Cole, Griffin join as partners in Texas capital that is also burgeoning tech hub
LOS ANGELES – Wrapping up a year that extended its reputation as the world’s top business litigation firm, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP announced today it has opened an office in Austin, Texas. Two lateral partners based there – Scott L. Cole and Asher B. Griffin – joined the firm today, complementing two other Quinn Emanuel partners to form the core of the Austin presence.
“We are very excited about expanding into Austin. Clearly, it is a boom town attracting the cream of the U.S. tech sector as well as billions of dollars in new investment. As always, we go where the clients are. The Western District of Texas has become one of the most important litigation forums in the country, particularly for patent cases,” said firm founder John B. Quinn. “Our Houston office is already thriving, and our dominance in intellectual property work makes us an especially good fit for the Texas market.”
Cole joins Quinn Emanuel as a partner from McKool Smith, a commercial and intellectual property litigation firm where he was a principal specializing in patent litigation. He has tried over 25 cases to verdict and won four nine-figure verdicts/judgments. He has been recognized since 2014 in the Best Lawyers in America and the IAM Patent 1000. He won Texas Lawyer’s “Litigator of the Week” for the $391 million judgment in Versata v. SAP and later won the American Lawyer’s “Litigator of the Week” for the affirmance of that judgment at the Federal Circuit, believed to be the largest judgment ever affirmed by the Federal Circuit at that time. About $100 million of the Versata judgment was derived entirely from Cole’s cross-examination of SAP’s damages expert, and the Federal Circuit quoted directly from that cross-examination in affirming the judgment.
Griffin joins from Scott Douglass & McConnico, a commercial litigation boutique where he was a partner. He handles litigation across industries and practices, including pharmaceutical litigation, oil and gas disputes, private equity/hedge fund litigation, and intellectual property disputes. Most recently, Griffin has served as the lead Manufacturers’ Liaison Counsel in the Texas Opioid MDL, playing a central role in shaping the defense of the multi-billion dollar claims. He represents defendants and plaintiffs in complex litigation matters, including breach of contract, non-competition, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, usurpation of corporate opportunity and trade secrets cases. He was named a “Texas Rising Star” by Thomson Reuters in 2010 and 2011 and served on the Steering Committee of the Texas Minority Counsel Program from 2011 through 2017.
Also forming the core Austin team for Quinn Emanuel are partners Matthew Scheck, a restructuring litigation specialist who relocated from Los Angeles, and John Bash, the former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas, who joined the firm in October.
“Quinn Emanuel’s intellectual property practice has a reputation without parallel. I am tremendously excited about joining this team of trial lawyers and helping the firm plant its flag in Austin,” Cole said.
Added Griffin: “I am thrilled to be joining Quinn Emanuel and honored to be helping expand the firm’s reach in Texas. The firm’s reputation in business litigation is simply without parallel.”
“Scott’s and Asher’s track records as lawyers show that they work at the very highest levels of trial practice, and we’re gratified to add talents of their caliber,” Quinn said. “And when you combine them with the talents that Matthew and John bring to bear, we are immediately a force to be reckoned with in Austin and beyond.”
