Community support at heart of Atlanta law firm’s 140-year success
With more than $2.3 billion in revenue last year, there are many things Atlanta law firm King & Spalding could have done to celebrate its 140th anniversary. It chose to give back to the community.
Partners in the firm’s 26 offices worldwide are leading 140 community service projects to mark the anniversary of Alexander King and Jack Spalding setting up shop in Atlanta on Jan. 1, 1885.
Since then, King & Spalding has steadily risen toward the global legal elite and now employs about 1,330 lawyers and 980 business professionals. Its profit per equity partner of nearly $6 million is more than double the average of the world’s 100 largest law firms by revenue.
But the firm hasn’t forgotten the importance of community support and engagement, its leaders said.
“Community advancement is core to our collaborative and high-performance culture,” Josh Kamin, managing partner of the firm’s Atlanta office, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The anniversary projects are the brainchild of Jannquell Peters, a former East Point mayor and Fulton County magistrate judge who now serves as King & Spalding’s director of community affairs. She said they extend the firm’s already significant annual philanthropic efforts.
Around 100 of the projects have been completed, and the firm is on track to exceed its year-end goal, Peters said.
“Finding the organizations to support was not a challenge,” she told the AJC on a recent Tuesday as a group of her colleagues assembled more than 100 personal hygiene kits for a local nonprofit during their lunch hour.
That project was a collaboration with United Way of Greater Atlanta, and it kicked off King & Spalding’s annual fundraiser for the charity organization that since 2003 has generated more than $19.5 million.
King & Spalding lawyers are serious about their community involvement, said Jessica Corley, co-chair of the firm’s business litigation group and a board member of United Way of Greater Atlanta since 2022.
“We consider ourselves part of Atlanta’s fabric and are very proud of that,” Corley said.
The firm has established deep roots in the city, growing alongside longtime clients, including Coca-Cola. Atlanta remains the firm’s largest office, with around a quarter of its lawyers.
The Atlanta staff have completed about 30 of the anniversary projects, planting trees and building little free libraries, among other things. Elsewhere, employees have handed out thousands of free sandwiches and built water filters for communities in need.
Volunteering brings many benefits for the firm and its staff, said litigation partner Billie Pritchard, head of the culture committee at the firm’s Atlanta office.
“I feel like we get back tenfold whatever we put into the community,” she said. “We want people to know we are here. We want to be actively engaged.”
The firm has also embedded itself in the communities outside Georgia that it has branched into over the past 46 years. It has 14 other offices in the U.S., five in Europe, three in the Middle East and two in Asia. Earlier this month it opened its 26th office, in Sydney.
In Atlanta, King & Spalding has been assisting the city’s host committee for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. It also recently helped the city secure the 2028 Super Bowl.
Those in the firm’s high-rise at the corner of Peachtree and 14th streets in Midtown are never far from its history, as the building sits on the site of co-founder Jack Spalding’s former home.
“We are one of the world’s largest and most successful law firms, but at the same time — like many of Atlanta’s corporate pillars — we remain fiercely loyal and local as our reach has grown to be international,” Kamin said.
About the Author
Journalist Rosie Manins is a legal affairs reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
