Kirkland & Ellis acquires Bancroft, home to famed Supreme Court advocate Paul Clement
Kirkland & Ellis have acquired Bancroft, the litigation boutique founded by Viet Dinh, a Bush Administration official who helped create the Patriot Act, and home to well-respected U.S. Supreme Court advocate Paul Clement.
According to a Monday press release, Clement, Dinh and all fifteen of Bancroft’s other attorneys will join Kirkland & Ellis. Kirkland emphasized that Clement, who has argued over 80 cases before the Supreme Court, will join by Oct. 1—just in time for the start of the high court’s fall term.
“Paul Clement is one of the most well-regarded Supreme Court lawyers in the country, and the team he and Viet have assembled at Bancroft is truly remarkable,” said Jeffrey Hammes, chair of Kirkland’s Global Management Executive Committee, in the press release. “They join our premier litigation practice, which includes more than 435 lawyers around the world. Their skills and experience and Kirkland’s global platform will be a very powerful combination for clients. We are thrilled to welcome them to Kirkland.” Mark Filip, a litigation partner and member of the Global Management Executive Committee added: “I’ve known Paul and Viet for over 25 years, and it’s no surprise how successful and respected they are. We welcome them and their talented team to Kirkland. They make us even stronger in our ability to assist clients throughout all phases of enterprise-level challenges and opportunities, from pre-litigation counseling to the U.S. Supreme Court.”
According to Bloomberg Law, the deal came together after law school friends Clement and Filip spoke over the phone approximately two weeks ago. “This came together pretty quickly because I think once the idea was floated and the various practical aspects, in terms of conflicts and the like, were sorted out, it came together pretty quickly,” Clement told Bloomberg. Clement also confirmed that this is a mass-lateral hire and not a merger of firms and said that Bancroft would wind down operations.
Meanwhile, Dinh declined to comment to Bloomberg about financial compensation, except to say that “everybody wins here” and that “it wouldn’t make sense for either Bancroft or Kirkland unless it was a mutually beneficial combination.” In a statement to the ABA Journal, Dinh said that Kirkland was a natural fit for Bancroft and that, “despite the different sizes, Bancroft and Kirkland both focus on just doing great work and winning big cases for our clients,” Dinh did not comment when asked about whether or not Clement and other Bancroft lawyers would be allowed to continue taking on politically-controversial representations or whether they would have to be approved by the firm.
Indeed, Clement has become one of the go-to lawyers for conservative causes, having argued several high-profile cases before the Supreme Court as both Solicitor General during the George W. Bush administration and as a private litigator. In the last few years, alone, he has argued against the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius), as well as in favor of the constitutionality of both the Defense of Marriage Act (U.S. v. Windsor) and Arizona’s controversial SB 1070 immigration law (Arizona v. United States). He also has an all-star client list that includes the NFL, the NBA, and the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Perhaps most famously, Bancroft served as Clement’s landing spot after he <a http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/king_spalding_drops_doma_matter_clement_resigns_from_firm/”>left King & Spalding in 2011 under acrimonious circumstances relating to his decision to defend the Defense of Marriage Act. Following a severe backlash over its decision to take on the case, King & Spalding withdrew from its representation of the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group of the House of Representatives—the group defending the constitutionality of DOMA. Clement immediately resigned from the firm in protest and joined Bancroft, which was founded by Dinh in 2003.
In addition to Clement’s work, Bancroft advises on risk management, corporate governance and compliance. As the press release pointed out, the firm boasted “120 U.S. Supreme Court arguments, nine Supreme Court clerkships, 17 courts of appeals clerkships, and five presidential appointments.”
