Jon A. Ballis is the chairman of

Kirkland & Ellis Kirkland & Ellis LLP is an American multinational law firm headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1909, Kirkland & Ellis has been the largest law firm in the world by revenue since 2017 and, as of 2025, is the seventh-largest by number ...

, the largest law firm in the world by revenue. In 2018 Ballis was named to succeed Jeffrey Hammes as chairman beginning in February, 2020.

Early life and education

Ballis grew up in the

Chicago area The Chicago metropolitan area, also referred to as Chicagoland, is the largest metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Illinois, and the Midwest, containing the City of Chicago along with its surrounding suburbs and satellite cities ...

. Ballis attended Highland Park High School, where he played basketball with Jonathan Gray, now COO of

Blackstone Inc Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. It was founded in 1985 as a mergers and acquisitions firm by Peter Peterson and Stephen Schwarzman, who had previously worked together at Lehman ...

. In 1987, Ballis went to attend

Lehigh University Lehigh University (LU), in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, United States, is a private university, private research university. The university was established in 1865 by businessman Asa Packer. Lehigh University's undergraduate programs have been mixed ...

in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, graduating with High Honors in 1991. He then matriculated to

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...

, graduating cum laude in 1994.

Career

Ballis began working at law firm

Sidley Austin Sidley Austin LLP is an American multinational corporation, multinational law firm with approximately 2,300 lawyers in 21 offices worldwide. It was established in 1866 and its headquarters is at One South Dearborn in Chicago's Chicago Loop, Loo ...

in 1994 and earned partner in 2002. He joined Kirkland & Ellis as a partner in 2005. At Kirkland & Ellis he has concentrated on

private equity Private equity (PE) is stock in a private company that does not offer stock to the general public; instead it is offered to specialized investment funds and limited partnerships that take an active role in the management and structuring of the co ...

deals. He has handled legal services for major private equity companies including Bain, Blackstone, Centerbridge,

Cerberus In Greek mythology, Cerberus ( or ; ''Kérberos'' ), often referred to as the hound of Hades, is a polycephaly, multi-headed dog that guards the gates of the Greek underworld, underworld to prevent the dead from leaving. He was the offspring o ...

Hellman & Friedman Hellman & Friedman LLC (H&F) is an American private equity firm, founded in 1984 by Warren Hellman and Tully Friedman, that makes investments primarily through leveraged buyouts as well as growth capital investments. H&F has focused its efforts ...

KKR KKR may refer to: * KKR & Co., a global investment firm *Kolkata Knight Riders, an Indian Premier League franchise * Rheinsberg Nuclear Power Plant (), first nuclear power plant in the former East Germany * Kalkara, Malta, postal code KKR *Kir-Bala ...

Madison Dearborn Madison Dearborn Partners (MDP) is an American private equity firm specializing in leveraged buyouts of privately held or publicly traded companies, or divisions of larger companies; recapitalizations of family-owned or closely held companies; ba ...

, Pritzker Group, Silver Lake, TPG, and Thomas H. Lee. As chairman he has continued Kirkland & Ellis's increasing focus on advising private equity deals and poaching revenue producing lawyers from other firms by incentivizing them with high pay. Kirkland & Ellis has the second highest profit per partner of any United States law firm.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ballis, Jon A. Living people 1970 births Highland Park High School (Illinois) alumni Lehigh University alumni Harvard Law School alumni People associated with Kirkland & Ellis