Kilpatrick Pushes Past $1M in Profit Per Partner
The firm expanded its Texas territory with a new office in Houston last year after launching one in Dallas in 2015.
March 19, 2018 at 02:42 PM
4 minute read
Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton had a solid year in 2017 that ended with a big jump in profit.
Revenue increased by 1.8 percent to $424 million, and net income increased by 6 percent to $111 million, which pushed up profit per partner (PPP) over the $1 million mark to $1,011,000—a 10.3 percent increase. That followed a dip in PPP in 2016, when the firm added equity partners.
The firm's head count was flat last year, with 574 lawyers and a slight decrease in equity partners from 114 to 110.
“We're happy with how the year turned out,” said Kilpatrick's chairman, Henry Walker IV. “We're optimistic about 2018. It's still a very competitive market, and we think we're well-positioned.”
“It was a good financial year, but our firm is about more than just financial performance,” Walker added. “We are working hard to be a great place to work. I think we have a very collegial atmosphere and a group of people who like each other. That's an important part of a partnership.”
Kilpatrick expanded its presence in Texas by opening a Houston office in October with a team of 13 construction lawyers from Houston's Coats Rose, led by partners Patrick Gaas and Daniel Shank. The firm in March added bankruptcy and restructuring partner Lenard Parkins from Greenberg Traurig to expand that practice to Houston. That followed its launch of a Dallas office in 2015 by acquiring local firm Crouch & Ramey.
Walker said Kilpatrick has a number of significant clients with work in Texas, including Halliburton Co., Turner Industries Group, AT&T Corp., Oracle Corp. and Celanese Corp.
Kilpatrick has no immediate plans to add more locations, Walker said. “We're happy with our current footprint, particularly with the growth in Dallas and Houston,” he said. “The economy is strong in every city where we have an office.”
The focus instead is on growth in existing offices, he added. “We did want to be in Dallas and Houston, but our footprint is covered otherwise.”
The Work
Kilpatrick saw “strong growth from some of our most significant clients,” Walker said, with 78 clients booking more than $1 million in fees.
The corporate practice handled deals and finance work for AT&T, Delta Air Lines, Aaron's and Oldcastle, a global building materials company, he said.
The intellectual property practice, which includes the largest trademark practice in the country, handled work for Facebook, Adidas, Energizer, GoPro and Zodiac, Walker said, adding that Kilpatrick is managing the global trademark strategy for Facebook and several of its brands, such as Instagram.
“Our practices are increasingly focused on tech industries, with tech-related intellectual property, litigation and corporate work,” Walker said.
The firm handled quite a few high-profile IP litigation matters last year, including a patent infringement action against Broadcom and a patent infringement action on behalf of zipper-maker YKK against Velcro over hook-and-loop fasteners. YKK's patent suit culminated in a weeklong jury trial in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia—the first patent jury verdict in Georgia in at least a decade. The jury found for Velcro, but YKK is not giving up.
On the compliance front, the head of Kilpatrick's government investigations team, Scott Marrah, was also named to the legal team monitoring the consent decree stemming from Volkswagen AG's emissions scandal.
Kilpatrick lawyers and staff continued to stay active in pro bono matters last year, especially in representing immigrants facing imprisonment and deportation by the Trump administration. Several of the firm's lawyers are participating in the Southern Poverty Law Center's ambitious effort, dubbed the Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative, to provide representation for every detained immigrant in the region, starting with Stewart Detention Center in Middle Georgia.
The firm also is representing pro bono a group of Somali refugees from Minnesota, whom ICE is currently holding in South Florida after a botched deportation attempt in December in which ICE allegedly kept the Somalis bound and shackled on an airplane for nearly two days.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllGeorgia High Court Clarifies Time Limit for Lawyers' Breach-of-Contract Claims
6 minute readSoutheast Firm Leaders Predict Stability, Growth in Second Trump Administration
4 minute readKing & Spalding Adds Veteran Antitrust Litigator From White & Case in New York
3 minute readTrending Stories
- 1Against the Odds: Voters Elect Woody Clermont to the Broward Judicial Bench
- 2US Supreme Court Justices Pass on Landlord Challenge to NY Rent Stabilization
- 3Trump's Lawyers Speak Out: 'The President Had the Confidence to Retain Me'
- 4Who Should Pay? Insurer Wants No Part of $30M Sexual Abuse Settlement
- 5Passenger Sues Frontier Airlines for Burns Sustained From In-Flight Beverage
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250