Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP, has been cultivating the persona of an eccentric genius—shocking the often-staid legal world with its unorthodox approach while impressing it with sweeping successes in the courtroom. This global litigation firm has always had its own style: Partners wear flip-flops, many cases are litigated through an in-house mock trial system before they go to trial, and the firm eschews work from Wall Street banks because it can earn more by suing large financial institutions than by catering to them.

Young but Mighty

Founded in 1986, Quinn Emanuel is now firmly established as the go-to counsel for some of the biggest and most difficult litigation matters. The firm represents many of the world’s leading companies, including Google; the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; Samsung; Tesla; Netflix; Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.; Charter Communications; Salesforce; the Berkeley Research Group; Uniper Global Commodities SE; AIG; Qualcomm; Hyundai Motors; IBM; NVIDIA; and OpenAI.

Quinn Emanuel has 33 offices worldwide and has exported its litigation-only model to 18 non-U.S. offices in 12 countries. Since 2020, the firm has added offices in Abu Dhabi, Atlanta, Austin, Berlin, Dallas, Miami, Riyadh, Singapore, and Wilmington. As of 2026, the firm has more than 1,300 attorneys across the firm.

Trial Lawyers

The No. 1 firm in Vault’s General Commercial Litigation category, Quinn Emanuel’s litigation experience is broad. The firm advises on antitrust, appellate, bankruptcy, corporate disputes, environmental, insurance, intellectual property (IP), international, life sciences, media and entertainment, products liability, and other matters. Its largest practice is IP, and more than 200 lawyers at the firm hold degrees in hard sciences or engineering. The firm also boasts a notable appellate practice with extensive experience before the U.S. Supreme Court, federal courts of appeal, and state appellate courts.

Reaching the Summit

Some firms treat their attorneys to dinners or tickets to a game. Quinn takes its crew hiking—and we’re not talking about a local trail in the firm’s backyard. Associates and partners pack their bags and head to locations around the world. Past locations have included Interlaken in Switzerland, the Dolomites in Italy, Taos in New Mexico, the Talkeetna Mountains in Alaska, The Laugavegur Trail in Iceland, and the Andes Mountains in Cusco in Peru.

• Quinn Emanuel secured a critical patent ruling for The Broad Institute, Inc., in a dispute over foundational CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing patents. In 2026, the PTAB issued a decision on remand from the Federal Circuit confirming Broad’s entitlement to its foundational patents directed to the use of CRISPR-Cas9 in eukaryotic cells (including humans, other mammals, and plants) and securing four favorable rulings in two interference proceedings before the PTAB and Federal Circuit. 
• Quinn Emanuel secured a landmark trial victory for Desktop Metal, obtaining an order of specific performance requiring Nano Dimension to complete its $300 million acquisition despite attempts to derail the deal.
• In the largest U.S. mass tort case to date, Quinn Emanuel helped secure a $6.01 billion settlement from 3M Company on behalf of over 250,000 active U.S. servicemembers injured by defective combat earplugs. The firm helped obtain over $16 million in bellwether jury verdicts and later played a role in convincing the Bankruptcy Court to dismiss a bad-faith petition from 3M. In the end, 4,000 veterans collected more than $8 million in fees from the bankruptcy estate, defeating an objection by the United States Trustee. 
• In the largest compensation dispute in corporate history, the Delaware Supreme Court reversed the Court of Chancery’s decision to rescind Elon Musk's $56 billion Tesla compensation package, finding that the remedy left Musk uncompensated for six years of work that had created hundreds of billions in shareholder value.

• General Commercial Firm of the Year, 2026—Benchmark Litigation
• Fearsome Foursome, 2026—BTI Consulting 
• Named Most Feared in the world 2026—BTI Consulting
• International Arbitration Team of the Year, 2025—Chambers UK
• Ranked in the GAR 100 and GAR 30 for Top International Arbitration Practice, 2026—Global Arbitration Review