Founded in 2009, the Kirkland & Ellis Corporate Lab (the “Lab”) provides students with “real-world” experience and context to prepare them to become well-rounded attorneys with sound knowledge and judgment.
Lab students undertake a wide variety of assignments from the legal and business teams of significant publicly traded and privately held corporations, many of which are household names. Through this work and through classroom instruction, students in the Lab acquire the necessary legal and interpersonal skills and knowledge to excel in their future legal practice.
During the 2023-2024 academic year, Lab students successfully completed in excess of 100 projects for more than thirty largely publicly traded companies across a wide range of legal disciplines—e.g., contract drafting and corporate transactions, labor and employment, intellectual property and copyright, artificial intelligence, litigation risk assessment, and legal research. Specific examples include the following:
Contract Drafting and Corporate Transactions
- Drafting of template agreements on behalf of a global consulting firm;
- Revision of standard license agreements to address AI concerns for multinational software development company;
- Preparation of a cease-and-desist letter for a sports agency;
- Preparation of risk factor section of 10-K for a global specialty retailer’s 10-K;
- Detailed analysis of master terms and conditions for a national retailer, and resulting revision of same;
- Preparation of data and retention policy for an investment advisory firm;
- Preparation of code of conduct and code of ethics for financial services firm re compliance with recent Canadian labor legislation;
- Presentation to leadership team of global consulting firm re the European Union’s Whistleblower Directive;
- Board presentation to a multinational computer and information technology company addressing the European Union’s Digital Operational Resilience Act;
- Presentation to the Board of a national logistics company addressing director duties; and
- Presentation to an international specialty retailer addressing the legal consequences of implementing session replay technology and detailing modifications to privacy policy and popup banners to ensure compliance.
Labor and Employment
- Preparation of employment agreements and stock option and stock grant terms for multiple Booth New Venture clients;
- Revision of employee manual for global telecom company; and
- Presentation to the legal department of a national logistics company detailing OSHA violations and factors informing calculation of fines.
Intellectual Property and Copyright
- Memorandum assessing the current and potential future states of IP protection afforded to AI-generated work product;
- Guidance memoranda to several startup companies on the difference between copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets, and which categories of protectability their IP portfolios fall under; and
- FAQ and quick reference guide on the NCAA’s name, image and likeness rules for a sports agency to distribute to its clients.
Litigation Risk Assessment
- Review of commercial contracts and related communications for multiple publicly traded companies to address likely litigation success.
Artificial Intelligence
- Preparation of draft generative AI legal terms for subsidiary of a global consulting firm; and
- Presentation to the legal department of a global telecom company re ethical issues in popular, open-source datasets used for training AI models.
Legal Research
- Research memorandum for a multinational computer and information technology company exploring copyright of algorithm terms;
- Research memorandum for knowledge management team of global law firm re “assignment by operation of law” provision in reverse triangular mergers across multiple states;
- Research memorandum for a global consulting firm addressing the enforceability of contingent fee agreements under laws of various states;
- Research memorandum for a multinational food company re compliance with food and drug laws in the United States and the European Union;
- Memorandum to a multinational IT services provider discussing key contract terms related to generative AI;
- Memorandum to a multinational financial services provider researching data and document retention, which resulted in a drafted outline of corporate policy;
- Research memorandum to global telecom company re SEC swap rules Memorandum to a global leader in business and financial information comparing SEC swap rules;
- Research memorandum for a national sporting goods retailer regarding compliance with ESG regulations;
- Research memorandum for a global footwear and apparel retailer re compliance with the Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement;
- Research memorandum for medical device company re compliance with advertising regulations in the United States, United Kingdom, and Spain;
- Memoranda to multiple clients discussing data privacy laws in the European Union, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America;
- Memorandum to a multinational technology corporation addressing current and proposed legislation in the United States and multiple foreign jurisdictions re launch and disposal of satellites;
- Research memorandum for multinational healthcare and consumer goods manufacturer assessing the risk of omni-channel distribution of professional products that reach consumers;
- Research memorandum for a global professional services company exploring the implications of the Regional Internet Registries’ promulgated guidelines on IP addresses; and
- Research memorandum for an energy infrastructure startup exploring the regulatory landscape of Texas’s energy regulation.
Included in the Lab’s client roster are the following:
- 3M
- Academy Sports + Outdoors
- Accenture
- A.T. Kearney
- Barilla
- Base Power Company
- Bloomberg
- Brunswick
- Curia
- IBM
- Jones Lang LaSalle
- Kirkland & Ellis
- Koch Industries
- Kraft Heinz
- Kyndryl
- Meijer
- The Motley Fool
- Nike
- NSi Insurance Group
- Owens Corning
- Schneider National
- Solventum
- Sony
- Tetris
- Ulta Beauty
- Unison Risk Advisors
- Vayner Sports
- Verizon
- Victoria’s Secret
- WEC Energy Group
The Lab also worked with more than twenty entrepreneurs on an individual basis and through an ongoing collaboration with the Booth School’s New Venture Challenge and Social New Venture Challenge. Specific assignments included the following:
- Instruction to Booth students on options for entity formation, stock grants and options, and required organizational documents; and
- Preparation of employment agreements, non-disclosure agreements, founders’ agreements, and other documents for launching a startup business.
Beyond the essential clinic training, the Lab hosts an ongoing speaker series throughout the year that brings to campus experienced practitioners, business leaders, and other esteemed guests to discuss topical business and legal issues, substantive areas of law, and other topics of interest to the speakers and students. Recent speakers have included senior executives from Amazon, Coinbase, Google, IBM, the Illinois Gaming Board, Meijer Microsoft, Victoria’s Secret, WTW and partners from Kirkland & Ellis, Cleary Gottlieb, Dechert, Morgan Lewis, and Sidley.
Other enrichment activities include our cross-border negotiation training exercises with the law schools of Tel Aviv University and Reichman University.
