Keep Calm and Keep Billing

In a year when private equity has struggled to do the one thing it’s designed for—exit—Kirkland & Ellis has quietly done what it always does: kept the meter running. The result? Average partner pay sailing past $10 million, as the firm turns industry gridlock into a highly efficient revenue stream. Call it the “counsel tax”: when deals stall, refinancing drags, and sponsors reshuffle portfolios instead of selling them, the legal complexity doesn’t disappear - it compounds. And every twist in the capital structure, every continuation vehicle, every delayed exit becomes another billable event. Kirkland’s bumper year saw it advise on more than $800 billion of M&A deals in 2025 according to Dealogic, placing it at the vanguard of legal advisory. The gilded year was helped by a number of substantial mandates including Silver Lake’s $55 billion LBO of Electronic Arts. All told, Kirkland enjoyed a record $10.6 billion in revenues, even though the private equity sector experienced a tough time exiting companies. You could say it’s been a case of Keep Calm and Keep on Billing.