John Stassen is a retired senior partner of the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis. A giant of the futures bar for decades, he was the principal outside counsel to the Chicago Board of Trade for too many years to count and guided the CBOT through the challenges posed by the Hunt silver crisis and the Ferruzzi soybean crisis, to name just a few. Equally important was his instrumental role in the development and registration of the National Futures Association. He is a past chairman of the derivatives law committees of the Chicago Bar Association and American Bar Association. Perhaps his most fondly remembered contributions to the industry were his humorous introductions at the annual Kent Commodities Law Conference in Chicago.