The Architect | John Quinn

BY ANNA SCOTT

Trial lawyer John Quinn has been so extensively profiled in the quarter century since he started the firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, even his quirkiest traits are familiar by now. From his epic workouts to his eschewing of formal office attire and passion for Shakespeare's works, Quinn is one of the most visible and colorful figures in the legal industry today.

A couple of key things, however, are unavoidable in any analysis of his success. Foremost, Quinn Emanuel has been a trailblazer as the only firm of its size to practice purely in litigation. The firm also stands out for its focus on trial work. While many lawyers spend entire careers without trying a case, Quinn Emanuel claims to have tried more than 1,000 business cases before juries.

"We're not trying to be all things to all people," says Quinn, 59, on a recent afternoon in his office, crammed with framed photos of his wife, Shannon, and five children. "We only do one thing, and we're the best at that one thing."

The model has paid off. Quinn Emanuel grew from two partners and two associates to 33 partners and 76 associates during its first 15 years, and in the past decade increased to 130 partners and 350 associates in eight offices around the world.

The firm boasts that it has a 91.3 percent success rate in cases tried, and more than $15 billion in judgements and settlements. Quinn himself has won verdicts and settlements for clients including the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (he has long served as general counsel to the organization), Occidental Petroleum and the University of Southern California, and in a plethora high-profile cases of international and national significance. Quinn Emanuel has ranked as the nation's second-most profitable firm for the past two years, according to self-reported data, with profits per partner topping $3 million each of those years. Its success has created a new model in the business.

"Part of the traditional wisdom was, you need to diversify to smooth out the economic cycles," said Robert K. Rasmussen, dean of USC's law school. "You can't think of another firm of their size that has such a focus, and they've shown they can be incredibly successful."

Quinn himself has also garnered attention for his quirky, brash persona. Recently his Twitter feed has been a topic on legal blogs thanks to pithy dispatches like this one regarding the potential merger of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey and Hammonds: "Two rocks that think if they hug each other tight enough they won't sink."

Harvard Law School alumnus Quinn and firm co-founder Eric Emanuel met more than two decades ago in the Los Angeles outpost of the New York firm Reboul, MacMurray, Hewitt & Maynard (acquired by Ropes & Gray in 2003). Tasked with building their own business, the pair found enough work to break off from Reboul in 1986 and open what would become Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.

Quinn and Emanuel snagged many of Quinn Emanuel's biggest clients today during those early years at Reboul and then Quinn & Emanuel, including Mattel Inc., Lockheed Martin Corp., Parsons Corp. and Avery Dennison Corp.

Quinn says he assumed Quinn & Emanuel would take a traditional route as it grew.

"We thought, at some point we'll diversify into other practice areas, because that's how it's done," he said. But over time he realized litigation-only worked. "Internally, it's such a force for cohesiveness within the firm to have everybody doing the same kind of work, as well as externally, our firm's message to the business and legal community is so simple."

Quinn has also defied convention by maintaining minimal bureaucracy. "I don't really understand the role of full-time managing partners," he said. "My own view is that good lawyers don't need to be managed."

Quinn Emanuel has only one committee, to vote on whether to take contingency cases. Quinn also delegates many day-to-day management tasks, though he does have a heavy hand in hiring laterals.

Quinn's recruiting eye has been a big factor in his firm's success, said Rasmussen, citing hires including the late entertainment lawyer and former name partner George Hedges and top appellate advocate and current name partner Kathleen Sullivan.

In earlier years, said name partner William Urquhart, who joined Quinn in 1988, they drew top law students through creative marketing.

"We sent out a memo to Harvard Law School that was basically, 'lawyers in shorts,'" he said. "Because we were different, we appealed to people who had really succeeded" and could afford the risk. Their first recruit, he said, was a Harvard Law Review editor, now a professor.

Nabbing top lawyers has fueled much of the firm's growth. For example, Quinn Emanuel opened in Mannheim, Germany, in February largely to hire Marcus Grosch, a top German patent litigator. Other additions were driven by market opportunities, like the two-year-old London office, set up in response to a high demand to represent claims against major financial institutions there.

Germany, the Netherlands and Hong Kong are all possibilities for future offices, said Quinn.Wherever the firm goes next, it will have to present the right mix of market and recruiting possibility.

"We don't want to screw it up," he said.