Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP

It’s the real deal for litigation.

Midlevel Associate

Tiny, brand new DC office has amazing entrepreneurial, collaborative atmosphere. So much work to be done firm-wide that by your second year you will be flying solo on depositions, motions practice, etc. Partners are surprisingly nice. People hired for their hard-working nature but also for being a person you want to see and work with every day.

Jr. Associate

You will get experience that is rivaled by that of no other large law firm. It will be worth it, but it will exhaust you.

Midlevel Associate

The firm is falling victim to its own success. We have more work than we can sustainably keep up with. Our reputation and selectivity are hurting our recruiting efforts.

Jr. Associate

Quinn is for people who enjoy the idea of being thrown into the deep end. Everybody thinks they’ll be able to swim, and given the self-selection, they’re mostly right. Good early experience, interesting cases, and mostly sane partners usually override the above-average hours and the opacity of decision-making emanating from the benign dictatorship.

Jr. Associate

You are not assigned to a practice group or a particular partner so you can try many areas, and work with different groups of people, until you figure out what works best for you.

Sr. Associate

The firm has the most interesting (in a good way) lawyers working here. People have interests and hobbies outside of billing. That may run contrary to the old image of Quinn, but the fact is people here actually read books for fun, run marathons, backpack in the Canadian Rockies (as a group), and when their done, they beat up on the nerds at the other table. Firm morale seems very high.

Sr. Associate

We are a busy firm working on cutting edge issues for outstanding clients. We are committed to raising the bar for trial practice.

Equity Partner

Long hours are worth it because we get tons of early responsibility. I was able to first-chair ten depos in my first year and a half, and was lead drafter of dispositive motions in a very high-profile case.

Jr. Associate

No longer a place where you’re guaranteed early experience. You can get it, but you can also go years without seeing a deposition or courtroom. Luck of the draw like any other firm. The floodgates are open to laterals but the firm has shown very little inclination to grow general lit talent from within.

Sr. Associate

The hours are terrible if you are working in the mortgage-backed securities section of the firm, but if you are in the general litigation practice, the hours are not any worse than any other firm.

Jr. Associate

Everyone has an open door; the firm has enormous esprit d’corps; it’s wonderful to work in a firm with so little bureaucracy; it’s great to be surrounded by professionals who all work in the same general practice area (dispute resolution); it’s terrific that each case is staffed uniquely and that no one is consigned to any team; and its wonderful to be invited to pinch hit whenever someone else’s case requires someone with your skill set.

Non-equity Partner