PE’s Favorite Law Firm Confronts `Tough Place to Work’ Image (1)

Kirkland & Ellis chairman Jon Ballis holds a trump card in the legal industry’s desperate battle for talent: he can pay more than just about anybody else. Some partners at the world’s largest law firm earn more than $20 million a year, according to a former shareholder.

Listen to Roy Strom read his story.

Name a rival—Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; Cravath, Swaine & Moore; Simpson Thacher & Bartlett—and Kirkland has poached from them. But now, Ballis finds that dangling eight-figure paychecks and the allure of doing billions of dollars worth of deals for private equity heavyweights like Bain Capital ...