Stuart Drake was an environmental litigation partner based in the Washington office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP from 1989 to 2026. Stuart represented vehicle and engine manufacturers and companies in the alternative fuels industry in federal and state courts nationwide. His automotive clients included industry leaders headquartered in Asia, Europe and the United States. Stuart was recognized in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business for over 15 years. The guide said Stuart was “as good as they get” and “a fearless advocate for his clients.”
With his Kirkland colleagues, Stuart also represented pro bono indigents and other individuals with limited resources who had been injured by the government. Stuart’s pro bono clients were referred to Kirkland by organizations including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, and Families Against Mandatory Minimums. His results included an award of damages to a victim of an FBI program that had targeted a member of the lawfully organized U.S. Communist Party in New York City in the 1950s, referred by the ACLU. Stuart also coordinated the work of a Kirkland team that in 2017 obtained what was at the time one of the largest damage awards in the District of Maryland under the Americans with Disabilities Act for an individual plaintiff referred by the Lawyers’ Committee, in a trial in which Kirkland teamed with counsel from the Lawyers’ Committee.
