Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP announced today that Stephen Swedlow has joined the firm as partner in the Chicago office. Swedlow has 15 years of trial and appellate experience representing clients ranging from public corporations and individuals and classes in high-profile, complex and high-stakes matters. He has been repeatedly selected as a “Top Attorney” by Legal News. Swedlow was a Trial Lawyer of the Year Finalist in 2003 by the Trial Lawyer for Public Justice.

Swedlow has first-chaired jury trials, managed large litigation teams, and argued important appeals, including several before state Supreme Courts. He works primarily in the areas of intellectual property, class action, and complex commercial litigation. He previously led the trial team that obtained a $10 billion trial verdict against Philip Morris USA on behalf of a class of purchasers for claims of statutory consumer fraud relating to the marketing of Marlboro Lights cigarettes.  Swedlow has also been retained by foreign governments to provide guidance and expertise with respect to tobacco litigation and regulation.

“We have tried cases with and against Steve. We have seen him at work and we like what we saw.  We are delighted to be adding another very experienced and successful jury trial lawyer to our deep bench,” said Managing Partner John Quinn.   

Dave Nelson, managing partner of the firm’s Chicago office echoed Quinn’s view. “We have done 6 trials this year in our office.  It will be nice to have another jury trial lawyer here. It is a bonus that he likes to try Intellectual Property cases because we have a lot of them here.”  

Swedlow said: “I love to try big cases and aspire to be a part of the winning team on the largest, most complex cases. Quinn Emanuel tries far more of them than any other firm in the United States  I have tried cases with and against Quinn partners. No other firm compares to Quinn Emanuel in terms of trial skill and the quantity of true trial lawyers.”  

Swedlow is a summa cum laude graduate of The Ohio State University Law School where he was an editor of The Ohio State Law Journal.  After graduation he clerked for Judge Jerome Farris on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.  He then practiced for five years as a ligation attorney at Latham & Watkins, serving as lead counsel in computer software preliminary injunction hearings,  patent licensing arbitrations and participating in patent jury trials.  Swedlow left Latham ultimately to form his own firm of Swedlow & Associates specializing in complex class action and commercial contingency litigation.

Swedlow is the second high profile lateral partner to join Quinn Emanuel’s Chicago office in the last month.  In October Andy Schapiro joined the firm from Mayer Brown LLP.