Senior personnel from Kirkland, including chair Jon Ballis, played a key role in engaging as many firms from the EEOC letter probe as possible in order to achieve a “critical mass” of firms that would be able to placate the White House with a deal, multiple sources said.
The world’s highest-grossing law firm approached both Latham & Watkins and Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett as tentpoles for the group action, sources added. A&O Shearman was asked to join the grouping later in the process, sources said, and was less of a driver in getting a deal cut as well as recruiting other firms, even though the firm signed on.