The law firm of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges LLP is having the kind of year that any of its competitors would envy.
The firm realized a 25 percent gain in revenues last year that produced $160 million, good enough to raise it 20 notches to No. 125 among the country’s top 200 law firms, according to American Lawyer magazine’s annual report on mid-sized law firms released this month.
The firm has been focused on patent infringement suits, the latest of which involved a Phoenix telecommunications firm that won a $128 million verdict against Cingular Wireless Inc., AT & T; Wireless and other carriers for infringing on its patented prepaid wireless telephone systems. Among Quinn Emanuel’s other cases last year was a $40 million suit filed on behalf of Mel Gibson’s Icon Productions Inc., which claimed Regal Entertainment Group failed to pay box office receipts for “The Passion of the Christ.” The firm also won a $192 million settlement for two businessmen in Santa Barbara who claimed Bertelsmann AG, their former employer, cheated them out of money in the sale of the German company’s online business.
“Those offices in New York and Northern California are just overwhelmed with work,” said partner William Urquhart. “We have more people in each of the offices, and they’re simply busier.”
Other law firm gainers in the American Lawyer report were: Loeb & Loeb, which jumped 16.2 percent to $121.5 million in revenues last year; Irell & Manella, up 13 percent to $199 million; Munger Tolles & Olson, up 12.5 percent to $153 million; and Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP, up 12.4 percent to $181 million. Jeffer Mangels Butler & Marmaro LLP had a slight gain of 5 percent to $103 million, while Allen Matkins Leck Gamble & Mallory increased 2.2 percent to $113.5 million.
The magazine’s August report ranks firms that place between 100 and 200 in the nation as measured by their annual revenues. The magazine released its top 100 ranking of the biggest firms in July.
Comings & Goings
Silvia Saucedo, commissioner for the Department of Water & Power and the L.A. Police Commission, has joined the real estate and land use practice at Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman Machtinger & Kinsella LLP from Allen Matkins Leck Gamble & Mallory LLP Los Angeles-based Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP represented ArtistDirect Inc. in the recent $42.5 million cash purchase of MediaDefender Inc. A group comprised of 14 lawyers in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington D.C. represented the local company in its acquisition of the anti-piracy firm Keesal Young & Logan, a Long Beach maritime law firm with offices in Hong Kong, San Francisco, Seattle and Anchorage, Alaska, has expanded to Europe with the hiring of David Taylor, of counsel in London.
*Staff reporter Amanda Bronstad can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 225, or at
[email protected]
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