Cooley raids Kirkland, and partner pay tops $40M

Cooley pulled a two-partner infrastructure and energy team out of Kirkland in New York. Teams do not leave Kirkland every day.

The bigger story is comp. Top partner pay has now passed forty million dollars, and firms are growing their bonus pools while sharing less about how pay actually gets set. Add a couple of firm lawsuits (Pillsbury facing a 145 million dollar fraud claim, Vinson & Elkins sued over a Texas real estate deal) and an NLJ 500 showing head count growth slowing again, and you get a market that is paying more at the top and explaining less.