Eight New York-based partners from Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan are departing to set up a new firm. The team includes senior partners Philippe Selendy and Faith Gay alongside six other partners. The firm will be called Selendy & Gay. Mr Selendy was chair of Quinn Emanuel’s securities and structured finance practices whilst Ms Gay headed up the national trial practice. David Elsberg, who co-chaired the firm's investment fund group, will also leave the firm. According to Bloomberg Law which broke the story, much of the securities litigation Mr Selendy had been overseeing – lawsuits against the major banks over their alleged roles in the 2007 recession – had recently settled, resulting in multi-billion dollar settlements with the banks.

Next generation talent

The departures are unusual for the firm which is highly profitable. In a statement, Quinn Emanuel’s managing partner, John Quinn, said:'Our firm has never been stronger, and has never had a deeper bench of veteran and next generation talent.  We of course respect our valued colleagues’ decision to take their practice to a smaller platform, but we do not expect these departures to have any significant impact on our practice or our revenue.'