At its Annual Luncheon on March 7, the Fordham Law Alumni Association presented its Medal of Achievement, the highest honor given by Fordham Law to its alumni, to James Quinn ‘71.
“One of the country’s foremost litigators in the country, Jim is described by his colleagues as a legal superstar. He is a lawyer with an amazing command of the courtroom, an everyman who can take a very complicated set of facts and simplify it for the jury,” said Mark Hyland ’80, FLAA President, in presenting the award to Quinn. “For a life of balance, for distinction in and out of the courtroom, for dedication to his law school alma mater, and most importantly, for the way he treats all people with the respect they are entitled to…we honor Jim Quinn today.”
Quinn is a partner at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP. He served for many years as the firm’s Global Chair of Litigation, as well as a long-standing member of Weil’s management committee. He specializes in litigating and trying high-stakes commercial disputes and has practiced in all areas of complex litigation and alternative dispute resolution, with particular emphasis on antitrust, securities, false advertising, sports, media & entertainment, and intellectual property litigation. He has litigated successfully for ExxonMobil, Procter & Gamble, ESPN, CBS, UnitedHealth Group, Johnson & Johnson, and Disney, among many other clients.
In 1993 and 2004, he was selected by the National Law Journal as one of the 10 top trial lawyers in the United States in its annual feature “Winning: Successful Strategies From 10 of the Nation’s Top Litigators.” He has been ranked as a leading lawyer in New York commercial litigation and nationwide sports law every year since 2005 and as a top U.S. trial lawyer every year since 2010 by Chambers USA. In 2013, he received the Chambers USA “Award for Excellence” in the category of “Litigation: Business Trial Lawyer” after being shortlisted for the award since 2009; he subsequently was named to the shortlist for the inaugural 2014 edition of “The Chambers 100,” a list of the top 100 business lawyers in the United States.
Quinn is a Fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers and the American College of Trial Lawyers and a member of the International Society of Barristers. He is also a Fellow of the New York Bar Foundation. He has chaired a variety of committees of both the American Bar Association and the Bar Association of The City of New York. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the National Judicial College and the Panel of Distinguished Neutrals of the Center for Public Resources.
He received his B.A., cum laude, from the University of Notre Dame and his LL.B. from Fordham Law. He is a longtime supporter of the Fordham Law Alumni Association and has served for many years on the Association’s Board of Directors.
The Annual Luncheon was held at Cipriani 42nd Street.