Fortune’s ‘100 Best’ lists five law firms too!

01/12/07

Fortune’s ‘100 Best’ lists five law firms too!

Want to know which firm will prove to be the best employer? Fortune 100 has the answer. The magazine listed the Top 100 employers to work for where five law firms were listed, unlike last year’s list, which had only California-based firm Morrison & Foerster listed. The magazine gathers nominations in addition to asking people for their opinions to ascertain who is among the Top 100 employers. Participating companies have to submit a cultural audit on items such as compensation, benefits, and diversity promotion matters within the firm. This time, Google walked away with the top rank.

All firms take these surveys very seriously because of their importance in hiring new candidates. The firms who made the list are Alston & Bird, Arnold & Porter, Nixon Peabody, Perkins Coie, and Bingham McCutchen.

Bingham McCutchen’s chief Jay Zimmerman stated that the outcome definitely has a huge bearing from the recruitment point of view and the results have boosted the firm’s morale. Bingham also makes up by recruiting women who add up to make 23 percent of the firm’s partner ranks, the highest reported in the magazine. He was in agreement to the fact that making the list is getting increasingly tough, with ace companies like Google offering their employees perks ranging from free meals to free doctors.

However, recruiters opine that though important, the list is not the only factor for retention levels. At the moment, the firms who could make the ranks are celebrating rather than calculating the effects.

Kirkland sets private equity shop in Hong Kong
International law firm Kirkland & Ellis, LLP, opened shop in Hong Kong under the guardianship of David Patrick Eich, the firm’s private equity partner from London. He will be joined by Chuan Li, a partner in the firm’s Chicago office, and Tai Hsia, senior associate from London. The firm is relying heavily on the trio’s extensive private equity experience to add muscle to its new office off shores. Besides the three seniors, the new Hong Kong team has 20 more lawyers with great deal of Asian experience and cultural links from the firm’s U.S. and European offices.

Eich is the chief architect steering the firm’s European transactional practice’s global group, which recently annexed the $10.2 billion leveraged buyout of Philips Semiconductors on behalf of a conglomerate of private equity funds. The firm is looking forward to opening a fully functional office in the Asian subcontinent owing to the growing economic transformation in the mainland as well as the firm’s existing private equity clients in the country. With the private equity practice assuming global hues, the firm’s top-tier buyout clients in Asia also expect an international level of expertise in the country.

Kirkland & Ellis’ more than 1,200 lawyers handle complex legal issues, including private equity, restructuring, tax, intellectual property, and litigation for clients all over the world. To their credit, they have represented more than 80 private equity funds in the last decade and have amassed more than $140 billion for financial sponsors.