Insight on Quinn Emmanuel? Forum

[Anonymous User]

I'm a current COA clerk and considering my lateral options. I have the option to return to my pre-clerkship firm (V10) but I've also been approached by Quinn Emmanuel. I'm curious to know more about people's experiences working there and prospects for promotion

[Anonymous User]

Also curious to hear the answer to this, but as a 2L with a Quinn CB.

[Anonymous User]

I'm a 2L with a Quinn offer, and would love insight on this as well. It's much harder to find information about Quinn from standard online resources. From what I've gathered so far, they are polarizing and certainly not for everyone... but they seem to do amazing work.

[Anonymous User]

No firsthand experience, but worked with two former QE associates and a former QE associate at a V30 pre-AUSA. LA and SV associates were absolutely miserable, hated it. DC QE associate seemed happy enough, said his partner did interesting work and encouraged the USAO route. But he still left and said he had no desire to return. All that said, as with BL and any firm generally, and it depends on you, who you are, and what you want—hard to generalize.

[Anonymous User]

2L with Quinn offer as well. Would love insight

[Anonymous User]

Same here - 2L with offer. Heard some toxic stories.

[infiltratefgirl5374]

Same here - 2L with offer. Heard some toxic stories.

What office? How long did you get your offer after callback?

[Anonymous User]

Spoke to 3L at my school who summered at their DC office during 2L (2 years ago so it was in-person) said they work you very hard i.e. several nights until midnight and having to do something almost every weekend. She also said they were very stingy - that when they would have to go in to do work on weekends they would need to ask the client if they could turn on the A/C because it would be billed to them. Conversely, another person that summered at their Boston office said it was great, but a lot of work.

[Anonymous User]

Associate, my best friend from law school worked at Quinn. Toxic fucking place.

First of all, the hours were miserable for basically market. Billing 3k ish hours - and not easy ones. Second, the firm has very little support (staff, etc) and they’re all overworked, so there is way more miserable tedious shit than at least at my conventional BL lit shop. Third, some of the partners are legitimately psychopaths: sexual harassment, yelling, fired a paralegal for fun in front of associates as some sort of power move. Fourth, Quinn does some shady work and some shady things in the course of litigation; without outing my buddy, he was basically asked to do borderline illegal and definitely unethical things with respect to documents, discovery process, and representations to the court. Fifth, the firm is just cheap with the associates. Whereas I get pretty good travel perks and our office has plenty of free stuff, is comfortable, etc, Quinn is like some sort of mental institution with bare walls, cheap furniture, economy flex seats for long trips, etc.

[Anonymous User]

Current Quinn associate who came from COA clerkship. Happy to answer general questions, although maybe not office-specific questions.

[Anonymous User]

Current Quinn associate who came from COA clerkship. Happy to answer general questions, although maybe not office-specific questions.

What (dis)advantages does Quinn offer over BL firms that are also solid in litigation, e.g. S&C and CSM? What types of people do well or do not do well at Quinn?

[Anonymous User]

Current Quinn associate who came from COA clerkship. Happy to answer general questions, although maybe not office-specific questions.

What (dis)advantages does Quinn offer over BL firms that are also solid in litigation, e.g. S&C and CSM? What types of people do well or do not do well at Quinn?

S&C associate here who was choosing btwn CSM S&C and QE. I think it's a fact that you will get more hands-on experience with trial work going to QE. I chose S&C because I wasn't 100% sure on trial work and knew I was leaving for clerkship after 2 years at the firm so thought having the name/network/experience on huge cases couldn't hurt. I've been able to some real substantive work (not just doc review but brief writing/depo prep etc.) but people at QE get thrown into the deep end far faster. You will work extremely hard at both the elite biglaw firms and QE so it's really about 1. are you 100% sure you want to be a trial litigator and 2. cultural fit.

[Anonymous User]

Current Quinn associate who came from COA clerkship. Happy to answer general questions, although maybe not office-specific questions.

What (dis)advantages does Quinn offer over BL firms that are also solid in litigation, e.g. S&C and CSM? What types of people do well or do not do well at Quinn?

S&C associate here who was choosing btwn CSM S&C and QE. I think it's a fact that you will get more hands-on experience with trial work going to QE. I chose S&C because I wasn't 100% sure on trial work and knew I was leaving for clerkship after 2 years at the firm so thought having the name/network/experience on huge cases couldn't hurt. I've been able to some real substantive work (not just doc review but brief writing/depo prep etc.) but people at QE get thrown into the deep end far faster. You will work extremely hard at both the elite biglaw firms and QE so it's really about 1. are you 100% sure you want to be a trial litigator and 2. cultural fit.

QE associate from above. I generally agree with this. I also get the sense that QE generally handles a wider variety of cases than S&C/Cravath/etc. As far as getting substantive litigation experience, I have been happy at QE. S&C anon is right that you will work hard anywhere. Harder to “hide” at QE though I think.

[Anonymous User]

Current Quinn associate who came from COA clerkship. Happy to answer general questions, although maybe not office-specific questions.

What (dis)advantages does Quinn offer over BL firms that are also solid in litigation, e.g. S&C and CSM? What types of people do well or do not do well at Quinn?

I think S&C anon explained first question well. For types of people who do well—self-starters, don’t require a lot of hand-holding, etc. Not a ton of structure at QE to make sure you are advancing your career in the right direction, but you can do it yourself to a large extent with free market assignment system, etc.

[Anonymous User]

so it's really about 1. are you 100% sure you want to be a trial litigator and 2. cultural fit.

Could you (or anyone) clarify the bolded? Trial litigator as opposed to what? Arbitrator? Transactional lawyer? Appellate lawyer (and if so, does any SA position really offer a significant difference in regard to that rarified air)?

[Anonymous User]

so it's really about 1. are you 100% sure you want to be a trial litigator and 2. cultural fit.

Could you (or anyone) clarify the bolded? Trial litigator as opposed to what? Arbitrator? Transactional lawyer? Appellate lawyer (and if so, does any SA position really offer a significant difference in regard to that rarified air)?

S&c anon - clients are trying to avoid trial as much as possible so that changes the nature of your work as a litigator. Much more advisory work (how do we avoid liability?) and your work revolves around strategizing to a resolution prior to trial. We obviously work as if trial is possible (and sometimes it happens) but QE partners are actually in courtroom and want to be (bc often on plaintiff side). Just a different type of work but had its benefits/drawbacks

[Anonymous User]

so it's really about 1. are you 100% sure you want to be a trial litigator and 2. cultural fit.

Could you (or anyone) clarify the bolded? Trial litigator as opposed to what? Arbitrator? Transactional lawyer? Appellate lawyer (and if so, does any SA position really offer a significant difference in regard to that rarified air)?

S&c anon - clients are trying to avoid trial as much as possible so that changes the nature of your work as a litigator. Much more advisory work (how do we avoid liability?) and your work revolves around strategizing to a resolution prior to trial. We obviously work as if trial is possible (and sometimes it happens) but QE partners are actually in courtroom and want to be (bc often on plaintiff side). Just a different type of work but had its benefits/drawbacks

QE anon, and once again I agree with my S&C colleague. I will also add that QE is substituted in for counsel very regularly (maybe a third of my cases we are replacement counsel?) when it looks like things won’t resolve and trial is becoming likely.

[Anonymous User]

so it's really about 1. are you 100% sure you want to be a trial litigator and 2. cultural fit.

Could you (or anyone) clarify the bolded? Trial litigator as opposed to what? Arbitrator? Transactional lawyer? Appellate lawyer (and if so, does any SA position really offer a significant difference in regard to that rarified air)?

S&c anon - clients are trying to avoid trial as much as possible so that changes the nature of your work as a litigator. Much more advisory work (how do we avoid liability?) and your work revolves around strategizing to a resolution prior to trial. We obviously work as if trial is possible (and sometimes it happens) but QE partners are actually in courtroom and want to be (bc often on plaintiff side). Just a different type of work but had its benefits/drawbacks

QE anon, and once again I agree with my S&C colleague. I will also add that QE is substituted in for counsel very regularly (maybe a third of my cases we are replacement counsel?) when it looks like things won’t resolve and trial is becoming likely.

[Anonymous User]

I imagine that the clerkship bonus leads many clerks to QE. But does QE set its associates up for future clerkships? That is, how many QE associates leave to clerk (esp. for a second time), whether or not they come back?

[Anonymous User]

I imagine that the clerkship bonus leads many clerks to QE. But does QE set its associates up for future clerkships? That is, how many QE associates leave to clerk (esp. for a second time), whether or not they come back?

QE anon. Not uncommon at all for QE associates to leave to clerk (either first or second time). As for whether QE "sets its associates up" for future clerkships, not sure what you mean. It is a top tier firm that will get noticed on a clerkship application application. When I was clerking on COA, experienced applicants from ~V15 were all more or less interchangeable.