Photo by Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

Less than a month after opening an office in Boston, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan is building out its operations in the city with two additions from Ropes & Gray.

Harvey Wolkoff, who has spent roughly 40 years at the firm, will retire on Feb. 1 and become managing partner of Quinn Emanuel's newest office. The commercial litigator is bringing with him Ropes & Gray associate Brian Shaughnessy, who will come aboard as of counsel.

Wolkoff first joined Ropes & Gray in 1975 but left four years later to become a federal prosecutor in New York. He returned to the Boston-based Am Law 10 firm in 1982 and made partner two years later.

“I loved working at Ropes & Gray all the time that I did, but firm rules are firm rules,” said the 67-year-old Wolkoff, referring to Ropes & Gray's mandatory retirement age of 65. “I needed a place to find to roost, I guess, and I couldn't think of a better place than Quinn Emanuel—it really is a terrific litigation powerhouse.”

In his four decades at Ropes & Gray, Wolkoff has represented clients in complex commercial disputes in a variety of areas, including consumer and security class actions, contract disputes, data intrusions, frauds and securities litigation.

“[Wolkoff] likes to try cases. We do, too,” said a statement from Quinn Emanuel managing partner John Quinn. “He is the perfect fit.”

As head of Quinn Emanuel's Boston operation, Wolkoff said the firm plans on exploring various opportunities to expand in the city with the goal of becoming the preeminent litigation firm in Boston.

“I see a litigation shop like Quinn Emanuel perfectly positioned to take on the most important and significant litigation cases that arise out of that kind of thriving business activities that are occurring,” Wolkoff said.

Quinn Emanuel, which earlier this week saw eight partners leave the firm to form their own shop, announced in late December that it would set up shop in Boston with New York-based intellectual property litigation partners Steven Cherny, Patrick Curran and Sandra Bresnick.

In Boston, Quinn Emanuel is joining an increasingly crowded local legal market. Large out-of-town firms have made inroads to expand their capabilities in the city in an effort to capture work from its budding life sciences, private equity and technology sectors.

“Boston has become one of a handful of the most thriving, vibrant cities in the entire country, and I see the market expanding, not only in 2018 but beyond,” Wolkoff said.

Kirkland & Ellis opened an office in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood last summer and has moved to acquire local talent, including Ropes & Gray private equity partner Jason Serlenga, Proskauer Rose partners Sean Hill and Stephanie Berdik, McDermott private equity partner Michael Sartor and Choate, Hall & Stewart private equity co-chair Christian Atwood.

Hogan Lovells, which earlier this month lost four litigators in Boston, headed up to Boston last summer after acquiring Collora, a 25-lawyer litigation boutique, while Womble Bond Dickinson set up its own outpost last September after adding three intellectual property partners from McCarter & English.

Not to be outdone, DLA Piper brought on former Nutter McClennen & Fish private equity group co-chair Adam Ghander for its Boston office, which opened in 2003.