K&L Gates LLP | Company Profile | Vault.com (2023)

K&L Gates is one of the largest law firms in the world, with close to 2,000 lawyers across five continents. Among the firm’s top-notch practices are corporate; energy and infrastructure; finance; intellectual property; labor, employment, and workplace safety; litigation and dispute resolution; policy and regulatory; real estate; and asset management and investment funds.

Multiplicity

The new millennium saw a flurry of mergers, which formed the firm we now call K&L Gates. In January 2007, Seattle’s Preston Gates & Ellis got hitched to Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham (itself the product of one of the largest U.S.-U.K. mergers in legal history: the 2005 pairing of Pittsburgh-based Kirkpatrick & Lockhart and London’s Nicholson Graham & Jones). A year later, the reshaped firm merged with Texas-based Hughes & Luce, increasing K&L Gates’ presence in the Lone Star State. In July 2008, the firm combined with Kennedy Covington Lobdell & Hickman, a household name in Carolina legal circles; the merger gave K&L Gates a significant presence throughout the Carolinas. The addition of Chicago firm Bell, Boyd & Lloyd’s 250 lawyers and lobbyists in March 2009 bolstered K&L Gates’ ranks in Chicago and DC.In 2013, K&L Gates merged with Australian firm Middletons, giving the firm a presence in the Land Down Under. They have added offices in Nashville, Luxembourg, and Kansas City, MO over the past 2 years.

Diversifying

K&L Gates takes a full-service approach to its work, with clients across many industries. Unlike some big firms that rely on a few key clients for the bulk of their billings, K&L Gates’ policy of diversification means that its revenues are spread widely across many clients. Among its reputable practices, K&L Gates boasts an impressive renewable energy practice. The firm’s clients work across solar, wind, biomass, hydropower, geothermal, and other sectors. And the firm pulls in its experience across industries to provide counsel on everything from acquisitions, financing, IP, licensing, regulatory matters, tax, and much more.

The firm is home to a large corporate practice—in fact, its M&A practice has 500 lawyers alone. Among the firm’s corporate clients are those from the Global 500, Fortune 100, and FTSE 100, as well as startups, investment funds, and individuals. The firm’s corporate lawyers work across myriad industries, such as energy, financial services, healthcare, infrastructure, life sciences, manufacturing, technology, telecommunications, and transportation. The firm did well riding out the pandemic, seeing increases in cross-office work and practices, inter-office revenue, and profitability over those years.

The Best Place

K&L Gates is dedicated to pro bono: Over the past few years, the firm devoted more than 46,000 hours to pro bono matters. This included the work done through firmwide initiatives including K&L Gates for Equal Justice, which focuses on voting rights, criminal justice reform, and justice for indigenous people; the Cyber Civil Rights Legal Project, which assists victims of nonconsensual pornography; and Anti-Human Trafficking Initiative, which aims to help victims of human trafficking. The firm also partners with dozens of community organizations, and on an individual basis, lawyers and staff are encouraged to volunteer and provide services within their own communities.

COVID-19 Update

K&L Gates remains focused on recruiting top talent despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2021, we shifted our summer associate program to be held virtually for the first two weeks for all summer associates and then offered a hybrid program depending on the COVID return-to-office status in the 16 participating offices. We have conducted events and programming in person where possible; we also have been conducting student events and engagement opportunities virtually, including hosting virtual coffee chats and informational interviews, conducting web-based educational programming with schools, and participating in online career fairs and interview programs.

During this time, we have conducted numerous lateral partner and associate interviews using video technology and are able to successfully onboard and go through the orientation process virtually.

NOTABLE CASES

• Advised Vertical Bridge REIT, LLC, the largest private owner and operator of communications infrastructure in the United States, and several of its subsidiaries in a $1.4 billion securitization of cell tower leases in the United States.
• Advised space logistics and transportation company D-Orbit S.p.A. on its $1.28 billion combination with Breeze Holdings Acquisition Corp., a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company.
• Advised video streaming and advertising technology company SeaChange International Inc. on its deal with short-video social app Triller that will allow private company Triller to go public via a $5 billion reverse merger.
• Represented Carnegie Mellon University in its long-standing patent infringement suit against chipmaker Marvell Technology Group Ltd. and Marvell Semiconductor Inc. that culminated in a $US750 million settlement for CMU.

AWARDS & ACCOLADES

• Corporate Law - Corporate Law Firm of the Year, 2022 - U.S. News-Best Lawyers “Best Law Firms”
• Mansfield Rule 4.0 certification in 2021, on our inaugural year of participation
• Corporate Equality Index “Top Law Firm for Equality,” 2022 - Human Rights Campaign
• 41 practice rankings, 11 nationwide rankings, and 111 lawyers recognized, 2021 - Chambers USA
• 2021Top Performerand 2021Compass Awarddesignations from Leadership Council on Legal Diversity

K&L Gates LLP

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