In 1986, the same year the Emmy-winning L.A. Law debuted with ratings gold, attorney John B. Quinn '73 started his own firm with a decidedly West Coast approach: a practice that would challenge conventional assumptions about great law firms, a "California style" enterprise that valued results, not Savile Row suits, whose brilliant attorneys would not be asked to conform to dress codes as long as they won their cases.

The notion caught on—so much so, in fact, that partners recently had to invoke a code reminding attorneys to wear shoes in the office—but the practice's commercial success certainly has not been relaxed; whether in loafers or flip-flops, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges, LLP, has earned a blue-chip reputation as the largest business litigation firm in the United States. The London-based International Commercial Litigation ranked Quinn Emanuel as the best litigation firm in Los Angeles, calling the firm "California's Barristers." Quinn, a former Harvard Law Review editor, has been named "One of the World's Leading Litigation Lawyers" by Euromoney Institutional Investor, "One of California's Leading Litigators" by Chambers, and, quite simply, "Superlawyer" by Los Angeles magazine.

Unlike many firms, Quinn Emanuel is willing to take complex business cases to trial, and it tries those cases with very good results. With fewer than five percent of all business cases going to trial, "The result is that you have a lot of lawyers who are doing business litigation but have never actually done a trial," says Quinn. "I submit that you can't serve your clients well if you don't understand the endgame—and credibly convey to the other side that you're prepared to go through with it. Being known as a trial firm—and a firm that gets results in the courtroom—is a huge asset for us."

By early 2005, Quinn Emanuel partners had tried 436 jury cases to verdict, winning over 90 percent of them. Quinn himself has won major verdicts and settlements in a variety of cases, including a 0 million verdict against Bertelsmann AG in a breach of contract case.

Other notable clients include both Barbie and Oscar, elaborate models of which are housed on a sideboard in his office and the adjoining conference room; Quinn has represented Mattel in a variety of intellectual property rights cases, and has been the General Counsel of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 1987.

While work at the firm keeps his mental edge honed, Quinn also challenges himself physically as an accomplished triathlete, competing in his second Ironman Triathlon last October. "It's exhilarating," he says. "Everyone leaves from the same gun and competes on the same course. You're lining up there with the best in the world, and you all start together."

It's a long way from Bountiful, Utah, to the finish line of a 112-mile bike race along the Hawaiian shoreline. As a high school student, Quinn read about The Claremont Colleges in a library book and took the plunge. Quinn worked "absurdly hard" in history, political philosophy, and literature classes with favored professors Martin Diamond, Langdon Elsbree, and the late John Snortum.

"Intellectually, it was very exciting. And you had to write a lot," says Quinn. "People consider me a pretty good writer—I work with words. It's got to be because I got some good training and experience, and did a lot of reading along the line."

Quinn's time at CMC prepared him for a career in the law in other ways, as well. Asked about the value of a liberal arts education, he is philosophical: "Oliver Wendell Holmes said the life of the law is not logic, it is experience. Where do you learn about human experience? You learn about it in literature and the humanities."

For Quinn, this study adds richness and dimension to his arguments. "In the law practice," he says, "we're understanding people, and learning how to motivate and persuade them. We're also learning what makes people tick.

"Psychology, literature, and philosophy give a breadth of view that helps you engage."

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For Quinn, continued success depends on openness, engagement, and credibility. “The most important thing is for people to know where I stand about things, because then they will trust that I don’t have an agenda. They know exactly what I think,” he says, “and understand my goals and priorities.”