London-based litigator Paul Friedman is to leave Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan after just over a year at the firm. Friedman is the second partner to leave the US firm this year after a nine year period with no partner exits.
Friedman, who specialises in both litigation and arbitration, had previously spent nearly 13 years as head of banking disputes and commercial fraud at Clyde & Co.
It is understood Friedman will join national firm Gunnercooke within the next month. Quinn co-managing partner of the London office Richard East commented: ‘Paul has decided to move on to a new challenge and we wish him the very best.’
While at Quinn, Friedman acted on various high-profile mandates, including acting for a US based global investment bank in relation to a structured investment vehicle with $5bn under management. Friedman also represented a Japanese investment bank and a Japanese securities finance company in relation to the Lehman collapse.
Friedman also spent a large amount of time working in the Middle East whilst at Quinn, representing high net worth individuals and private equity houses based in Israel.
The departure of Friedman signals the second partner exit from Quinn this year, after Martin Davies left in January. Davies, who quit to join Latham & Watkins, had been with the firm since 2010 and had acted on the Royal Bank of Scotland’s £4bn rights issue litigation.
However Quinn has made some hires in Europe, with Stephen Mavroghenis and Miguel Rato joining the firm’s Brussels office from Shearman & Sterling. Mavroghenis was previously the practice group leader of Shearman’s worldwide antitrust practice while Rato was a litigation partner focused on competition law issues.
Quinn has also announced it is increasing its office space by half, via a move into a floor of Olswang’s 90 High Holborn premises. The move has increased the amount of space Quinn occupies from 18,000 sq ft to 27,000 sq ft.
tom.baker@legalease.co.uk