Kirkland & Ellis' outgoing London head James Learner has confirmed his next role, with the partner set to take up a non-legal role at US private equity firm Huntsman Gay.

Learner (pictured), who was involved in launching Kirkland's City base in 1994, is moving on to become managing director at the Salt Lake City-headquartered buyout house. He will be based in Huntsman's Palo Alto branch.

The confirmation of Learner's next destination comes after he announced in January that he intended to return to the US at the end of the summer for personal reasons.

At Kirkland, Learner's main client is Bain Capital, while he also works with buyout houses including Apax Partners, Apollo Management and Towerbrook Capital Partners.

He has been heavily involved in Kirkland's London expansion, with the firm's office in the Gherkin now housing around 100 lawyers, including a number of high-profile partners recruited from UK firms such as SJ Berwin, Linklaters and Allen & Overy.

The news comes ahead of Kirkland's expected appointment of a London partner to replace Learner on its firmwide board tomorrow (19 May), with London partners stating that corporate partner Graham White was a likely candidate for the role.

Huntsman Gay, which focuses on leveraged buyout transactions and growth capital investments in the US mid-market, was founded by billionaire industrialist Jon Huntsman and long-time Bain managing director Robert Gay.