K&L Gates LLP is a US-based international law firm with offices in Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, South America, and the United States. Measured by headcount, it is the 8th largest law firm in the United States and the 11th largest among law firms worldwide. The firm delivers legal services at both an individual office level and through nine broad firmwide practice areas: Corporate and Transactional; Energy, Infrastructure and Resources; Finance; Financial Services; Intellectual Property; Labor, Employment and Workplace Safety; Litigation and Dispute Resolution; Real Estate; and Regulatory and Policy, each of which also include a number of subject matter and industry-based practice groups.
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Corporate governance
As of March 2017, the leaders of K&L Gates are James Segerdahl (global managing partner) and Michael Caccese (chairman, management committee). They replaced longtime chairman and global managing partner Peter Kalis, who had held that position since 1997.
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History
- 1858: London-based Nicholson Graham & Jones is founded
- 1883: Preston Gates & Ellis is founded in Seattle, emerging out of the private law offices of Harold Preston.
- 1946: Pittsburgh-based Kirkpatrick & Lockhart is founded
- 2005: Kirkpatrick & Lockhart and Nicholson Graham & Jones merge to become Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham
- 2007: On January 1, K&L Gates is formed in a merger between Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham and Preston Gates & Ellis to form Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis. The name was later shortened to K&L Gates.
- 2008: In January, K&L Gates combined with Hughes & Luce, a Dallas-based firm of 150 attorneys with offices in Austin, Dallas, and Fort Worth
- 2008: In July K&L Gates combined with Kennedy Covington Lobdell & Hickman LLP, a North Carolina-based firm of 200 attorneys with offices in Charlotte, Raleigh, and Research Triangle Park.
- March 1, 2009: K&L Gates merged with Bell, Boyd & Lloyd, a Chicago-based firm with approximately 215 attorneys with offices in Chicago, San Diego and Washington, D.C.
- 2013: K&L Gates combined with Australian national firm Middletons with offices in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, and Brisbane
Notable ratings
In 2017 U.S. News ranked K&L as the best Law Firm in the category of Environmental Litigation. The Financial Times labeled K&L among the "Most innovative North American law firms 2015: Compliance & technology".
K&L Gates received a "100 percent" on the 2018 Corporate Equality Index compiled by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, an LGBT advocacy group. In 2016 the "Yale Law Women" included K&L gates in the top ten "family-friendly" law firms.
Notable projects
In September 2014, K&L Gates founded the "Cyber Civil Rights Legal Project". The project initially involves about fifty K&L lawyers working pro bono to assist about 100 victims of "revenge porn". According to the New York Times, the project is believed to be first of its kind at a major United States law firm. By 2016, the project has aided hundreds of victims and has led to a handful of arrests. In April 2017 the project secured an $8.9 million jury award for a King County couple, reportedly the largest award for non-celebrity targets of "revenge porn" to date.
In 2016, K&L awarded a $10 million grant to Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) to establish the "K&L Gates Endowment for Ethics and Computational Technologies". This new research center is to explore the ethics of artificial intelligence and establish a biennial conference. The firm has provided legal services to CMU for decades; K&L Chairman Emeritus Charles J. Queenan Jr. once chaired CMU's Board of Trustees.
In 2017, K&L announced it would create its own blockchain.
Political contributions
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, K&L Gates was one of the top law firms contributing to federal candidates during the 2012 election cycle, donating $1.29 million, 52% to Democrats. By comparison, during that same period Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld donated $2.56 million, 66% to Democrats, while oil conglomerate ExxonMobil donated $2.66 million, 88% to Republicans. Since 1990, K&L Gates contributed $10.26 million to federal campaigns, and spent $1.25 million on lobbying since 1999.
Notable lawyers and alumni
- Dick Thornburgh, former Attorney General of the United States and two-term Governor of Pennsylvania
- Bart Gordon, former twelve-term U.S. Congressman
- Slade Gorton, former two-term U.S. senator
- Charles J. Queenan, Jr., chairman emeritus of firm; served as firm chairman from 1975 to 1990 (2014 recipient of Lifetime Achievement Award from The American Lawyer).
- Peter J. Kalis, former chairman and global managing partner. In 2013, Kalis was named both one of the top legal innovators of the past 50 years by The American Lawyer magazine and among the legal industry's most innovative and groundbreaking thinkers on The National Law Journal's inaugural list of "Top 50 Legal Business Trailblazers & Pioneers"
- William H. Gates, Sr, attorney and philanthropist. One of the founders of Preston Gates & Ellis (which merged to become K&L Gates). He is the father of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates
- Bill Neukom, former American Bar Association president and managing partner of the San Francisco Giants
- Michael S. Greco, former American Bar Association president
- Michael C. Ormsby, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington
- Jack Abramoff, former lobbyist, writer
- Eric Schneiderman, the former New York Attorney General
- Rick Santorum, former two-term U.S. Representative, former two-term U.S. Senator and 2012 Republican presidential candidate
References
External links
- BuzzFile Profile
- Post-Gazette interview with Chairman and Global Managing Partner Peter Kalis
- Post-Gazette article - George Sodini
- Post Gazette news of Kalis being re-elected
- Business-Times article on Peter Kalis
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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