an attorney.

I stay at Kirkland because I am always learning. Each day I learn something new and am challenged to be a better attorney. The people and mentorship opportunities also keep me at the Firm.

I spent a lot of time as a Kirkland summer associate meeting new people and shadowing client calls and hearings. Taking time to form relationships over the summer helped me succeed when I came back to Kirkland as an associate.

My friends from my time as a summer associate at Kirkland are still some of my best friends today. It’s been rewarding to grow personally and professionally together over the last few years. It’s nice knowing I always have a friend to call to get advice on how to handle an assignment or to ask for help with proofreading an email.

One of my favorite things about Kirkland is the open assignment system. It allows me to work consistently with attorneys who are supporting me, which helps facilitate mentoring and training in a way I didn’t anticipate. I told a partner early on that I wanted more discovery experience, and a few weeks later she called me with an opportunity to work on third-party discovery.

There is a ton of built-in support in the open assignment system and designated people you can turn to if you want to seek out a specific opportunity. You aren’t alone in navigating it, especially as a summer associate and first-year associate.

I’ve learned so much from the formal training at Kirkland. The Kirkland Institute of Trial Advocacy (KITA) deposition and trial programs have been awesome for learning a ton and getting real-time feedback on my work product.

Informal mentoring and training come naturally at Kirkland. I’ve been blown away by how generous our senior associates are. So many people are willing to take the time to help you succeed and explain concepts or assignments even when they aren’t on your case.