Partner, Kirkland & Ellis LLP New York, NY
EUNU CHUN
Years Practicing:
20 Area of Practice: Private Equity
“We’re not a lockstep compensa- tion fi rm,” says Eunu Chun. “You can make a good living without bringing in a lot of business, but if you want to achieve an off -market level of personal income you can make more if you bring in more. I’ve lost more pitches than you can imagine, but if you get a fi ve to ten percent yield rate you’re doing great.” When Chun joined Kirkland as the global fi rm’s
fi rst-ever direct-from-law-school associate, he was very conscious that he was a guy from a non-establishment background going into an establishment place, so he spent a lot of time watching and learning. “Looking back, those years are a blur. I was working way too hard. Eventually, I fi gured out how to get ahead and found my voice. “Private equity is run by young people, and early on I
had the opportunity to play the principal role in transac- tion and was working directly with clients. Soon I had my fi rst client. Once tagged as a billing partner I could go out and get more work. Within a few years I was doing all my own work.” Today he represents a handful of private equity funds in leverage buyout transactions. T e son of Korean immigrants, Chun grew up in
Chicago’s predominantly white northern suburbs where he excelled academically, but always felt a little out of place. During his undergraduate experience at Harvard, and even more so at Columbia Law School, he says, the world really opened up. “In diverse New York City, my confi - dence soared. People’s fi rst impression of me was no longer driven by my ethnicity which had been the case in high school. T e shackles were off , and I realized that I could achieve bigger success than I’d previously imagined.”
DAVID LONG-DANIELS
Shareholder, Greenberg Traurig, LLP Atlanta, GA
Years Practicing:
As labor and employment department head for Greenberg Traurig’s Atlanta offi ce, David Long-Daniels, who has taught labor and employment as an adjunct law professor at both the University of Alabama School of Law and the Walter F. George School of Law at Mercer University, is responsible for keeping lawyers busy. “It’s easy to get overwhelmed with a nationwide practice, but you can’t allow it to keep you from devoting some time to business development every single day.” Long-Daniels’ fi rst brush with rainmaking took place
20 Area of Practice: Labor and Employment
when he was just a three-month lawyer at his fi rst fi rm. While attending a routine seminar he connected with a contact from a large pharmaceutical company that became his fi rst client and resulted in several hundred thousands dollars of business. “Granted, I wasn’t your typical 24-year- old fresh out of law school. I’d been a military offi cer and went to law school a little late, so at 30 I appeared more seasoned than I was. Still, I got the case and we won it.” As a student athlete in a small Alabama town, Long-Daniels
was aff ected after a teammate was wrongly arrested and jailed for a hit-and-run. Eventually his friend’s name was cleared, but the experience stayed with him. From that moment forward, Long-Daniels’ goal was to one day become a trial lawyer. Before graduating cum laude from Mercer University’s
Walter F. George School of Law, he attended college on an ROTC scholarship and served in the U.S. Air Force as a logistics offi cer. He also obtained an M.P.A. from Valdosta State University prior to going to law school. “T ere is no full proof formula for rainmaking. One
thing for sure—you have got to be willing to knock on doors. A lot of the time you’ll meet rejection, but if you don’t knock you’ll never get inside.”
MCCA.COM NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 DIVERSITY & THE BAR®
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