The Sydney Office
The Sydney Office
The Sydney office opened in 2013 with two of Australia’s "finest litigators," Michael Mills and Michelle Fox, who joined the firm from Herbert Smith Freehills. They were joined in 2014 by Beau Deleuil, former worldwide head of litigation at King & Wood Mallesons and in 2015 by Damian Scattini, who was a Principal at the largest Australian plaintiff’s class action firm and head of its Queensland class actions practice. The promotion to partnership in 2016 of senior associate Duncan Watson, took Sydney to a five partner office.
Quinn Emanuel’s global reputation is built on doing only one thing—business litigation—and doing it better than anyone else. We have no corporate practice. We filled a void in the Australian legal market for a high-end specialist litigation practice not saddled with the conflicts that plague the big, full-service firms. Also, like elsewhere in the world, Quinn Emanuel is different and enjoys a competitive advantage because it undertakes business litigation on both the defence and plaintiff side. We are not committed to any one industry, and therefore we represent our clients without fear or favour—whether as defendants or plaintiffs. The Sydney office is backed by the resources, experience, and reputation of the largest litigation-only firm in the world.
We have hired our lawyers one by one, with a strict policy of hiring the best and the brightest in the country. We have former judges’ associates, honours graduates from Australia’s premier law schools, internationally recognized LLMs and attorneys admitted in multiple states and countries. They bring with them a wealth of litigation and trial experience from all over the world. Because we only employ the best lawyers, our clients receive the best work and resolution outcomes.
The lawyers in the Sydney office have deep experience in representing companies in a broad array of complex commercial business disputes, in Australia and internationally.
For almost six years we have represented clients in some of Australia’s largest and most complex corporate disputes, crises and collapses, including the following (with a sample of the headline cases we have handled):
Class actions, defence
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GetSwift Ltd; SGH – Pitcher Partners; Thorn Ltd
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Class actions, plaintiff
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Takata airbag recalls; AMP; JLT class actions; IOOF
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Competition law
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WIRP – Aurizon
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Corporate crisis
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Ardent – Dreamworld; NuCoal Ltd; (plus others below)
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Directors & officers liability
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Forge Group; ABC Learning Ltd
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Financial services & institutions
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ICICI Bank; MLC Ltd
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Insolvency and restructuring
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Catalano-Fairfax scheme; Arrium Ltd; Aurizon – Queensland Nickel Ltd
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Insurance (both coverage disputes and risk solutions for policy holders)
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Lend Lease; South32
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Other commercial disputes
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Citizenship7 (constitution); BrisConnections
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Product liability
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Sanwa Holdings (building cladding); Johnson & Johnson
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Regulatory
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ASIC – CBA (Austrac); ASIC – NBA (BBSW); Whitebox Ltd
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Transactional disputes
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Viva Energy; ICWA – Bell litigation; Connective
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White collar crime
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Numerous, but we don’t publicise
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Our Sydney partners are highly regarded and been ranked repeatedly in the top publications including Legal 500 Asia Pacific, Expert Guides, Chambers Global, Chambers Asia-Pacific, Who’s Who Legal, Australian Financial Review, Best Lawyers, Euromoney, Practical Law Company, Benchmark Asia-Pacific, Doyles and others.
Click here for more information on career opportunities in the Sydney office.