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Money talks: Inside City law’s eye-watering partner pay

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By Legal Cheek on

The Legal Cheek Podcast crunches the (big!) numbers


The numbers don’t lie, and when you’re earning more in two days than most people make in a year, there’s no reason they would.

This week on The Legal Cheek Podcast, Julia Szaniszlo and Tom Connelly dig
into the headline-grabbing financial results of Kirkland & Ellis, the first law firm in history to break the $10 billion revenue barrier, with profit per equity partner hitting a staggering $11.1 million (£8.2 million).

Julia and Tom break down what profit per equity partner actually means in practice, from the “eat what you kill” pressure that comes with it, to the eye- watering daily earnings that put even Premier League footballers to shame.

They also explore the mechanics behind such extraordinary profitability: the dominance of private capital and the growth of the non-equity partner tier that
has turbocharged US firms’ margins across the City.

You can listen to the podcast in full via the embed above, or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

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