Hammond E. Chaffetz (July 9, 1907 – January 12, 2001) was a federal prosecutor and partner at

Kirkland & Ellis Kirkland & Ellis LLP is an American multinational law firm headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1909, Kirkland & Ellis is the largest law firm in the world by revenue and the seventh-largest by number of attorneys, and was the first la ...

. He helped turn the law firm into one of America’s largest law firms.

Early life

Born in Massachusetts, Chaffetz graduated from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

in 1930.

Career

He joined the U.S. Department of Justice, where he became a Special Assistant to the Attorney General, pioneering

federal antitrust prosecution The United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division is a division of the U.S. Department of Justice that enforces U.S. antitrust law. It has exclusive jurisdiction over U.S. federal criminal antitrust prosecutions. It also has jurisdi ...

policies later upheld by the

U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

in ''

United States v. Socony-Vacuum Oil Co. ''United States v. Socony-Vacuum Oil Co.'', 310 U.S. 150 (1940), is a 1940 United States Supreme Court decision widely cited for the proposition that price-fixing is illegal ''per se''. The ''Socony'' case was, at least until recently, the most wid ...

'' Chaffetz had been recommended for the position by one of his Harvard Law School professors, future

justice

Felix Frankfurter Felix Frankfurter (November 15, 1882 – February 22, 1965) was an Austrian-American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1939 until 1962, during which period he was a noted advocate of judicia ...

. Frankfurter, however, had also recommended one of Chaffetz's classmates, future accused Soviet spy

Alger Hiss Alger Hiss (November 11, 1904 – November 15, 1996) was an American government official accused in 1948 of having spied for the Soviet Union in the 1930s. Statutes of limitations had expired for espionage, but he was convicted of perjury in con ...

, for the same position, and it was Hiss's decision to withdraw that Chaffetz believed opened the position to him. His victory over 16 oil companies in a

price-fixing Price fixing is an anticompetitive agreement between participants on the same side in a market to buy or sell a product, service, or commodity only at a fixed price, or maintain the market conditions such that the price is maintained at a given ...

conspiracy soon caught the attention of Weymouth Kirkland, who was defending one of the oil companies. Kirkland offered the young lawyer a partnership at the Washington offices of the firm. During World War II, he took a leave of absence and became a Navy lieutenant commander. He rejoined the law firm after the war, and was moved to the Chicago offices. He was key to the law firm’s expansion, by recruiting young law students. He withdrew from active law practice in the early 1980s, but remained advisor until his death. Chaffetz was also an active supporter of the arts in Chicago, most notably the

Chicago Symphony Orchestra The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) was founded by Theodore Thomas in 1891. The ensemble makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival. The music director is Riccardo Muti, who began his tenure ...

, the

Goodman Theatre Goodman Theatre is a professional theater company located in Chicago's Loop. A major part of the Chicago theatre scene, it is the city's oldest currently active nonprofit theater organization. Part of its present theater complex occupies the lan ...

, and the International Theatre Festival.

Family

Chaffetz's parents were Jewish immigrants from Russia and his father was a shopkeeper. His brother was Maxwell (Max) Chaffetz, an

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

special agent whose grandson is former

Congressman A Member of Congress (MOC) is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The term member of parliament (MP) is an equivalen ...

Jason Chaffetz Jason E. Chaffetz (; born March 26, 1967) is an American retired politician who served as the U.S. representative for from 2009 until his resignation in 2017. He chaired the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform from 2015 until 2017. Ch ...

, and his second cousin was Washington, D.C.

real estate developer Real estate development, or property development, is a business process, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of developed land or parcels to others. R ...

and

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...

Morris Cafritz Morris Cafritz ( - June 13, 1964) was a Washington, D.C. real estate developer, and philanthropist. As CEO of the Cafritz Company, he was Washington, D.C.'s largest private developer from the late 1920's to the early 1960's. Early life and educa ...

Sources

*https://web.archive.org/web/20070928035821/http://www.illinoisbar.org/Association/012-1i.htm *http://www.kirkland.com/ourFirm/history.aspx *http://www.law.harvard.edu/alumni/bulletin/2001/summer/memoriam_main.html

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chaffetz 1907 births 2001 deaths 20th-century American lawyers Cafritz family Harvard Law School alumni People associated with Kirkland & Ellis United States Navy personnel of World War II