John Quinn Says Timing of His Firm Leadership Exit Is ‘Logical’

John Quinn has been celebrating the 40th anniversary of the law firm he founded by expounding on what he has learned running it all these years. Sunday, he seemed to give one more lesson: Don’t be sentimental about your exit.

He abruptly resigned from the executive committee at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan in a five-sentence email to firm partners on Mother’s Day morning. He’ll remain a partner at the firm and have a non-executive chair title.

“Some recent events make now an opportune time” to step away, Quinn told his partners in the email obtained by Bloomberg Law. “So I am resigning from Execom and relinquishing my managerial responsibilities effective today.”

On Monday, Quinn said the “recent events” he was referring to were the four years since he named Mike Carlinsky and Bill Burck as co-managing partners, noting their elevation in May 2022. The timing of his exit, he told Bloomberg Law in an email, is “logical.”

“I am spending more time traveling globally, and this will free me to do more of that,” Quinn told Bloomberg Law. “I am freer now and am resolved to double down on practice and growth.”

Quinn, 74, has been a major presence in Big Law after founding what became the world’s largest litigation firm, with more than 1,300 lawyers and nearly $3 billion in revenue last year. His departure is unlikely to change the trajectory of an operation that has grown so much that it isn’t overly reliant on any one person.

In recent years, the litigators driving the firm’s top line have included Burck, Carlinsky and Alex Spiro, the lawyer for Elon Musk, Jay-Z, former New York Mayor Eric Adams and others. A founder who has called law firm management a “misnomer,” Quinn empowered Carlinsky and Burck to run the firm.

The duo have ambitious growth plans. In an article published the same day Quinn resigned from leadership, Carlinsky said he could envision headcount growing to 1,500 lawyers in two years. That’s roughly a one-third increase.

In an interview published last month, Quinn summed up his view of their work: “So far, so good.” (He also said, “I’m not going anywhere.”)

Blunt Approach

In announcing his leadership departure to his partners, Quinn took his typical blunt, direct approach—not even bothering to fix a typo in his message. “My sole forcus (sic) will be to work tirelessly to grow our firm to even greater heights,” he told partners.

He invited conversations from them. In his Monday email to Bloomberg Law, he said, “The level of my contact with and interaction with partners will not change.” He added, “My hopes for the firm are that it will continue to grow and have tremendous success – as I expect it will.”

Quinn’s interests in recent years have expanded beyond practicing law or running a law firm.

He has launched a podcast that he says has been downloaded more than 1 million times. He’s promoted the firm’s program housing artists in its offices (which have space available due to the firm’s lack of an in-office work requirement). And he has traveled the globe as he’s become something of an expert on Asian disputes jurisdictions. (He sees India as a growing source of legal work for top firms, for instance.)

In that way, he stands out from lawyers who have never found, or perhaps never looked for, other outlets for their passions.

Some founders of successful law firms often work into their 80s or 90s. Marty Lipton, the 94-year-old cofounder of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, is still involved at his firm. David Boies, who crossed paths with Quinn at Cravath, Swaine & Moore before founding Boies Schiller Flexner, stepped down from management in his mid-80s after years of false-start succession planning.

Around that time in 2024, Boies appeared on Quinn’s podcast, where the two discussed how Boies’ firm had backed away from a discussion about merging with Quinn Emanuel decades ago.

“You let us down gently,” Quinn told Boies.