Wilson Sonsini Snags Quinn Emanuel Practice Head for Patent Work

Jordan Jaffe has joined Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati as a partner in the firm’s patent litigation practice in San Francisco.

Jaffe, who had been chair of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan’s autonomous vehicle practice, has represented clients in intellectual property litigation, focusing on patents and trade secrets.

Clients need litigators like Jordan who “not only understand their advanced technology, but also have the skills and first-chair experience that are invaluable in high-stakes disputes,” said Doug Clark, managing partner at Wilson Sonsini, in a statement.

Jaffe joins other recent additions to Wilson Sonsini, including commercial litigator Susan Kay Leader, from Akin Gump Straus Hauer & Feld, in the firm’s Los Angeles office. Also joining was former Quinn Emanuel partner Amy Candido, who focuses on intellectual property, in the San Francisco office.

Wilson Sonsini’s revenues soared last year, surpassing $1 billion, and its profits per equity partner jumped to more than $3 million, as business grew in the tech and life sciences sectors.

The firm, founded in California in 1961, has a team of more than 200 litigators representing clients in matters from class action and commercial disputes to intellectual property and trade secrets.

Jaffe, who was at Quinn Emanuel for more than 14 years, specialized in working with emerging technologies, particularly autonomous vehicles and artificial intelligence.

He also has litigated matters concerning touch screen sensor design, cryptography, business intelligence software, network security, graphical user interfaces, object-oriented programming, and wireless network design. He has tried cases before the International Trade Commission and federal and state courts throughout the U.S.

Law firms, including Cooley LLP and Fenwick & West, with stables of tech and/or life sciences clients, did particularly well revenue-wise in 2020.

Cooley had almost $1.6 billion in gross revenues last year, ranking it among the country’s 20 largest firms, according to data compiled by The American Lawyer. At Fenwick & West, where revenues have steadily climbed to exceed $543 million in 2020, leaders have said its technology and life sciences clients are growing rapidly and driving “incredible demand” for mergers and acquisition services.