Overview

Madeleine Xu is a litigation partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, where she represents leading companies, boards, executives and private equity sponsors in high-stakes commercial disputes. Her practice covers complex contract and licensing disputes, corporate governance and fiduciary duty litigation, M&A-related disputes, class actions and arbitration. Madeleine has achieved significant wins for clients across industries and regularly appears before the federal courts in New York, the Delaware Court of Chancery, the Delaware Supreme Court and the Commercial Division of the New York Supreme Court. Before joining Kirkland, she was a law clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

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Thought Leadership

Speaking Engagements

Interview, “Five Years Out: Madeleine Xu ’20,” NYU Law Magazine, December 5, 2025

Publications

Author, “Form, Substance, and Rule 23: The Applicability of the Federal Rules of Evidence to Class Certification,” N.Y.U. Law Review, 2020

Recognition

2021 Pro Publica Award, Legal Aid Society

Credentials

Admissions & Qualifications

  • 2021New York

Courts

  • United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
  • United States District Court for the Southern District of New York

Education

  • New York University School of LawJ.D.magna cum laude2020

    Order of the Coif

    Weinfeld Prize for Scholarship in Procedure and the Courts

    Florence Allen Scholar

    Chesler Litigation Scholar

    Best Advocate and Best Brief, 47th Orison S. Marden Moot Court Competition

    Articles Editor, N.Y.U. Law Review

  • Tufts UniversityB.S., Biology & Psychology2015