Indeed, Herbert Hoover was president when trolley cars rattled past the law firm's un-air-conditioned offices in the old National Press Building, where Louis G. Caldwell, first general counsel of the Federal Radio Commission, the predecessor to the FCC, joined the firm and set up shop.
Then in 1938, Hammond Chaffetz, recruited by Supreme Court Associate Justice Felix Frankfurter to Franklin D. Roosevelt's Justice Department, signed up with Kirkland.
Now, three-quarters of a century later, the firm has moved one block to Metropolitan Square, with a priceless view of the White House and a roster of 150 lawyers. Many today still do stints in top-level administration jobs, both Democrat and Republican (the current crop includes U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement and Jeff Rosen, general counsel of the Department of Transportation.)
Perhaps the best-known alumnus, Kenneth W. Starr, is dean of Pepperdine University Law School.
"We think Caldwell and Chaffetz would be happy to see what we've built here in terms of a tradition of excellence," says Thomas Yannucci, chairman of Kirkland & Ellis' firm-wide management committee.
KATRINA'S FELLOWS
Described as "a legal Peace Corps," the law firm Skadden Arps has just selected 29 Skadden Fellows for its class of 2006, several of whom will head south to assist people displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Each fellow in the two-year program will receive a salary through the Skadden Fellowship Foundation and work full time for legal and advocacy organizations. The average fellow, according to the firm, is a graduating law student who wishes to provide legal services to the poor and disabled, as well as those deprived of civil and human rights.
Robert C. Sheehan, executive partner of Skadden Arps, finds it worth noting that "90 percent of past fellows have remained in the nonprofit field and continue their commitment to the fellowship program's mission."
The new class brings to 473 the number of law school graduates and judicial clerks the firm has funded as fellows since 1988.