Perhaps best known as the most “cutthroat firm in London”, US titan Kirkland & Ellis needs little introduction. Kirkland & Ellis is the largest law firm in the world by revenue, the seventh-largest by the number of lawyers, and is the first law firm in the world to reach US$4 billion in revenue. With this cutthroat reputation comes an insane level of pay, for equally insane hours; UK publication, Legal Cheek, estimates that the average junior at Kirkland’s London office has clocked off at 11:30 pm over the past year! Including these long days, weekend work has been known to be a common occurrence at Kirkland & Ellis.

These comments may cause some to question why working at Kirkland is seen as such an attractive prospect. Equal to its cutthroat image, Kirkland has truly built a reputation as one of the leading corporate firms in the world, with several accolades given to the firm. For example, The American Lawyer ranked Kirkland & Ellis as the 2018 Law Firm of the Year. “Mergers & Acquisitions” ranked Kirkland & Ellis as the 2019 Law Firm of the Year for advising on 400 U.S. based-deals (more than twice that of the firm ranked second), and for advising on the largest number of global deals, in each case, in 2019. Given this reputation, the firm typically attracts those who are “self-starters”, looking for an environment where responsibility is gifted early. Along with this, Kirkland tends to appoint lawyers as non-equity partners once they reach 6 years post-qualification.

Facts about the firm:

• The largest firm in the world by revenue, Kirkland took in $4.83 billion (£3.5 billion) in its 2021 financial results. Perhaps the “eat what you kill” style truly leads to gargantuan revenues like this.
• Profit per equity partner is no less gaudy, standing at a casual $6.2 million (£4.5 million). Generational wealth is on offer for those with the incredible stamina to make it to the top at Kirkland & Ellis. Furthermore, the firm is known to be a “genuine meritocracy”, with high-performing associates gaining recognition quickly- though this may lead to even worse hours.
• This profit per equity partner is not burdened by the firm’s global network, which involves 17 offices in 6 countries.
• Kirkland offers a mere 10 training contracts per year, though this is broadly in line with its fellow US competitors in London. The firm generally receives over 500 direct training contract applications, on top of the hundreds it gets for vacation schemes.
• The firm has been keen to push gender equality to the forefront, with its shining women’s leadership programme.
• Much like other US firms, deal teams are incredibly lean, and training is of the “hands-on” variety. This is typically seen as preferable by the types that are attracted to Kirkland.

Key practice areas:

If you’re interested in a traineeship with Kirkland, please be aware that their London office does not provide the same breadth of work that UK based firms typically offer. Though for those interested in the sort of work Kirkland specialises in, this is no bad thing. M&A, Private Equity, Restructuring, and Litigation make up the bulk of the firm’s work. If this is of interest, please check out my guides on these practice areas.

Notable recent deals/cases:

• Kirkland & Ellis advised World Quantum Growth Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in connection with its $200 million IPO.
• Kirkland & Ellis advised Fox Corporation on their joint venture with chef, restaurateur, and presenter Gordon Ramsay to jointly form STUDIO RAMSAY GLOBAL, a new production entity co-owned between the two that will develop, produce, and distribute culinary and lifestyle programming worldwide. As part of the deal, Fox Corporation will acquire 100% of Ramsay’s existing production business.
• Kirkland is advising Hudson Pacific Properties on Plans for New World-Class Film and TV Studios in the UK.
• Kirkland & Ellis advised Ares Management Corporation (“Ares”) on the investment, alongside Public Investment Fund (“PIF”), of £400 million in McLaren Group Limited in the form of Preference Shares and Equity Warrants.
• Kirkland & Ellis represented Acadia Healthcare Company, Inc. (NASDAQ: ACHC) on a definitive agreement for the sale of its UK operations to Waterland Private Equity for a purchase price of approximately £1.08 billion.

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It has been coming down Unicorns in India in the course of the most recent few months, with three seriously joining the club somewhat recently, detailed YourStory.

Computer-based intelligence-based deals startup Mindtickle turned into India’s most recent unicorn after it raised $100 million drove by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 yesterday, multiplying its valuation to $1.2 billion, per The Economic Times.

Recently, Bharat (valuation of $2.85 billion) and Gurugram-based B2B startup OfBusiness (valuation $. 15 billion) additionally went unicorn, adds Forbes.

Social trade startup Meesho, banking tech stage Zeta and business-to-business trade firm OfBusiness are different new companies that the Japanese tech-centred financial backer has driven into the unicorn club this year.

Mindtickle is additionally the eighth Indian SaaS startup to enter the unicorn club. A huge leap in valuation for Mindtickle. The organization was esteemed at $500 million in November last year when it raised around $100 million, again drove by Soft Bank. The organization, which at the first overhauled average size and huge undertakings in the tech area, has customers across enterprises like monetary administrations, pharma, clinical gadgets, and oil and gas. Around 2,000 organizations utilize its administrations, including MongoDB, Nutanix, Cloudera, and Merck and Co.

Up until now, 2021 has seen 20 Unicorns from India, including Digit Insurance, Innovaccer, Five Star Business Finance, Infra. Market, Meesho, CRED, Gupshup, API Holdings, Groww, ShareChat, Chargebee, Zeta, Urban Company, Moglix, BrowserStack, BlackBuck, Droom, OfBusiness, BharatPe, and Mindtickle, per MoneyControl.

In correlation in 2020, India saw the introduction of only 11 Unicorns, including Pinelabs, FIrstCry, Nykaa, Postman, Zerodha, Unacademy, Razorpay, Cars24, Zenoti, Dailyhunt, and Glance.

Mindtickle said in articulation that business enablement advancements are assessed to develop to $4.23 billion by 2027, and the discussion knowledge market will reach $13 billion by 2025.

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Both Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia, Branson’s airlines are struggling, especially when flights around the world were grounded. Though the use of flights has slightly picked up over recent months, Virgin and other companies are not making nearly as much profit as they once were and have been unable to recover the losses faced since March 2020. Also, Virgin was planning on a cruise line making its maiden voyage in the Spring of 2020, which was inevitably delayed. In a similar fashion to most of the world’s hotels, Virgin’s chain of boutique hotels has had to reduce intake and shut down a few open hotels.

Consequently, the company needs funding. Virgin is putting a lot into their space tourism ventures at Virgin Galactic and is selling up to 25 million shares to raise capital for Virgin Group’s global leisure, holiday and travel businesses.

Virgin Atlantic Airways

During the Pandemic, both of Branson’s airlines, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia, have filed for bankruptcy. This came as a wake-up call to many, if an empire like Virgin can suffer so deeply, how are the rest of us supposed to survive? The long-standing effects of the Pandemic are a whole other issue to discuss.
In 2020 Virgin Atlantic attempted to obtain a £1.2 billion rescue plan (equivalent to $1.6 billion) filing for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in New York. Filing under Chapter 15 allows foreign companies to go through US bankruptcy courts to acknowledge their company’s restructuring efforts that are taking place outside of the US. This also recognises that though the company is liquidating operations, it is not yet going out of business.

However, on the other hand, Virgin Atlantic stated in a London court that the company would run out of cash if the rescue plan is not approved. To save the company, Virgin Atlantic is trying to renegotiate leases on its planes and on loans it has taken out but cannot repay. In their favour, Virgin Atlantic has an asset management firm that has agreed to loan them £170 million, once stakeholders approve of the five-year agreement, the loan will save Virgin Atlantic from immediate financial forfeiture. In a court statement, Virgin Atlantic has alluded to the fact that shareholders will contribute to the remainder of the rescue plan while £200 million will come from the larger Virgin Group, cost savings, and private investors.

Virgin Active

Virgin Active is another company under the Virgin Group and has 243 health clubs globally at the end of 2019, with more than half in southern Africa and others in Italy, Australia, UK, Singapore, and Thailand. The company has attempted to mitigate Pandemic-caused losses in several ways, for instance, senior staff took a 20% pay cut during closures. However, they still took an additional loan of £25 million in June 2020, which was then matched by shareholders and further bettered by deferrals of licence fees. Even still, according to industry insiders, Virgin Active is looking to raise millions in cash through the sale of equity to stay in business.

It isn’t over yet…
The ongoing Pandemic has had a massive adverse impact on all companies, especially in industries that have been direly suppressed, such as tourism, travel, leisure. Virgin Group and its companies have attempted to manage their liquidity in light of unforeseen, unprecedented conditions in terms of both finances and operation. However, the Pandemic is still raging strong as ever, the Virgin travel and leisure empire will continue to face setbacks, as many others will. Virgin Atlantic’s rescue deal can be considered a huge effort in securing private sector funding and may also set as a ‘precedent’ of sorts for other similar companies who fear falling into bankruptcy. The road ahead is long and uncertain, it is unpredictable and can change every day, it is important for Virgin Group to remain vigilant, to read data, and continue in efforts within the conglomerate that would further mitigate losses. It is unlikely a loan will be granted, Branson’s empire must be prepared for this.

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The deal was signed in July 2015. Iran agreed in the deal not to produce highly enriched uranium, remove two-thirds of the centrifuges, not to use its advanced centrifuges, give up 98pc of its existing enriched uranium stockpile (for 15 years), modify the Arak heavy water reactor to block the production of weapons-grade plutonium and not build other heavy water reactors for 15 years, to put its entire nuclear fuel cycle under full-time IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) inspections, provide managed access to ‘suspicious’ locations, and as required to clarify past nuclear activities.  

Why it was signed?

The Nuclear deal Between Iran and P5+1 was signed because the Permanent members of the United Nations Security Council were suspicious that Iran was planning to build a nuclear weapon.

The relationship between Iran and the US was tumultuous with the 1979 Iranian revolution and storming of the US Embassy by revolutionaries. The prospect of conflict heightened in 1988 when the USS Vincennes shot down an Iranian passenger plane, killing 290. “In his 2002 State of the Union address George W Bush lumped Iran in with North Korea and Iraq as part of the “axis of evil” and he later heightened tensions further by increasing naval deployments to the Gulf. For more than a decade, Israel, with its own undeclared nuclear arsenal, had regularly warned that it was prepared to mount a pre-emptive air attack on Iranian nuclear facilities” (The Guardian) 

Tension rose again in 2002, the genesis of the present crisis, when the Iranians were found to be concealing the truth about their nuclear program, with the discovery of two previously undisclosed facilities at Natanz and Arak, giving rise to the fears that Iran wanted a nuclear weapon.

Therefore economic sanctions were imposed on Iran’s banking and financial sectors that blocked its ability to get paid for oil sales. According to sources, by 2013, Iran had enough enriched uranium for 8 nuclear weapons. But the sanctions did hurt Iran. Iran’s economy suffered and hence Iran agreed to negotiate secretly. Afterwards, the deal was signed in July 2015 between Iran and P5+1. 

The role of the US in the deal and why did it withdrew from it lately

The United States of America had an integral role in the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) between Iran and the P5+1. The US imposed a weapons embargo on Iran and also urged the United Nations Security Council to transcend economic sanctions against Iran. It was the economic sanctions and the slowdown of the Iranian economy that endorsed Iran to start secret negotiations for the Nuclear Deal. In November 2013 Iran and P5+1 announced a deal that froze Iran’s nuclear program, in exchange for no new economic sanctions by the major power. 

Everything was going smoothly and according to the plan until the US opted itself out of the deal in May 2018. The US withdrawal from the Iran Nuclear deal destabilizes the balance of power in the gulf region. The US, along with withdrawal, also re-imposed economic sanctions on the Iranian economy. Iran, in response to economic sanctions, announced that it will enrich uranium at more than five times the rate permitted under the Nuclear deal. The US withdrew from the Iran Nuclear Deal due to mounting pressure from the European allies. 

The US plan to re-join the Nuclear deal and its impact on Middle-East

The US has recently shown intentions to re-join the Nuclear Deal with the change in administration. Joe Biden, the incumbent President of the US, has made his intentions clear to re-join the JCPOA. The President of the US has asked his Secretary of State Blinken to build a dedicated team to restart negotiations with Iran. The Biden administration has planned to appoint Robert Malley as the special envoy on Iran. Robert Malley was part of the team that initially signed the JCPOA with Iran. 

The USA’s rejoining of the Nuclear deal could distort the peace in the Middle Eastern region. Israel and Saudi Arabia, the two close allies of the US, do not want the US to rejoin the deal. Both of them want to impose more pressure and even want to fight a war with Iran. But, with nuclear proliferation in the Middle Eastern region, the balance of power could be disturbed.

In a crux, the US should rejoin the Iran Nuclear Deal and keep a check on the uranium enrichment activities of Iran. Iran must not enrich uranium over 3.67 per cent needed for civil purposes.  

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