In tough times, it's good to specialize in bet-the-company litigation. Revenue at 400-lawyer Quinn Emanuel Urquardt Oliver & Hedges was $441.9 million in 2008, up 15 percent from 2007's $384.5 million.
Profits jumped 10 percent, from $237.5 million in 2007 to $260 million last year. Profits per partner -- already near the top of the Am Law 100 in 2007 -- rose 11 percent to $3.3 million. Quinn Emanuel has 78 equity partners.
According to managing partner John Quinn, the firm was working flat-out for the first seven months of the year. Between May 1 and Aug. 1 alone, Quinn lawyers racked up hours in 11 cases that were on trial. During that stretch, Quinn says, lawyers at the firm averaged 200 hours a month.
Among the firm's major cases in 2008 were the Bratz copyright trial, in which Quinn Emanuel won a sweeping injunction on behalf of Mattel Inc. against MGA Entertainment Inc. maker of a competing doll; and a loss for the Italian company Parmalat, which had sought damages from Citigroup for its alleged role in Parmalat's financial scandal. The firm also represented cell phone maker Nokia in a broad IP settlement with chip manufacturer Qualcomm.
Quinn says activity at the firm slowed during the last quarter of 2008, as trials concluded.
Click here for the final published results of last year's Am Law 100 ranking.
This report is part of The Am Law Daily's ongoing Web coverage of The Am Law 100's 2008 financials, bringing you our own reports and those from our sibling publications at Incisive Media. Results are preliminary.
Final rankings and full results for The Am Law 100 will be published in The American Lawyer's May issue and on AmericanLawyer.com. The Am Law Second Hundred will be published in the June issue.
This article first appeared on The Am Law Daily blog on AmericanLawyer.com.
