Quinn Emanuel Snags New NYC Space, Doubles Down on Flexibility

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan has signed a 132,000 square-foot lease in New York’s Midtown South Textile Building, where the firm plans to build out a flexible office to match its work-from-anywhere policy.

The building at 295 Fifth Ave. recently underwent a $350 million redevelopment. The firm plans to move into three consecutive floors in the space by the end of next year, said Jennifer Barrett, co-managing partner of Quinn Emanuel’s New York office.

With more than 1,000 lawyers, Quinn Emanuel is one of the largest litigation firms in the country, bringing in more than $1.6 billion in 2022, according data from The American Lawyer. The firm is well-known for bringing major cases against banks following the 2008 financial crisis, and has since represented major clients including Elon Musk.

Quinn Emanuel is rare among Big Law firms for keeping a highly flexible “work-from-anywhere” office policy following the Covid-19 pandemic. Its New York office will be designed with that in mind: The roughly 300 lawyers will be given the option to have traditional “name plate” offices or choose to work out of “hoteling” space depending on how frequently they come into the office, Barrett said.

The Midtown South Textile Building

Photo rendering courtesy of CBRE, Inc.

“We’ve got a great opportunity to take all that we learned about how people work to build a great office that hopefully makes people want to come there in the manner that works best for them,” Barrett said in an interview.
The firm’s work-from-anywhere policy has allowed flexibility for young families and lawyers living in non-traditional Big Law locations, Barrett said. But the New York office still values in-office collaboration, she added.

The new space will be designed to foster that, featuring more lounge and café-like areas, Barrett said. The three floors will be connected by a large atrium, a major change from the firm’s current office at 51 Madison Ave., near Madison Square Park, where the space is spread across 10 floors.

The Textile Building lease is for about the same size as Quinn Emanuel’s current office. Barrett said the firm won’t rely on lawyers’ current work patterns to determine how they will choose to work in the new space.

“It’s going to be an entirely new type of space, so peoples’ choices may be different than what they are in the existing space,” Barrett said. “We’re not trying to lock anybody’s choices in.”