Litigation leader reports fast-rising UK financials as firm confronts conflicts problem

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan has asked London partner Marc Becker to leave the firm temporarily due to a conflict issue relating to a multibillion-dollar litigation case.

Becker, who joined Quinn Emanuel in London in 2009 from US firm Munger Tolles & Olson, took a minor role in the firm's work for AIG in a $10bn (£6.3bn) securities litigation case against Bank of America (BoA).

Last month, BoA filed a motion to disqualify Quinn Emanuel from the case, arguing that Becker had previously represented Merrill Lynch and a subsidiary while at Munger, where he had billed more than 120 hours looking into Merrill's underwriting practices.

Companies House filings show that Becker left Quinn Emanuel's partnership on 25 October, but partners within the firm have indicated that they hope to rehire him once the case has concluded.

London managing partner Richard East (pictured) commented: "Marc has left the partnership because of a conflict issue but we hope and expect he will be able to come back when 
it is resolved."

East added that Becker spent just 5.8 hours of time working on the case before the firm addressed the conflict issue.

The news comes as Quinn Emanuel's fast-growing London arm has reported impressive growth figures for its second full year of trading. The US firm's UK limited liability partnership (LLP) accounts for 2010 show London turnover rising 63% from £7.6m to £12.4m, with operating profit up 47% from £5.7m to £8.4m.

The accounts show that the highest-paid partner withdrew £448,000 from the firm's UK profits, with their remaining earnings this year drawn from the firm's global profits pool. Last year, the best-paid City partner took home £1.48m from the UK LLP.

Total staff costs for 2010, including wages and pensions, stood at £1.4m, up from last year's figure of £829,000, with total staff increasing from nine to an average of 13 for the year.

The firm's London office recently won a lucrative role on a dispute between two Russian oligarchs, with London partner Sue Prevezer QC acting for Russian litigant Oleg Deripaska. Deripaska is being sued by Michael Cherney – an Uzbekistan-born businessman – for £2.5bn for allegedly cheating him out of a stake in Russian aluminium company Rusal.

The case has some crossover in terms of evidence with the multibillion-dollar lawsuit brought against Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich by Russian businessman 
Boris Berezovsky.

News of the financial results comes after the firm announced that it is to launch a new base in Moscow with the hire of senior litigation partners Ivan Marisin and Vasily Kuznetsov from Dechert.

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