Firm Profiles
IN-DEPTH RESEARCH REPORT
on Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP
- - Financial Information
- - Compensation
- - Billing Rates
- - Lateral Partner Moves
- - Pro bono
- - Key Contacts
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan
- Designation: Los Angeles
- Head Count: 697
- Gross Revenues: $852,500,000
- Revenue Per Lawyer: $1,225,000
- Profits Per Partner: $4,435,000
- Year Over Year Change: 8
If any firm could be the poster child for alternative fee arrangements, it is Quinn Emanuel, a litigation–only firm that has climbed The Am Law 100 with huge strides in recent years (its fifty–first place finish on the 2011 list marked a 27–place leap since 2007). Gross revenues jumped by more than 30 percent in both 2010 and 2011. Profits per partner regularly rank among the top three, and broke the $4 million mark in 2011. Quinn’s secret: litigating—and pricing—outside the box.
“Obviously, we could not have achieved financial results like these simply billing by the hour,” says managing partner John Quinn. “A significant amount of our revenue came from contingent fee and other alternative fee arrangements, both on the plaintiffs and defense side.”
It doesn’t hurt that the firm, which is based in Los Angeles and numbers more than 450 lawyers, has one of the nation’s most highly regarded litigation departments (Quinn says its lawyers have won 91 percent of the 1,460 cases they’ve tried). The firm was a finalist in The American Lawyer’s 2010 Litigation Department of the Year contest, and earned honorable mentions in 2006, 2008, and 2012. Quinn’s IP litigators—who comprise nearly 40 percent of the firm’s attorneys—fared even better, earning the nod as IP Litigation Department of the Year in 2010 (and ranking as a finalist in 2012). The firm has won key cases for Google Inc., including a pair of trials defending the Internet giant’s advertising programs, and others for its A–List clients.
Famous for its lack of executive, recruitment, and compensation committees (the only formal management group is one that evaluates prospective contingency fee cases), Quinn is also noted for being the first Am Law 100 to have a female name partner (former Stanford Law School dean Kathleen Sullivan received that honor in March 2010). The firm is well known, too, for the absence of a dress code—though with the profits partners are pulling in, they certainly can afford suits.
—Updated as of 1/1/12
Firm Rankings
| Survey | Rank | Year Over Year Change | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Am Law 100 | 28 | 8 | Gross revenue |
| Am Law 200 | 28 | 8 | Gross revenue |
| NLJ 250 | 58 | 32 | Lawyer head count |
| The A-List | NR | N/A | Overall excellence |
| Pro Bono Scorecard | 170 | 30 | Pro-bono commitment |
| Diversity Scorecard | 28 | 8 | Minority head count |
| Midlevel Associates Survey | NR | N/A | Job satisfaction |
| Summer Associates Survey | NR | N/A | Summer programs |
In the News
In Second-Chance IP Trials, Counsel on Tight Leash
Vanessa Blum : The Recorder : May 3, 2013
U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh doesn't want the Apple/Samsung damages do-over to open any doors.
Philip Morris Aims to Knock Out Medical Monitoring Claims
: The Litigation Daily : May 2, 2013
Shiela Birnbaum may get a chance to show off as the newly-minted co-chief of the mass torts and product liability practice at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. Or maybe not.
Circuit Certifies Questions on Medical Monitoring for Smokers
Mark Hamblett : New York Law Journal : May 2, 2013
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit yesterday certified two questions to New York's highest court, asking it for a clear statement on whether it recognizes an independent cause of action for monitoring.
Q&A: IP Litigator Douglas Lumish
Julia Love : The Recorder : May 2, 2013
Lumish talks about building a practice from scratch at Kasowitz and his now-completed move to Latham.
Scope Set for Apple-Samsung Damages Retrial
Vanessa Blum : The Recorder : May 1, 2013
With fingers crossed, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh tells Apple and Samsung lawyers to retrace steps on damages testimony, though they'll have to do so without Apple's expert.
Big Wins
Jan Wolfe : The American Lawyer : May 1, 2013
Microsoft, Sidley Defeat Motorola's Demand for Licensing Fees
Jan Wolfe : The Litigation Daily : April 30, 2013
A U.S. district judge in Seattle has forcefully rejected Motorola's request that it be paid billions of dollars in royalty fees for its standards-essential patents by Microsoft, which calls the question: Did Google overpay when it acquired Motorola for $12.5 billion in 2012?
Hogan Handles Apple's Record $17 Billion Bond Sale
Brian Baxter : The Am Law Daily : April 30, 2013
Consumer electronics giant Apple, which was unburdened by debt until this week, is relying on Hogan Lovells as the company undertakes its first bond sale in more than two decades to help finance a $100 billion capital return program to shareholders.
IN BRIEF
: The National Law Journal : April 29, 2013
Kenneth Feinberg, the attorney selected to administer the $23.8 million compensation fund for victims of the Boston Marathon bombings, vowed on April 25 to spend all the money by the end of June. Plus more in our weekly roundup of Web-only stories from NLJ.com and other ALM publications.
Koh Sets Scope for Apple-Samsung Damages Retrial
Vanessa Blum : The Recorder : April 29, 2013
With fingers crossed, the judge tells lawyers to retrace steps on damages testimony, though they'll have to do so without Apple's expert.
- Akerman Senterfitt
- Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld
- Allen & Overy
- Arthur Cox
- Ashurst
- Baker & Hostetler
- Baker & McKenzie
- Bingham McCutchen
- Bracewell & Giuliani
- Bradley Arant Boult Cummings
- Brown Rudnick
- Burr & Forman
- Cahill Gordon & Reindel
- Carlton Fields
- Clayton Utz
- Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
- Clifford Chance
- Cooley
- Davis Polk & Wardwell
- Dewey & LeBoeuf
- Diamond McCarthy
- Dickinson Wright
- DLA Piper
- Dorsey & Whitney
- Dreier LLP
- Freehills
- Freshfields
- Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
- Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson
- Greenberg Traurig
- Gross McGinley
- Harris Beach
- Haynes and Boone
- Herbert Smith
- Herrick, Feinstein
- Hogan Lovells
- Howrey
- Hughes Hubbard & Reed
- Jenner & Block
- Jones Day
- Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman
- Kilpatrick Townsend
- Kirkland & Ellis
- Kutak Rock
- Lane Powell
- Latham & Watkins
- Linklaters
- Lowenstein Sandler
- Margolis Edelstein
- McCarter & English
- McDermott Will & Emery
- McKenna Long & Aldridge
- McKool Smith
- Minter Ellison
- Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo
- Morrison & Foerster
- Moses & Singer
- Nixon Peabody
- Norris, McLaughlin & Marcus
- Norton Rose
- O?Melveny & Myers
- Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel
- Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe
- Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker
- Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison
- Perkins Coie
- Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pitman
- Potter Anderson & Corroon
- Proskauer Rose
- Pryor Cashman
- Reed Smith
- Richards, Layton & Finger
- Robinson & Cole
- Ropes & Gray
- Seyfarth Shaw
- Shea & Gould
- Shearman & Sterling
- Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton
- Shipman & Goodwin
- Simmons & Simmons
- Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
- Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young
- Stroock & Stroock & Lavan
- Sullivan & Cromwell
- Sullivan & Worcester
- Weil, Gotshal & Manges
- White & Case
- Wiley Rein
- Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr
- Winston & Strawn
- Young, Conaway, Stargatt & Taylor
