Our Firm
Our Practice • Our Approach to the Markets • Our Technological Advantage • Our Ethic of Intergenerational Excellence • Our Commitment to Diversity • Our Engagement in Pro Bono and Public Service • Our Governance

K&L Gates LLP comprises approximately 1,800 lawyers who practice in 35 offices located on three continents:   Anchorage, Austin, Beijing, Berlin, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Dubai, Fort Worth, Frankfurt, Harrisburg, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Miami, Newark, New York, Orange County, Palo Alto, Paris, Pittsburgh, Portland, Raleigh, Research Triangle Park, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Shanghai, Singapore, Spokane/Coeur d’Alene, Taipei, Tokyo and Washington.  K&L Gates represents leading global corporations, growth and middle-market companies, capital markets participants and entrepreneurs in every major industry group as well as public sector entities, educational institutions, philanthropic organizations and individuals.  Our practice is robustly a full market practice at once regional, national and international in scope, and it is cutting edge, complex, and dynamic. In 2009, our revenues exceeded $1 billion.

In addition to numerous specific recognitions of the firm's partners, practices, offices and markets, our recent firmwide recognitions include:

• The September 25, 2009 "Boss Talk" column of the Wall Street Journal featured the firm.
• The November 2009 issue of the American Lawyer featured the firm.
• The May 4, 2009 issue of The Lawyer included the firm on the short-list of "International Law Firm of the Year".
• The February 2009 issue of Legal Business included the firm on the short-list of "US Law Firm of the Year".
• The 2010 BTI survey of corporate counsel (covering over 500 law firms) included the firm in the elite "BTI Client Service 30".
• The August 2009 issue of Corporate Counsel's survey of corporate counsel   ranked the firm as fourth among "Go-To" firms.
• The November 9, 2009 issue of the National Law Journal ranked the firm as the seventh largest U.S.-based law firm.

Our Practice

K&L Gates practices law on an integrated basis.  In 2009, 448 of our 500 largest clients used lawyers in two or more of our offices, and 11 of our 20 largest clients used lawyers in 10 or more of our offices.  The average number of offices engaged on projects by the firm's 20 largest clients was 11.8.  For our 100 largest clients, which represent 30% of total firm revenue, the average number of offices engaged was 8.1. 

Our delivery of legal services is supported at both the individual office level and through six firm wide practice areas: Corporate and Transactional; Litigation and Dispute Resolution; Financial Services; Real Estate; Regulatory and Policy; and Intellectual Property.   Within each of these practice areas are subject matter and industry-based practice groups. 

Our multi-office corporate and transactional practice is one of the most substantial in the profession.   We maintain a balance between company side and capital markets clients, in virtually every industry segment.  We perform corporate engagements for large multinational operating companies, ambitious middle market and emerging growth companies, and capital markets participants including public and private investment organizations, investment banks, commercial lenders and other financial institutions.   Our sophisticated global finance practice focuses on structured finance, securitizations, derivatives, mezzanine lending, acquisition finance, Shariah compliant finance, high-yield debt, real estate finance, and municipal finance.  We are recognized as a leader in the private equity, hedge fund, venture capital, consumer mortgage finance, AIM listing and ESOP areas. 

Our lawyers in the United States, Europe and Asia are highly experienced in cross-border M&A, securities and financing transactions, as well as corporate counseling in general.   We adopt a multidisciplinary approach in counseling our clients and draw upon our firm's unparalleled resources, including creation of firm wide task forces to address important industry and topical client needs such as the global financial crisis, the US federal and other stimulus plans, infrastructure and life sciences. 

Our corporate practices continue to grow in market share and recognition, as evidenced by the following: Thomson Reuters Legal Advisors M&A Review ranked us as #9 in US Targeted Completed transactions and #21 for Any US Public Involvement Completed transactions for Year End 2009; Bloomberg Q4 2009 Americas Legal Adviser League Tables ranked us as #12 for US Equity Offerings Issuer Advisers both by volume and deal count, #7 for US Equity Offerings Issuer Advisor (IPO) both by volume and by deal count, #7 for US Equity Linked Issuer Advisers both by volume and by deal count and #2 for Canadian Equity Offerings Issues Advisers by both volume and deal count; Private Equity Analyst ranked K&L Gates as the sixth “most active law firm” worldwide by number of deals for 2008; and American Lawyer’s 2009 Corporate Scorecard ranked us #4 for 2008 for REIT Equities, Issuers Counsel.

Our real estate practice provides an integrated portfolio of legal services around the world.  The real estate team delivers a streamlined approach to handling national, international and pan-European transactions. The firm has played a significant role in many large and complex real estate transactions. The real estate group has expansive transactional and advisory experience and also delivers strategic and practical advice on corporate and joint venture aspects of transactions, real estate investment and fund matters, the financing of transactions, tax structures, construction issues (contentious and non-contentious), sustainable development issues, planning and environmental issues and dispute resolution. The real estate finance group also has a widely acknowledged and excellent reputation for its advice to banks and borrowers on all aspects of lending and commercial real estate financing. 

Our litigation engagements ― including, among other substantive areas, insurance coverage, intellectual property, real estate, white-collar criminal, construction, professional liability, environmental, toxic tort, products liability, franchise, tax, bankruptcy and insolvency, antitrust and competition, employment, benefits, government contracts, constitutional and election law, and securities ― are among the largest and most attractive enjoyed by any law firm.  Our litigation practice includes international arbitrations, civil and criminal trials, class actions and appellate work.  We have been rated a leading practice in the representation of corporate policyholders in the insurance coverage area and as a leading litigation firm for the financial services sector, and our litigation engagements have helped to shape intellectual property law in the fast-moving technology sector.  Our acclaimed e-Discovery Analysis and Technology (“e-DAT”) group continues to pave the way nationally and internationally in the exploding field of e-discovery.

The firm’s financial services and regulatory and policy practices cut across the many disciplines that require highly specialized knowledge and experience to address governmental regulation.  We represent a large majority of the major financial institutions and securities firms in a variety of disciplines.  Our investment management practice is one of the largest and strongest in the world and has done work for most of the leading firms in the industry.  Likewise, our mortgage banking group is one of the leading practices in the field with a dominant position in many related specialties.  Our position in the financial services sector was acknowledged by the appointment of Washington, D.C. partner, Mike Missal, as Examiner in the high-profile New Century Financial bankruptcy proceeding.  The regulatory practice covers a wide variety of areas including healthcare, antitrust/competition, energy, telecommunications, environmental, securities enforcement, food and drug, education, government contracts, white collar and international trade.  Many of our practice leaders as well as more junior lawyers have governmental experience that enhances their ability to serve K&L Gates clients in regulatory fields, while others have held prominent positions in regulated industries.  At the same time, the Legal Times and National Law Journal ranked K&L Gates as among the United States' five most influential law firms in lobbying and government policy work in 2009.  This capability affords our clients the opportunity to shape regulatory and legislative initiatives affecting their businesses.

Our intellectual property practice is one of the strongest in the profession.   IP Law and Business describes our practice as “cutting edge” and ranks us as one of the “go-to-firms for the world’s most forward-thinking companies.”  With over 200 attorneys worldwide and over 100 USPTO registered professionals in our practice, we provide a broad range of technology expertise and practical experience.  Our experienced lawyers practice in chemistry, chemical engineering, materials science, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, software, physics, math, biology, pharmacology and immunology.  With this technological depth, we are one of the top filers of patent and trademark applications in the United States.  We also provide sophisticated counseling about and assistance with the acquisition and global management of patent, trademark and copyright portfolios.  Our intellectual property litigation teams have handled cases in 49 of the United States and the District of Columbia.  We have extensive experience in the leading U.S. IP venues, including the Federal Circuit, the International Trade Commission, the Eastern District of Texas, the District of Delaware, the Eastern District of Virginia, the Western District of Wisconsin, the Northern District of Illinois and the Central and the Northern District of California.  Moreover, we augment our litigation prowess with a sophisticated inter partes and ex partes practice in the USPTO.  We have won cases by jury verdict and by summary judgment where reasonable settlements were not achievable.  Our experience includes representing multiple clients against a common plaintiff as well as representing clients in multiple fora simultaneously against a common plaintiff. 

The firm continuously evaluates the direction of its practices and allocates resources so that its capabilities reach to the forefront of emerging disciplines.  In recent years the firm has recruited laterally in such disparate fields as antitrust/competition, public policy, capital markets, products liability, healthcare litigation, treaty and other international arbitration, intellectual property, project finance, derivatives and structured finance, international trade, real estate transactions and restructuring, investment management and hedge funds, corporate transactional, licensing, private equity, tax, environmental, construction litigation, securities enforcement, toxic tort litigation, benefits and share schemes, real estate finance, bankruptcy and restructuring, telecommunications, food and drug, FERC, healthcare and life sciences, and employment to address the evolving needs of our clientele.  We also strive to maintain a creative, interdisciplinary approach to the practice, as evidenced by the extraordinary convergence of disciplines that permitted our K&L Gates colleague, former US Attorney General Dick Thornburgh, to act as the court-appointed Examiner in the WorldCom bankruptcy proceeding — the largest bankruptcy in US history — and the firm itself to act as his counsel.

Our lawyers practice at the peak of our profession.  They serve as leaders of various professional organizations and render public service through pro bono representations and service to their communities.  Our Boston partner, Mike Greco, served as President of the American Bar Association in 2005-06, while our former Seattle partner, Bill Neukom, served as the 2007-08 President of the American Bar Association.  Our Dallas partner, Kim Askew, is the current chair of the ABA's Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, a position also held in the past by our Chicago partner Thomas Hayward, and in that capacity she recently testified before Congress on the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the US Supreme Court.  K&L Gates lawyers participate vigorously in the intellectual debate that is so fundamental to the advanced practice of law, routinely address professional colloquia, and author leading treatises and articles in their fields.

Our Approach to the Markets

We believe that a deep appreciation for our clients’ concerns, challenges and business objectives is the foundation for successful business development.  To that end, we have created a substantive and sophisticated brand and positioning platform that aligns our interests with those of our clients.  This brand communicates our unified commitment to providing the highest level of client service and quality legal counsel in all our offices, and is strengthened by continuous and active measures to support, enhance and bolster the valued relationships K&L Gates maintains with clients.  The BTI Consulting Group reinforced the firm’s commitment to clients by naming K&L Gates one of the top 30 law firms in client service in its 2010 Survey of Law Firm Client Service Performance, a study comparing more than 500 leading law firms which serve Fortune 1000 and other large clients.  The BTI Client Service 30 recognizes law firms who distinguish themselves as the absolute best for client service, and is based upon unprompted feedback from clients who identified, by name, the firm they view as the best in various client service activities.

We support our lawyers with an array of services aimed at increasing the value we provide our clients.   Our firm wide marketing and business development team, led by our Chief Marketing Officer, works with our practices and offices to develop and implement integrated programs and targeted activities, such as client feedback programs and internal client service teams that help ensure the retention of existing clients and enable the steady growth of new business.  The firm has employed innovative measures in the past such as periodic market research surveys of senior in-house counsel, and we constantly look for ways to provide useful and valuable resources to clients and prospective clients.  Marketing The Law Firm, a Law Journal Newsletter, has formally recognized our firm’s distinct marketing efforts, listing K&L Gates as the #4 law firm in its 2009 MLF 50, an annual ranking of leading law firms for marketing and communications.  The current MLF 50 ranking marks the second consecutive year that K&L Gates has been ranked among the top five law firms and the fifth consecutive year that K&L Gates has been included among the top 20 law firms. 

Our marketing team collaborates with our recruitment professionals to enhance our outreach to law students and lateral associate and partner candidates, with our Pro Bono Committee to facilitate continued growth of the firm’s efforts in that area, and with our Director of Diversity to assure outreach to a diverse professional population.   We also recognize that, as is the case with substantive legal skills, lawyers benefit from education and training in client development, and we offer opportunities for our lawyers to develop and enhance their skills in this vital area.  One notable result is the outstanding Client Development and Relationship Management curriculum for our partners and associates across the firm. 

Our Technological Advantage

With the guidance of its Chief Information Officer and professional support staff, K&L Gates invests in the use of technology to maintain a competitive advantage in the marketplace for legal services and to support the practice and business of law.   All K&L Gates offices are seamlessly linked together and utilize state-of-the-art technology which provides lawyers with a wide range of computer-based communications, practice support, and productivity tools — accessible not only from the office, but also while traveling and when working from home.  Web-based technologies are used for both client and internal collaboration, including client extranets that add value to the legal services provided by the firm.  K&L Gates continually evaluates emerging products and technology trends to improve and support our lawyers' practices and the firm's operations.

In 2009, K&L Gates received InformationWeek Magazine’s "InformationWeek 500 Top 250 Award." The InformationWeek 500 tracks the technology, strategies, investments, and administrative practices of industry-leading companies, and the award is based on an organization's ability to leverage technology to enhance business effectiveness.   K&L Gates was recognized for its achievements in client service innovation enabled by technology. 

K&L Gates has received CIO Magazine’s prestigious “CIO 100 Award” four times.   This annual list of 100 enterprises is composed largely of great global corporations that are recognized for extraordinary achievements in the field of technology.  K&L Gates was the first law firm in the world to receive three consecutive CIO 100 Awards. In 2007, K&L Gates received the CIO 100 Plus One Award, recognizing the firm’s outstanding business innovation achievements.

In 2005 and 2006, K&L Gates was recognized by the Legal IT Awards and Legal Technology Awards, two of the United Kingdom’s leading legal technology award programs, for achievement in process improvement and contributions to law firm success.   Additionally, in 2004, K&L Gates was awarded “Most Innovative Use of Technology” by American Lawyer Media’s Law Technology News. 

K&L Gates believes that effective technology utilization can add significant value and is committed to using it to enhance client service and the law firm’s business.

Our Ethic of Intergenerational Excellence

K&L Gates is strongly committed to our lawyers’ professional development.  K&L Gates’ firm wide Professional Development Department leads our efforts in this area. Partners throughout the firm, together with our professional development professionals, work to create an extensive range of both formal and informal professional development opportunities for lawyers in all of our offices.

The K&L Gates Legal Practice Institute offers firm wide curricula in our key practice areas: Corporate and Transactional, Litigation and Dispute Resolution, Intellectual Property, Financial Services, Real Estate and Policy and Regulatory.  Our partners, together with senior associates, compose our faculty and transmit firm values and culture as well as legal knowledge in our programs.  Through our live local programs and firm wide videoconferences, we showcase the talent, diversity, and experience of our lawyers across the globe.

We recognize that technical ability alone is not enough to equip our lawyers to thrive in today’s competitive legal marketplace.   Thus, in addition to substantive law and practice group-specific programming, the Institute also offers a curriculum in each of the following areas:  Client Development and Relationship Management; Practice Management; Writing and Research; Lawyering Skills; and Professionalism and Ethics.   Programs in these areas are taught primarily through hands-on or interactive workshops led by our partners, as well as nationally recognized consultants.  Both the substantive and skills curricula offer a range of developmentally appropriate programs for all of our lawyers: trainees, associates and partners.  A primary benefit of the Institute is the centralized ability to oversee implementation and to ensure globally that all of our offices benefit from and take advantage of the Institute’s offerings.  The full array of Legal Practice Institute Programs, with complete descriptions and listings by curriculum and seniority, is contained in the Institute's Catalog.  The Catalog is a powerful tool for our lawyers seeking to refine skills, develop experience or satisfy continuing legal education requirements in the jurisdictions where they practice.

Our commitment and investment in lawyer training are further evidenced by our broad definition of professional development.   Informal training takes place through a combination of mentoring and coaching, the associate review process, pro bono work, and participation in practice groups.  Our mentoring programs ensure that each junior and mid-level lawyer has a one-on-one mentoring relationship with a partner.  The programs focus on accelerating our lawyers’ learning processes by translating legal knowledge into effective legal practice in order to improve the delivery of services to our clients.  As part of our mentoring programs, associates have the opportunity to create an Associate Development Plan, a six-month plan for achieving certain targeted professional development goals.

The Associate Review Process also provides meaningful feedback and assistance in the professional development of our associates.   This process is intended to be a constructive, proactive mechanism through which future growth is reviewed and discussed.

Our Commitment to Diversity

We know that clients’ needs can best be met by a diverse workforce.   K&L Gates has implemented a number of programs to promote diversity, and we use every reasonable opportunity to articulate the business case as well as the moral case for diversity.  We believe that K&L Gates is an industry leader.  For example, in 2003, the firm appointed the profession’s first Chief Diversity Officer.  This unprecedented appointment was noted in Diversity & The Bar in an article entitled “Above the Cut: Law Firms Raise the Bar” that featured this unique position and announced that the firm was among the industry’s leaders.  Similarly, the firm’s appointment of the industry’s first Director of Professional and Personal Life Integration and the launching of its innovative Balanced Hours Initiative received acclaim throughout the profession.  In 2009 K&L Gates was named as one of the "Top 100 Law Firms For Diversity” in MultiCultural Law magazine.  K&L Gates was honored among the best law firms for women by Working Mother magazine and Flex-Time Lawyers LLC in their first-ever “2007 Best Law Firms for Women” list.  The firm is the sole sponsor of the annual Nabrit Lecture Series at Howard Law School, which typically features remarks by a US Supreme Court Justice. 

Minority, women, disabled, and GLBT lawyers have become increasingly engaged at K&L Gates.  They have taken on leadership roles that include service on the Management Committee and its Executive Committee and as Practice Group Coordinators.  K&L Gates lawyers also regularly participate in and lead traditional and minority bar organizations and non-profit community organizations focused on serving minority communities and enhancing opportunities for minority youth. We fund a number of fellowships for diverse law students from ABA-accredited law schools.  As a reflection of the progress the firm has made, K&L Gates ranked tenth out of 105 firms nationally in a recent Harvard Law School Women’s Law Association survey.

Establishing and maintaining a diverse and fully inclusive workforce is essential to a strong law firm.  At K&L Gates, we are committed to fostering diversity to enrich the experience of our lawyers, reflect the communities in which we live and work, and better serve our clients.  We encourage cooperation and teamwork and provide fair and ethical treatment of all employees regardless of race, color, gender, religion, age, national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, veteran status, or disability.

View K&L Gates' Diversity Newsletters

Our Engagement in Pro Bono and Public Service

We encourage our lawyers to provide pro bono legal representation and to participate in other charitable, community, educational and professional activities.  The firm believes that every attorney has the professional responsibility to provide such services and encourages its members to undertake work in areas that are meaningful to them.

K&L Gates typically handles hundreds of pro bono matters a year, including litigating civil rights cases; establishing and advising non-profit organizations; assisting nonprofit community organizations in transactions; and representing indigent persons in consumer, landlord-tenant, family law and immigration matters. We directly aid individuals with limited means and substantial legal needs, provide legal counsel to help organizations advance their community service programs, and regularly accept court appointments to provide pro bono counsel in both civil and criminal matters.

The firm delivers pro bono services through dozens of organizations and legal services programs, including the American Civil Liberties Union, Battersea Legal Advice Centre, Dependency CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate), Kids in Need of Defense, Legal Momentum, Neighborhood Legal Services Association, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, Partners for Water and Sanitation, Public Counsel, the San Francisco Lawyers Committee, Transitional Housing Corporation, Volunteer Advocates for Immigrant Justice, and Water Advocates.  Many K&L Gates lawyers also provide pro bono services through local legal clinics such as Legal Services for the Homeless, a clinic established by K&L Gates lawyers at a Seattle homeless shelter.

K&L Gates has underscored its institutional support of pro bono activities in several ways, including the creation of a firm wide Pro Bono Committee chaired by a member of the firm’s Management Committee.  The Committee coordinates the firm’s pro bono programs in collaboration with Pro Bono Coordinators in each K&L Gates office, assesses the effectiveness of the firm’s pro bono efforts and provides leadership to ensure fulfillment of our professional obligations as lawyers.  K&L Gates is also a signatory to the Pro Bono Institute’s Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge, an aspirational pro bono standard for large law firms.  The firm and its lawyers have provided leadership in articulating both the ethical principles and the business case for pro bono and in exploring the synergy between pro bono and diversity.

Beyond pro bono legal representation, our lawyers and staff perform varied public service work in the communities where they live and work.  This includes serving as members of governing bodies of educational institutions, youth sports and arts organizations, environmental concerns, and health care and research institutions, as well as many social service and community organizations.  Additionally, many of our lawyers and staff provide community service through an array of teaching, mentoring and other non-legal programs.

As a result of this leadership and pro bono commitment, the firm, several of its offices, and many of its lawyers have received awards for their pro bono and public service contributions.

View K&L Gates Pro Bono publications

Our Governance

The firm is governed by a Management Committee composed of the Chairman and Global Managing Partner; the Global Development Partner; the Global Integration Partner; the Managing Partner, Asia; the Managing Partner, Europe; Practice Area Leaders ("PALs") for the Corporate and Transactional, Financial Services, Intellectual Property, Litigation and Dispute Resolution, Real Estate, and Policy and Regulatory fields; and Administrative Partners from each of its offices.  The Committee has assigned ten of its members to serve on the Executive Committee, which advises the Management Committee on issues relating to strategic positioning and integration.  The firm also maintains over 30 practice groups, each of which is served by one or more Coordinators who report to the PALs on the management of the practice.

The firm's professional management includes Chief Officers in Finance, Operations, Information, Marketing, and Recruitment and Development and a variety of directors and other senior managers responsible for core business functions in a complex professional services organization.  This central management is complemented by Directors of Administration in each of our offices and office support staff.