Thomas Yannucci is a litigation partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Chair Emeritus of Kirkland’s Firmwide Management Committee. He has been a member of that Committee since 1995 and served the maximum of three terms as Chair, beginning in 2001, when the position was created. He also is an adjunct professor for trial advocacy at Georgetown University Law Center.
Tom Yannucci has acted as trial and appellate counsel in both individual and class action suits involving claims in the following areas: defamation, intellectual property, securities, antitrust, government enforcement and regulatory matters (DOJ, FDA, EPA, FTC, SEC, ITC, FEC, CIA, NLRB), RICO, insurance coverage, ERISA, international trade, and white-collar crime. He has handled both jury and bench trials, and has appeared in state and federal courts as well as in arbitrations. He also has served as an arbitrator for complex commercial cases for the American Arbitration Association.
In addition to representing many Fortune 50 corporations with regard to their most important cases, Mr. Yannucci has handled a number of other high-profile matters, including representing the award-winning HBO program “The Sopranos,” “super agent” Jeff Moorad, and General Barry McCaffrey, a highly decorated war hero and “Drug Czar” under President Bill Clinton.
Mr. Yannucci was profiled in the cover story of the September 1998 edition of The American Lawyer for his lead role in successfully handling Chiquita Brands’ claims against the Gannett Company, Inc. and The Cincinnati Enquirer. He was also featured in The Wall Street Journal article, “Story of a Story,” in connection with the same case. Mr. Yannucci also has been selected by Chambers USA as one of “America’s Leading Lawyers for Business” in three separate areas: Litigation/General Commercial, Media & Entertainment, and First Amendment Litigation. In addition, Mr. Yannucci was listed as a “Super Lawyer” by Super Lawyers magazine and as a “Litigation Star” by Benchmark Litigation United States.
Mr. Yannucci has argued several cases on appeal, including cases in the First, Second, Third, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Tenth, Eleventh, and D.C. Circuit Courts of Appeals.