It's been a record hiring year for Greenhill & Co. After opening an office in Tokyo, the boutique bank announced it will launch a Chicago office, with new hire Glenn Tilles heading the outpost. And there's more to come.

Tilles comes to Greenhill along with Doug Jackson and Chris Roehm, all formerly Chicago-based managing directors covering the industrial sector at Lehman Brothers Inc. Their addition gives Greenhill its first set of industrials-focused bankers.

The year's growth spurt has been dramatic, but a bit unexpected. "I would never have guessed that we would have opened up three offices," says co-CEO Scott Bok. Besides Tokyo and Chicago, Greenhill set up shop in San Francisco in 2008. The boutique went from having 35 managing directors to 49, a 40% spike, this year.

Like the Japanese expansion, which was spurred by the right team becoming available, the Chicago office is also a result of opportunistic hiring. In Tokyo, Greenhill added Kensuke Hotta, formerly chairman of Morgan Stanley Japan, and Hiroto Yamada, formerly head of Merrill Lynch Japan's M&A group. And with so many of its rivals undergoing drastic transformations, business is growing. "Clients see us as a little bit of an oasis," says Bok. "We offer stability."

Expect the hiring spree to continue next year, though probably not at the pace of 2008. The focus will be on Europe, Bok says. Greenhill will also continue to build its Chicago and Tokyo offices, though no new offices are in the works for the rest of the year, says Bok.

"We have so many opportunities today," says Bok, viewing the hiring landscape. "There's a lot of people out there looking for a new home."