When Allan Kirk was born, his feet were turned inward — a condition known as clubfoot. His parents regularly drove roughly four hours from their home in rural Tennessee to Memphis so he could receive the medical care he needed.
Kirk, now a Houston-based M&A partner with Kirkland & Ellis, went on to play soccer in college. But the experience of having access to skilled doctors at an early age left an indelible mark.
“Candidly, back then, I had no understanding of the costs or people not really having access — I just knew someone had used the gifts God gave them to heal me, and I wanted anyone and everyone who had that need to receive that gift,” Kirk said. His desire to help others, he added, stems from a love for his neighbor, “which I think is a direct product of my faith.”
Kirk, who as a child aspired to become an orthopedic surgeon, began college as a pre-med student. But he discovered medicine wasn’t his calling. He eventually turned to law and, more than a decade ago, while looking for a nonprofit where he could volunteer his time and expertise, he found Christ Clinic — a faith-based organization that provides care to more than 5,000 low-income, uninsured and underinsured patients annually in the Greater Houston area. Their missions overlapped, and Kirk, now board president, has served on the board for 10 years.
So, when Christ Clinic recently needed a legal team to help facilitate a joint venture with another Houston clinic — Innovative Wellness, co-founded by Mrs. Iowa America 2025 Christie Steiger — Kirk turned to his firm, which agreed to advise Christ Clinic on a pro bono basis. The deal closed Friday; terms were confidential.
While statistics on pro bono mergers and acquisitions are not widely tracked, American Bar Association data shows that pro bono work is less frequently afforded to organizations than to individuals. According to this year’s Supporting Justice V A Report on the Pro Bono Work of America’s Lawyers, of the attorneys who provided pro bono work in 2022, just 40.1 percent provided services to organizations. If that trend holds, Kirkland’s work on the Christ Clinic transaction falls into a smaller share of pro bono efforts nationwide.
“Right now, it’s a really challenging environment to raise funds for nonprofits, and they’re needed more than ever,” Kirk said, underscoring the importance of transactional lawyers engaging in pro bono work, whether it be in deal-related matters or serving on boards.
“Lawyers — especially transactional lawyers — have skill sets that are unbelievably valuable in the boardrooms of nonprofits,” he said.
Kirk noted that while much of his volunteer work with Christ Clinic doesn’t qualify for formal pro bono credit, it still draws on the same critical thinking he uses in his legal practice.
“It is incredibly rewarding when you can find a way to give back to a cause that you are passionate about and use your professional talents … and make a difference for good in the world,” Kirk said.