Leading conflict-free disputes firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan has hired a senior partner in London from McDermott Will & Schulte.
Andrew Savage has spent the past six years at McDermott, where he founded the firm’s London commercial disputes team. Before that he spent 15 years as a partner at Watson Farley & Williams.
Savage wrote on LinkedIn that he felt a “tinge of sadness” leaving McDermott, “a firm which I’ve seen accelerate in the almost seven years I’ve been there”.
He added: “It’s a fantastic place full of smart, interesting and supportive people, with a real sense of momentum and a very strong award-winning disputes practice.”
Savage’s clients include major asset management, private equity and credit, financial services, technology, energy and infrastructure organisations. The majority of his practice concentrates on high-value cross-border commercial litigation for private capital clients, similar to Hilton Mervis, who joined McDermott last week from Arnold & Porter.
Mervis highlighted McDermott’s focus on private capital as a factor in his move, concentrating on complex financial sector disputes, particularly in the private equity and hedge fund sectors, in London and internationally.
Like Mervis, Savage’s cases often involve fraud and corruption issues, including global asset tracing and international enforcement. However, Savage’s disputes work also includes international arbitration, both at tribunals across all the recognised jurisdictions and in the High Court. His former firm also hired Milo Molfa, an arbitration partner, in London earlier this year.
He has also taken several arbitration cases to appeal, including the much-cited UK Supreme Court litigation in Dallah v Pakistan, on behalf of the Pakistani government. The move to Quinn Emanuel will enable him to develop that practice alongside leading partners such as Alex Gerbi and Ted Greeno.
Savage said the opportunity to join Quinn Emanuel as a global disputes-only firm was “hard to resist”. He added: “It has become increasingly apparent to me that the conflicts presented by large transactional law firms seriously inhibit case strategy and constrain business development generally. These effects are only growing more intense.”
McDermott has made no secret of its transactional ambitions, hiring Kate Corby last week alongside Mervis, and having made a string of senior corporate, real estate and finance hires, alongside its 2025 merger and subsequent transactions-forward partner round.
Richard East, Quinn Emanuel’s London senior partner, said Savage was “a natural fit” for the firm’s London office, adding he would “make a significant impact upon our fast-growing international arbitration and commercial disputes practice”.
John Quinn, Quinn Emanuel’s chairman, said: “We are only interested in hiring the best disputes lawyers globally, and Andrew is firmly in that category. He is an excellent technical lawyer with a material practice, and we can’t wait for him to get started.”
Savage’s arrival brings the number of partners in Quinn Emanuel’s London office to 31.
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