Legal Pad

Quinn Defers First-Years in Bay Area

Quinn Emanuel has deferred eight incoming associates in its San Francisco and Silicon Valley offices until January, firm chairman John Quinn said Wednesday.

In an email, Quinn wrote that it was a “question of managing their absorption into the work flow of the firm.”

“the numbers were such that we feared we couldn't do a good job of it and there wouldn't be enuf work for all of them if they arrived at once,” Quinn wrote in his characteristic no-caps, shorthand style.

more details 4 u after the jump

Quinn Culls "A Few" Staffers

When you pay your partners over $3 million a year, we guess it’s pretty hard to fess up that you’ve had to fire people.

But so far, Quinn Emanuel has fessed up, at least a couple of times. Most recently, this morning. Legal Pad emailed John Quinn to ask about rumors that the firm is quietly doing layoffs this week. His reply:

It is true that some staff have been laid off. Not lawyers

When asked how many staff, or what portion of the workforce, Quinn wrote:

It was a few secretaries, mostly for hourly contract lawyers — which we dont use as much as we have in the past.

Quinn likes its layoffs pretty quiet. We’ve heard some crazy stories about how they do it. One tipster a few months ago said people who were let go in 2008 had to sign something swearing them to secrecy for six months, at the end of which they’d receive their severance. We assumed the same technique might have been used in their first round of layoffs this year, but Quinn said then that was “absolutely false.”

— Amanda Royal

A (Vague) Chat With John Quinn about Layoffs

Those who were hoping litigation would be the silver lining in this economy, think again.

Litigation powerhouse Quinn Emmanuel said Wednesday it has conducted layoffs for “lack of work,” but Legal Pad was unable to confirm how many staff and attorneys were let go in which of Quinn’s seven offices.

The legal blog Above the Law first reported the layoffs after tips from readers. Firm Chairman John Quinn’s response to the blog: “A handful of people have been let go for lack of work. 25 is wildly inaccurate.”

Statistics, wild inaccuracies and a letter from John Quinn, after the jump.

Vanishing Value in Facebook Settlement

That most highly confidential Facebook-ConnectU settlement actually turns out not to be really all that confidential.

On Tuesday, Cal Law reported that ConnectU’s former lawyers at Quinn Emanuel accidentally published the value of the settlement — $65 million — in a marketing brochure.

Then, last night the Associated Press took advantage of a court-hearing transcript that wasn’t redacted properly. The AP was able copy the text from under the black lines in the electronic version of the transcript and discovered that the settlement was equal to $20 million in cash and 1,253,326 shares of Facebook common stock.

The value of that stock has been at the center of the bitter dispute over the settlement. With Quinn Emanuel at the negotiating table last February, ConnectU thought it was getting $20 million plus Facebook stock worth $35.90 a share, which was based on Facebook’s $15 billion valuation. That would’ve made the stock portion of the settlement worth $45 million and the whole thing worth $65 million, as Quinn crowed in its marketing piece.

But it turned out that Facebook had actually valued itself at $3.75 billion, making those shares worth just $8.88. That would make the stock portion worth just $11 million and the whole settlement worth $31 million. ConnectU founders Cameron and Tyler Winkelvoss were pretty unhappy, and they fired Quinn Emanuel and tried to get Judge James Ware to toss the settlement, but to no avail.

This latest revelation makes Quinn’s advertising the $65 million settlement even more interesting and also seems to explain the firm’s fee fight with ConnectU. Now in arbitration, Quinn claims that it’s owed $13 million by ConnectU. If the settlement was worth $65 million, then a $13 million fee is modest as these things go, but if the deal was only worth $31 million it would amount to a cut of just over 40 percent. That’s probably more than ConnectU wanted to pay.

— Zusha Elinson

2008 Results: It's Good to be the Quinn

Times are tough all over, unless by all over you include Quinn Emanuel.  The high-end litigation boutique reported stellar results for 2008. While other firms reporting to date have also scored increased gross revenue, the growth has mostly been lackluster, and sometimes PPP took a tumble.  Then, says the AmLaw Daily, came Quinn:

In tough times, it's good to specialize in bet-the-company litigation. Revenue at 400-lawyer Quinn Emanuel Urquardt Oliver & Hedges was $441.9 million in 2008, up 15 percent from 2007's $384.5 million.

Profits jumped 10 percent, from $237.5 million in 2007 to $260 million last year. Profits per partner — already near the top of the Am Law 100 in 2007 — rose 11 percent to $3.3 million. Quinn Emanuel has 78 equity partners.

No wonder a Quinn associate felt comfortable last fall taking time off to tape a season of "The Amazing Race." We just don't know how the firm could've spared her ...

Recent results stories:
Legal Pad: Everybody Wins! (incl. Goodwin, Paul Weiss)
Legal Pad: Sweet Results Roundup (incl. Bingham, Reed Smith)
Cal Law: Bay Area firm numbers & stories

— Brian McDonough

ConnectU Aims to Sue Quinn for Malpractice?

A special master handling the settlement in the Facebook-ConnectU case revealed in a court filing that the testy relationship between ConnectU and its former lawyers at Quinn Emanuel has gotten even testier: The ConnectU founders have threatened to sue the firm for malpractice.

A quick refresher: ConnectU founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss sued Facebook founder and Harvard pal Mark Zuckerberg, accusing him of stealing their ideas to start his hotter-than-hot social networking site. After reaching a settlement earlier this year, ConnectU said it had been hoodwinked by Facebook about the value of the company’s stock and so got gypped out of big payout. The company tried to back out of the deal and fired its lawyers at Quinn Emanuel, the high-profile L.A. trial firm that advised on the settlement. Then Quinn filed a lien against any money ConnectU would recover from Facebook.

John Quinn

San Jose Federal Judge James Ware ruled that the settlement should be enforced and appointed special master George Fisher to do the enforcing. In his report, Fisher writes that the “ConnectU shareholders have threatened a malpractice action against Quinn Emanuel” without explaining much more. Fisher also relates that there is currently an arbitration in New York State Supreme Court between the firm and ConnectU over the fee dispute.

Reached by email Friday evening, John Quinn, head honcho at Quinn Emanuel, wrote back: "I think they owe us $ and are trying to create leverage by asserting spurious claims."

—  Zusha Elinson