When John Quinn opened his four-lawyer firm in 1986 in Los Angeles, he didn't envision that he'd create the nation's biggest all-litigation juggernaut. "To the extent we thought about firm growth, we thought we'd add other practice areas," he recalls. "That's the universal model."
But it didn't take long for the former Cravath, Swaine & Moore associate to change his mind. Before the firm now known as Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan reached 20 lawyers, Quinn decided that an all-litigation model had real strengths. "It's a great source for cohesiveness and collegiality. It creates a rich professional environment," says the 62-year-old Quinn. It also allows for a "very powerful message" to clients. "It's very hard for full-service firms to distinguish themselves. All full-service firms are saying the same thing," he explains. "For us it's very, very simple. We don't claim to be all things to all people. We claim to be experts in one discipline."
