Joseph Margolies

Joe Margolies is a trial and appellate litigator who joined Quinn Emanuel in 2022. His practice focuses on complex commercial matters, with an emphasis on cases concerning investment funds, data privacy and technology, and trade secrets. He also has substantial experience representing plaintiffs and defendants in litigation concerning corporate governance, antitrust, securities, contracts, constitutional law, and administrative law.

Joe regularly litigates in both federal and state trial and appellate courts, as well as in domestic and international arbitration before leading tribunals such as AAA, ICC, and JAMS. He routinely develops and executes on complex case strategies—including in class actions, mass actions, and multi-forum or cross-border matters—and leads large and small case teams from the pleading stage through discovery, trial, and appeal. Clients also call on Joe frequently to write critical briefs and argue high-stakes motions in court. And Joe gets results: he has contributed to numerous victories for his clients at virtually all stages of litigation, including on the pleadings, at class certification and summary judgment, at and after trial, and on appellate review. Joe’s recent wins include complete dismissal or summary judgment in various matters in New York and federal court, defeating motions to certify multibillion-dollar damages classes in two separate federal cases and successfully defending both denials against petitions for interlocutory appeal, and reducing a client’s liability by over $10 million in another federal appeal.

Representative examples of Joe’s recent matters include representing major technology companies in data-privacy class actions in California and Illinois; representing leading private equity firms in transaction-related disputes in New York, Delaware, California, Massachusetts, and arbitration; and representing startups and founders in bet-the-company trade-secret litigation in New York, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. 

Prior to joining the firm, Joe clerked for the Honorable Debra Ann Livingston on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and worked in the litigation department of Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP in New York. He is a graduate of Princeton University and Columbia Law School, where he was an articles editor of the Columbia Law Review.