Job Title: Associate
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Submitted on: 31-Mar-04
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Quinn Emanuel is a mid-size litigation firm headquartered in Los Angeles,
with offices in New York, Silicon Valley, San Francisco, San Diego. It
is an elite firm of top-notch litigators with a unique culture. Almost
all the attorneys are from top 6 law schools with a plurality being from
Harvard. Quinn's various mottos include "suits optional" and "winning is
what we do best." Those mottos sum up Quinn's two distinguishing
features: (1) totally casual dress code (shorts and t-shirt, not Banana
Republic and J. Crew); and (2) totally devoted trial lawyers. Quinn is
fairly diverse. Although I don't know the overall numbers, I do know the
stats for my class. I am class of 2002, and my class consists of 11
lawyers. Of those 11 lawyers, 3 are hispanic males, 1 is a hispanic
female, 2 are Asian females, 1 is an Asian male, 3 are white women, and 1
is a white male. Obviously, this is not representative of the overall
diversity of the firm, but it is indicative of the open attitude towards
diversity at the firm.
The hours at Quinn are reputed to be among the longest in LA, and I
believe it. Recently (beginning of March) we received a memo stating
that although there are no minimum requirements, Quinn associates are
expected to bill 2000 hours a year, and if they bill less than 1900 there
needs to be some sort of good excuse. In addition, the nature of
litigation and Quinn's slavish devotion to winning means that if you are
a well liked associate you will often have to work long, long hours in
preparation for trial. Finally, with regard to hours, bonuses are tied
to billables. This seems fair, because at other firms associates who
work the longest hours often end up with minimum wage type salaries.
The opportunities for advancement are good. Quinn prides itself on
having a 6 year partnership track and it is not unheard of for associates
to make partner in 5,4 or in one, very unusual case, 3 years.
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