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“Kirkland & Ellis just dropped a new track in Music City — and yes, it’s a full-on Biglaw power ballad.” – Above the Law
“Nashville has attracted a number of Big Law firms in recent years” – Bloomberg Law
“Big money and big law success have seen Kirkland & Ellis rise to become the world’s most profitable law firm . . . Can it maintain its leading position atop the BigLaw mountain?” – LawFuel
On February 10, 2026, the legal behemoth of Kirkland & Ellis announced its expansion into Music City. Considering Kirkland lays claim to the title of “the world’s largest law firm by revenue” with approximately 4,000 attorneys in offices around the globe, perhaps its opening of a twenty-third brick-and-mortar location is not surprising. For future legal job-seekers, however, one of the reasons for the move cited by Kirkland’s Executive Committee Chairman may be encouraging: “Nashville offers an ideal environment for our continued growth by enhancing our ability to attract exceptional legal talent in a vibrant and growing city with talented lawyers and a strong law school community.”
Reading the media reports regarding Nashville’s new legal employer, one term is repeatedly used to describe Kirkland: Big Law. Moreover, from context, it appears that in the legal community, a Big Law firm is not just a big law firm. Delving deeper into this term of art, it becomes clear that Big Law is also very big business.
What is Big Law?
The term “Big Law” refers to the largest law firms in the country who are “at the top of their practice.” These leviathans do not just have a large number of attorneys practicing in diverse specialties generating significant annual revenues; they tend to gain prestige working on “high-stakes matters for clients who need a deep pool of legal talent.” According to U.S. News & World Report, in the past, most of these firms would have had their origins on Wall Street. Recently, however, the Big Law mix has evolved to include firms that have grown from their U.S. regional (between the coasts), international, or practice-specialty roots to rival their more established peers.
Keeping track of the trends in this evolving Big Law landscape is The American Lawyer (available at Law.com). It publishes the legal community’s gold standard on Big Law: a list ranking the 100 largest law firms in the country. This list, known colloquially amongst lawyers as the “Am Law 100,” is the legal equivalent to the Fortune 500.
According to The American Lawyer, “The Am Law 100 is the definitive ranking of the 100 largest law firms in the United States” as defined by financial metrics including: Gross Revenue, Revenue per Lawyer, Profits per Equity Partner, Profits per Lawyer, and Average Compensation, all partners.
In the Am Law 100 for 2025, Kirkland ranked as the largest law firm by gross revenue at $8.08 billion followed by Latham & Watkins ($7.00 billion), DLA Piper ($4.24 billion), and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher, and Flom ($3.67 billion). The reach of these mega firms can be felt around the globe, including in Nashville. For example, in 2025, DLA Piper advised Chord Music Partners in acquiring a minority stake in Morgan Wallen’s catalog from the Nashville record label Big Loud. To date, though, Kirkland is the only one of the “biggest of the big” to expand to Nashville. In fact, of the top ten highest-grossing firms, only Kirkland has opened a brick-and-mortar location in Tennessee.
Beyond gross revenue, The American Lawyer cites revenue per lawyer (RPL) as “the most reliable measure of a firm’s financial health.” The top five of this category in 2025 was led by Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz with an RPL of $4.47 million followed by Susman Godfrey, Sullivan & Cromwell, and Cravath, Swain & Moore. Kirkland rounded out the top five with an RPL of $2.30 million. Again, these top firms by RPL have global reach, including into Nashville. For example, in 2025, Sullivan & Cromwell advised Nashville’s Pinnacle Financial Partners on a $8.6 billion merger and Cravath sponsors a scholarship program at Fisk University. Once again, though, of these top five firms, only Kirkland has invested in a Nashville office.
Kirkland’s move is newsworthy precisely because it breaks new ground. While other Am Law 100 firms have operated and even have offices here, Kirkland is the reigning Big Law king and its Third Avenue South office promises to be substantial: “this isn’t just a satellite office for the firm – it’s a full-stage production.”
Big Law is Big Business
As the financial metrics of the individual firms suggest, Big Law is big business. Looking beyond the top ten firms, the overall combined revenue of all the firms on the 2025 Am Law 100 was over $158 billion. Fifty-eight of the firms topped $1 billion in gross revenue with 27 grossing more than $2 billion. From their revenue, 20 firms gleaned more $1 billion in total profits. Moreover, trends in Big Law business were strong with a year-over-year increase in revenue for the Am Law 100 of $13.3%. Not surprisingly, revenue per lawyer also increased by 5.2% for an overall RPL across all firms of $1.28 million. To sum up, using the words of Above the Law: “By the numbers, there is no other credible way to describe the overall performance of the 100 largest law firms by revenue: They crushed it.”
Big Law 2026: Stay Tuned
Of the top ten highest-grossing Big Law firms, Kirkland & Ellis is the first to open a brick-and-mortar location in Nashville. With the city’s continued growth, however, it may not be the last. Moreover, with the evolving Big Law landscape welcoming newcomers to its ranks, spots on the AmLaw 100 are not static. In other words, a big law firm today could become a “Big Law” firm tomorrow. The American Lawyer is poised to publish its 2026 rankings in the next few months. Will Kirkland continue its reign “atop Biglaw mountain”? Stay tuned.
