Top Quinn Emanuel Partner Starts Over as Traffic Court Judge

Stephen Swedlow climbed to the top of a major law firm by landing some of the country’s biggest cases, making millions along the way.

Then, he traded his lucrative partnership for traffic court.

Swedlow, 52, last year left Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan after winning a seat as a judge in Illinois’ Cook County. The longtime Chicagoan has been presiding over DUI trials and traffic violations in the city’s downtown Loop for most of the past six months.

Partners at Big Law firms like Quinn Emanuel typically stay in the role until they retire for good, collecting paychecks that now can rival professional athletes. If they make a move for a robe and gavel, it’s usually on the federal bench.

Swedlow put up nearly $1 million of his own money for the privilege to toil at the lowest levels of the state’s judiciary. After leading a massive litigation that could net his former firm $185 million in fees, he’s making about the same as what Quinn Emanuel pays its first-year lawyers.

“People in Big Law say to themselves, ‘If I just get to this number, I can stop,’” Swedlow said in an interview, referring to how much money is enough to walk away. “So I made up a number. I got to that number, and I made up a new number. And then I got to that number, and I decided to stop and go into public service.”

“I think most people just keep making up new numbers,” he said.

Swedlow hopes to eventually become a civil trial court judge—where he’d put to use the skills he sharpened during his time in Big Law.

That dream is still a few years off—if it ever happens. For now, he’s trying to work his way up a new hierarchy that includes stops in traffic and small claims courts.

Judge Zoom Master

The fourth-floor courtrooms where Swedlow spent his first few months on the job hearing drunk-driving cases are low on frills. They don’t have judges’ names on them, and they’re empty apart from the judge and a clerk.

Swedlow handled as many as 300 traffic court cases a day, largely via Zoom.

He was assigned to Courtroom 405—the only one where defendants showed up in-person—for “major DUI” cases. They were far from the billion-dollar court fights featuring long witness lists and multiple days of arguments on which Swedlow built his career.

But, he loved the human drama and volunteered to take extra shifts of the live trials. Swedlow likened some of the lawyering he observed in the courtroom to scenes from “My Cousin Vinny.”

“It’s a totally, totally different experience from having two dozen associates who’d do everything administratively that I’d need done,” Swedlow said. “Before, I’d only go to a Zoom meeting that somebody sent me a link to. Then I became a judge and I had to organize the Zoom, create the breakout rooms. I became a Zoom master.”

Before jumping to the bench, Swedlow was managing partner of Quinn Emanuel’s Chicago office, where he led some of the firm’s biggest cases. He was the face of its relationship with Qualcomm, a major client, defending the chip giant in a trade secrets lawsuit by Apple Inc. He was also the court-appointed lead counsel in a large antitrust case against Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc.

His most prominent case was a suit on behalf of health insurance companies over unpaid Obamacare subsidies. The US Supreme Court ultimately ordered the federal government to pay insurers more than $12 billion, including $4 billion to Swedlow’s clients.

Quinn Emanuel was awarded about $185 million in fees for its lawyers’ work on the case, but the total payment is in limbo amid appeals.

Take the Money and Run?

Swedlow’s move to the bench baffled some of his law firm colleagues, said Andy Schapiro, a Quinn Emanuel partner who served as campaign chairman.

Swedlow was well liked by clients drawn to his confidence and colleagues who enjoyed his irreverent sense of humor, often expressed through firmwide reply-all emails, Schapiro said.

Still, Big Law was grueling work that consumed his excess mental energy and time, according to Swedlow, who cited frequent trips around the country for trials. He wanted to spend more time with his children—twin fifth-graders—who he now cooks dinner for most nights.

After 11 years as a partner at one of the most profitable firms in the country, Swedlow said he was no longer motivated to earn as much money as possible.

He’d already made a lot.

Quinn Emanuel’s average partner earned more than $52 million over the time that Swedlow was at the firm, according to data compiled by The American Lawyer. Swedlow declined to say just how much he took home as a partner, but noted that the AmLaw figure is the firm’s average profits per partner.

New Cook County judges are often former prosecutors, criminal defense attorneys, or public defenders. They earn a little more than $215,000 a year—Swedlow made $109,000 through May, according to the Illinois State Comptroller’s website.

It would take him nearly five years on his new salary just to repay what he spent running for the seat.

Swedlow self-funded his campaign with $950,000, according to Illinois State Board of Elections documents. His primary opponent, former prosecutor and defense attorney Jennifer Bae, spent about $90,000 on the race.

‘Theater and Intellectual Pursuit’

Only a handful of Big Law partners in Chicago have made the move to a state court seat.

They include Raymond Mitchell, who left Winston & Strawn and is now an Illinois appellate court judge, and Thomas Mulroy, who spent 15 years as a Cook County judge after a career at Jenner & Block. Michael Weaver became a Cook County judge last year, leaving his position as McDermott Will & Emery’s pro bono litigation partner.

Mitchell worked across Swedlow in one of the biggest cases in Illinois history, an appeal of a $10 billion tobacco case against Phillip Morris, which was overturned by the state’s highest court in the mid-2000s. Mitchell has advised Swedlow on his new career path, calling him “whip smart” and a “very accomplished lawyer.”

Mitchell acknowledged the pay at Big Law firms makes it difficult for partners to jump to the bench.

“It’s a factor in some people’s decision-making,” he said. “Just as I think it’s a factor if someone is offered the position of corporation counsel or US Attorney. The financial implications for the individual and their family is something they have to consider.”

Swedlow and other first-year judges were recently promoted out of traffic court.

He landed a spot in the municipal department, where he oversees low-dollar civil cases including small claims, personal injury, and evictions. Many of his cases are brought by credit-card companies seeking to collect debts.

Cook County’s Chief Judge Timothy Evans controls judicial assignments. Evans will decide if Swedlow ever gets to preside over complex civil trials, like those he used to put on as a lawyer. A move to the law division, where those cases are heard, could be years away.

“What I want to do is preside every day over a jury trial,” he said. “That’s my goal. It’s the best combination of theater and intellectual pursuit.”