Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

A former secretary who sued Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan for race discrimination and retaliation has dropped his claims, two months after a Manhattan federal judge denied the law firm's early bid to dismiss the case.

Spencer Marin, a former floating secretary who left Quinn Emanuel in 2015, sued the litigation firm last year, claiming that he was subjected to racial slurs by a trial logistics director during a high-profile 2014 trial in the Apple v. Samsung patent case in San Jose, California.

“We are glad that the matter has been resolved to the satisfaction of the parties,” said D. Maimon Kirschenbaum of Joseph & Kirschenbaum, who represents Marin.

Marin had asserted that Quinn Emanuel's director of trial logistics, Yllen Cruz, called a black staff member “a re-nigger” after the staff member said she had second thoughts about sharing food during the trial.

U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni of the Southern District of New York, denying the firm's motion to dismiss in March, said she was “surprised” that Quinn “attempted to cast the use of the N-word as a poor attempt at humor or a bad pun.”

During the oral argument, Caproni told Quinn partner Marc Greenwald that in reading the firm's papers she was “baffled by the description of this as a joke. I just don't understand the humor. I don't understand how someone thought it was humorous. I don't understand why Quinn Emanuel is taking the position that it was a joke.”

Greenwald told the judge the firm doesn't “find it humorous and we don't think it's a good joke.” He said it was the plaintiff's complaint that cited Marin's own email referring to an “'N-word' joke.” He added, “We don't like it and we wish it had never been said.”

Ruling from the bench on March 9, Caproni denied Quinn's dismissal motion, saying the  complaint stated a claim for hostile work environment, “but just barely.” She said she was “somewhat skeptical” the claim could survive a summary judgment motion.

On Tuesday lawyers for Marin filed a stipulation of voluntary dismissal with prejudice. The stipulation was signed by attorneys for both sides last month.

Greenwald, the Quinn Emanuel partner, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.