Kirkland & Ellis has chosen dealmaker Jeffrey Hammes to replace longtime chairman Thomas Yannucci. http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-tue-chicago-law-1208dec08,0,5601902,print.story and http://amlawdaily.typepad.com/amlawdaily/2009/12/new-chair-at-kirklanda-corporate-lawyer.html
Hammes specializes in private equity and splits his time between Chicago, where he started in 1985, and San Francisco and Palo Alto. http://www.kirkland.com/sitecontent.cfm?contentID=220&itemID=7879 He has served as vice chair of the firm’s 15-member management committee for the past year, in anticipation of his inheriting the top slot from Yannucci http://www.kirkland.com/sitecontent.cfm?contentID=220&itemID=8058. Yannucci, a longtime Lawdragon 500 member and standout litigator in Washington, D.C., is approaching the age of 60, and Kirkland prohibits partners past that age from serving on the management committee.
