Quinn Emanuel, a national litigation-focused law firm, is expected to announce in the next few days that it is opening an office in Dallas with one Texas attorney and a partner from New York.
The Texas Lawbook has learned that the Los Angeles-based 800-plus lawyer firm has hired Burns Charest partner Will Thompson as its inaugural DFW partner.
The firm is also moving New York partner Elinor Sutton, who specializes in intellectual property, telecommunications and energy litigation, to Dallas later this month. Sutton represents clients including IBM and Qualcomm.
Dallas will be Quinn Emanuel’s third office in Texas and its 25th globally. American Lawyer reported that Quinn Emanuel’s 2020 revenues were $1.3 billion, with revenues per lawyer at more than $1.58 million and profits per partner of nearly $4.67 million.
“We are very excited about Will joining the firm because he is a remarkable talent,” Karl Stern, Quinn Emanuel’s Houston managing partner, told The Texas Lawbook Wednesday. “The firm already has a lot of work going on in Dallas, and we think there is a lot of opportunity for a firm like ours with such a deep bench of trial lawyers.”
Quinn opened its Houston office in 2014 and now has 16 lawyers in H-town. The firm opened its Austin office this past January and has eight lawyers – most of whom specialize in IP litigation – in the Texas capital.
Will Thompson clerked for Southern District of Texas Chief Judge Lee Rosenthal and spent one year as an associate for Susman Godfrey. In 2015, Thompson jumped to Burns Charest.
Born and raised in the mountains of Western Montana, Thompson played professional baseball from 2004 to 2007 before going to law school.
“Will Thompson is the absolute best person to start the Dallas office of Quinn Emanuel,” said DFW legal recruiter Randy Block of Performance Legal Placement. “He is a tough competitor going back to his days in the San Francisco Giants baseball organization and has the brains you would expect of a Stanford Law grad.
“I pitched the idea of starting the office to Will, and he was immediately excited by it,” Block said. “John Quinn was equally enthusiastic about Will from the start. Many top firms were interested in adding Will, but he has always been focused on Quinn.”
Thompson’s bio on the Burns Charest website – which has been deleted, but a cache copy is available – states that the San Francisco Giants drafted him in the seventh round of the 2004 MLB draft.
“In his professional baseball career, Will won a batting title after hitting .384 for the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes, was named to multiple All-Star teams, was a member of multiple league championships and reached the AAA level before his career was cut short due to an injury,” the bio states.