Kirkland Named 2016 Top Performer by Leadership Council on Legal Diversity

Kirkland & Ellis was named a 2016 Top Performer by the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD). The designation recognizes LCLD member organizations that “went above and beyond to participate in LCLD and support its mission of creating a more inclusive legal profession.” Kirkland was one of 28 law firms recognized as a Top Performer, out of LCLD’s 180 law firm members. This is the third year Kirkland has been named a Top Performer, having earned the distinction in 2013 and 2014.

“We are honored to be named a 2016 Top Performer,” said Atif Khawaja, co-chair of Kirkland’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee and a 2015 LCLD Fellow. “Kirkland is a longtime supporter of LCLD and its mission, and we look forward to continuing our involvement in the organization’s impactful programming.”

Kirkland supports the LCLD in several ways:

• The Firm has participated in the LCLD Fellows Program every year since its inception in 2011. The yearlong mentoring program involves professional development, relationship building and corporate learning experiences with the goal of increasing diversity at the leadership levels of the nation’s law firms and corporate legal departments.
• The Firm has participated in LCLD’s Pathfinders program every year since its inception in 2015. The program trains diverse, high-potential, early-career attorneys in career development strategies.
• Kirkland attorneys have served as LCLD City Leads in Palo Alto, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., since the inception of the LCLD Success in Law School Mentoring Program in 2012. In this role, Kirkland attorneys act as primary liaisons between LCLD, local law school students and administration, and attorney mentors in their cities.
• Kirkland is involved in the annual 1L LCLD Scholars Program, through which diverse first-year law students work side-by-side with Kirkland attorneys during summer internships.

LCLD is an organization of more than 250 corporate chief legal officers and law firm managing partners who are dedicated to creating a diverse U.S. legal profession. For more information, visit www.lcldnet.org.

About Kirkland & Ellis

Kirkland & Ellis LLP (www.kirkland.com) is a 1,900-attorney law firm representing global clients in private equity, M&A and other complex corporate transactions, litigation and dispute resolution/arbitration, restructuring, and intellectual property matters. The Firm has offices in Beijing, Chicago, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Munich, New York, Palo Alto, San Francisco, Shanghai and Washington, D.C. Kirkland’s commitment to diversity is reflected in its policies, programs and committees as well as its efforts to build and maintain a culture that values and gathers strength from differences in socioeconomic, racial, ethnic and personal backgrounds.