The California legal market was well-represented at the first American Lawyer Industry Awards Wednesday night in New York as Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe; Keker, Van Nest & Peters; Covington & Burling and Apple associate general counsel Jim Fowler all brought home hardware.

Orrick was recognized with the Legal Services Innovation Award for making innovation an important part of its approach from top to bottom. Through Orrick Labs, the firm is working to help develop the legal technology it can't find in the market, ensuring that it can stay ahead of the curve, even as the industry continues to change.

Apple's Fowler was named the Best Mentor among in-house legal departments. Ask the people who've worked with him over the years and they'll tell you he leads by example. His work ethic is enough to leave an impression on those coming up behind him, but he goes above and beyond by devoting time and energy to improving the careers of his colleagues, even when they move on to different workplaces. As one former colleague said, he's “never too busy to answer a question and always had an open-door policy.”

Keker was named the National Boutique/Specialty Litigation Department of the year. The firm may be considerably smaller than most of the firms it goes up against, but it gets big results. Those results include defending Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong in a $100 million False Claims Act case that settled for a small fraction of that sum; winning a nationwide injunction against President Trump's attempt to defund sanctuary jurisdictions; and obtaining a settlement on behalf of Lyft that allows its drivers to remain classified as independent contractors.

Covington was named the California Regional Litigation Department of the Year. After a former engineer at Uber published allegations of sexual harassment during her time with the company, Uber turned to Covington and partner Eric Holder to conduct the ensuing investigation. Uber's board unanimously approved the firm's recommendations. And when the Department of Justice tried to link federal funding to a jurisdiction's willingness to cooperate with ICE on immigration matters, the firms' lawyers secured a national injunction in the Central District of California. In a powerful opinion, the firm succeeded on each argument it put forward on behalf of the city of Los Angeles.

Kirkland & Ellis took home the night's top award for Best Law Firm of the Year, surpassing a group of competitors comprised of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton; Cooley; Cravath, Swaine & Moore; Davis Polk & Wardwell; Hogan Lovells; and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.

An incredible 19 percent leap in revenue in 2017 helped Kirkland pass the $3 billion mark and overtake Latham & Watkins as the biggest law firm in the world, but that was just one facet of a remarkable run. The firm delivered more than 126,000 hours of pro bono work, including its representation of transgender members of the military in striking down President Donald Trump's ban on their service, and its work helping overturn Maryland's segregated higher-education system.

A list of the rest of the night's winners can be found on The American Lawyer's website.