Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP announced that eighteen new partners have been elected to the partnership, effective January 1, 2022. Spanning eleven offices around the world, this year’s partner class is the largest in firm history.
The newly elected partners are as follows:
Blair Adams
Blair Adams is a partner in the New York office. He joined the firm in 2013. He focuses on structured finance, derivatives, and other commercial litigation. Blair has extensive expertise and experience in cases involving complex financial products, including collateralized debt obligations, residential and commercial mortgage backed securities, credit default swaps, and other exotic swaps and derivative instruments. He has obtained trial victories for clients in multiple structured finance matters, including a two-week bench trial concerning disputed ownership of certain CLO assets, a bench trial seeking reformation of an RMBS indenture, and three-week arbitration concerning allegations of fraud in the sale of CDO notes. He has also represented clients in antitrust and appellate matters.
Jack Baumann is a partner in the Los Angeles office. He joined the firm in 2013. Jack is an experienced litigator who has represented a diverse group of clients in high-stakes commercial litigation throughout the country. A large portion of Jack’s practice focuses on class action defense, and he has successfully defended more than 50 class actions, including cases involving the “right of publicity,” the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”), wage-and-hour claims, the Americans with Disabilities Act, tribal lending, securities, and consumer fraud. Before joining the firm, Jack clerked for the Honorable Jerome Farris on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Kevin Chu is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office. He joined the firm in 2013. He focuses on intellectual property litigation, primarily Section 337 investigations before the International Trade Commission (ITC). Kevin has practiced before the ITC for more than eight years and represented complainants, respondents, and third parties in more than thirty Section 337 investigations. He has also successfully represented numerous clients in federal district court. Kevin is an engineer, having received dual degrees in Biomedical Engineering and Applied Science Chemical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis. Prior to receiving his law degree, Kevin worked as a patent examiner at the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Alicia Cobb is Co-Managing Partner of the Seattle office. She joined the firm in 2009. She focuses on complex commercial litigation, with particular experience in antitrust and class action litigation. Alicia litigates cases in a variety of industries on both sides of the “v.”, representing corporate plaintiffs and defendants, consumer classes, and individual opt-out clients. Prior to joining the firm, Alicia was a clerk for the Hon. Edward R. Korman of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
Stacylyn Doore is a partner in the Boston office. She divides her practice between complex commercial litigation, where she represents plaintiffs and defendants in breach of contract, business torts, fraud, securities, trade secrets, and employment matters, and securities enforcement, where she focuses on insider trading, market manipulation, and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigations.
Sandy is a partner in the Los Angeles office. She has a Ph.D. in molecular pharmacology and an extensive patent litigation and trade secret practice with an emphasis in the life sciences. Sandy specializes in resolving complex intellectual property disputes. She has litigated, advised clients, and tried cases in a range of complex technologies including molecular diagnostics in the cancer and prenatal fields, DNA sequencing, oligonucleotide synthesis, CRISPR, monoclonal antibody-based therapies for cancer, CAR-T and other cell-based therapies for cancer, RNA interference, small molecule compounds and drugs, liquefied natural gas-based energy sources, and many others. Sandy is also admitted to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and has experience prosecuting patents, conducting inter partes review proceedings, and counseling clients on patent portfolio development and enforcement strategy.
JP Kernisan is a partner in the New York and Washington, D.C. offices. JP practices in the areas of employment law, white collar defense, corporate investigations, and commercial litigation. JP represents companies and executives facing corporate crises involving difficult legal and regulatory challenges, with particular experience advising companies related to allegations of corruption, discrimination, and harassment and/or executive misconduct.
Leo Kitchen is a partner and solicitor advocate in the London office. His practice centers on complex commercial and financial litigation, with particular focus on competition-related collective proceedings and follow-on damages claims, as well as complex civil fraud and disputes arising under the ISDA Master Agreement. Leo’s experience encompasses acting for claimants and defendants in a wide variety of different courts and tribunals, both in the UK, and in various other jurisdictions as part of the large, multi-jurisdictional disputes. In recent years, Leo’s representations have included some of the largest competition-related disputes currently before the English Courts, such as the FX litigation, where he represents a group of asset managers and pension funds against a number of large investment banks, and the Merricks litigation, which is now the leading English authority in relation to the certification of collective proceedings. Leo has been recognized by Legal 500 UK in both their competition and banking litigation rankings, including being named as a Rising Star for banking litigation three years running.
Dan Koffmann is a partner in the New York office. He represents companies, boards of directors, and senior executives in sensitive matters involving criminal investigations and indictments, internal investigations, congressional inquiries, and other disputes with the government. He advises clients on a broad range of white collar issues, including alleged corruption, securities fraud and insider trading, tax evasion, accounting fraud, the False Claims Act, money laundering, sanctions evasion, and civil and criminal forfeiture proceedings. He also brings affirmative claims against government regulators and agencies when statutes, regulations, and other government actions infringe on clients’ rights. Dan’s practice is global, and the majority of his matters involve defending foreign individuals and organizations facing scrutiny from U.S. prosecutors and regulators.
Joachim is a partner and German qualified attorney (Rechtsanwalt) in the Hamburg office. He is a member of the Hamburg and the Brussels bar. Joachim has extensive trial and appellate experience and has represented numerous international clients in connection with the private enforcement of damages claims as well as in complex commercial and capital markets litigation including in model case proceedings (Kapitalanlegermusterverfahren).
Alexander Leventhal is a partner in the Paris office. Alexander has extensive expertise in international commercial arbitration spanning multiple sectors, including the hospitality, telecommunications, entertainment, financial, and other sectors. His practice focuses in large part on the energy sector where he has represented clients upstream and downstream. He currently serves the Publications Co-Chair for ITA, an arbitration think tank with a focus on the energy sector. He also acts as Energy Committee Secretary of the Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR) and sat on a committee that amended CPR’s Fast Track Rules.
Lucas Loviscek is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office with over a decade of experience successfully representing clients in investment and commercial arbitration and complex litigation. Lucas represents clients in high-stakes disputes and arbitrations administered under major rules and institutions such as the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), and UNCITRAL. His experience spans pre-dispute negotiation, discovery proceedings, merits hearings and enforcement of judicial decisions and awards. Lucas is qualified in the U.S. and in Argentina, and has extensive experience litigating under both civil and common law systems, including before courts in different jurisdictions throughout Latin America. Lucas has represented both plaintiffs and defendants in a variety of industries, including oil and gas, mining, maritime commerce, infrastructure, automobile, financial services, security, and telecommunications.
Catherine Mattes is a partner in the New York office. She focuses on complex litigation in the chemical, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology areas. She has extensive experience in patent litigation and counseling in a broad range of technologies, including all stages of patent litigation, ranging from pre-suit investigation and fact and expert discovery to trial, post-trial, and appeals. Catherine has represented innovative brand name pharmaceutical companies in complex Hatch-Waxman litigations against multiple defendants.
John McKee is a partner in the New York office. John focuses on high-stakes intellectual property disputes. He has a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and has applied his technical training to patent litigation matters including technologies such as the Android operating system, DOCSIS, automotive wireless hotspots, anti-malware software, LEDs, magnetic backup tapes, cellular baseband processors, 3G/4G cellular standards, and cloud infrastructure. John has litigated in federal district courts throughout the country, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the International Trade Commission, and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. Since 2019, he has been nationally ranked as one of the top litigators for petitioners at the PTAB.
Adam McWilliams is a partner in the London office and represents clients in disputes around the world. With extensive experience acting in international arbitration and cross-border cases, Adam has represented energy, infrastructure, construction, and natural resources clients in all manner of complex claims, and he is particularly experienced with major projects in the renewable energy sector. Having previously worked on assignment in the global disputes group at a major international bank in London, Adam also acts in high value finance, commercial, and civil fraud disputes. Adam is qualified in England and New York, as well as his native Australia where he began his legal career with a judicial clerkship for a judge of the Federal Court of Australia.
Karabeth Ovenden is a partner in the London office. She focuses on insolvency matters, over-the-counter derivative products risk management and related disputes, and complex commercial and tax disputes. Karabeth’s clients include insolvency officeholders, high-net-worth individuals and multi-national corporations. She has experience with a broad spectrum of disputes in both litigation and arbitration, often involving jurisdictional and cross-border elements.
Michelle Schmit is a partner in the Chicago office. She focuses on high stakes complex commercial litigation. Michelle has significant experience representing clients in antitrust, class action, contract, energy, environmental, product liability, patent, trade secret and securities disputes, among others. She has successfully represented plaintiffs and defendants in a variety of industries, including energy, pharmaceutical, and technology companies. Michelle has represented clients in a number of multi-billion dollar cases, and has substantial trial experience.
Dr. Simon Vorburger is a partner based in the Zurich office. He is a Swiss and New York qualified attorney. Simon’s practice focuses on both international commercial and investment treaty arbitration. He also represents parties in domestic and international litigation and advises clients in cross-border multi-jurisdictional disputes as well as pre-litigation strategy. His areas of specialization include energy and infrastructure projects, construction and engineering, manufacturing, disputes involving the financial industry, and long-term delivery and sales contracts. He also has extensive experience in insolvency-related issues, in particular the interplay between international disputes and cross-border insolvency proceedings.