Litigation-only Big Law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP has had a busy several months, most recently capped off by an expansion into Delaware.

The downtown-based firm made the expansion into Wilmington, Delaware, in January with the hiring of Michael Barlow as a partner. Quinn Emanuel is locating office space in close proximity to the courts in Wilmington and plans to immediately grow its headcount there.

“I am thrilled to be joining Quinn Emanuel, widely acknowledged as the world’s preeminent business litigation firm,” Barlow said in a statement. “The firm is already well known and highly respected in Delaware, and I look forward to helping them expand here and continue bringing in big wins for clients.”

The firm characterized the move as a logical step given its larger involvement with companies in the state and Delaware’s reputation as a magnet for incorporation.

Barlow brings with him a wealth of experience in Delaware’s legal system and had previously co-counseled nearly a dozen cases with Quinn Emanuel. His addition will in particular bolster the firm’s mergers and acquisitions practice, thanks to the number of companies that incorporate in the state.

“Our M&A litigation practice has exploded in the last few years – nowhere more so than in the (Delaware) Court of Chancery and, increasingly, Superior Court,” Andrew Rossman, chair of M&A litigation, said in a statement.

Delaware isn’t the only new market for Quinn Emanuel in the past year.

In September the firm expanded into the United Arab Emirates, with new offices in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi that will handle commercial and financial disputes and cross-border arbitration. Quinn Emanuel isn’t the first L.A.-based Big Law firm to invest in the UAE recently; downtown’s Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP has also bolstered its Middle East presence there, as well as in the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh. Last spring, the firm added an office in Beijing to join its other mainland China location in Shanghai.