Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan has re-hired Robert Hickmott in London as the firm’s general counsel and as a partner, which will see him combine the general counsel role with client work.
Hickmott left the US law firm’s partnership in 2023 but continued to work as a consultant while taking a two-year break from full-time practice.
He said: “After a couple of years away, I am feeling re-energised and excited to be re-joining Quinn Emanuel as a partner. I will be taking the position of the firm’s general counsel, but I am also looking forward to getting back into client work.”
Hickmott first joined Quinn Emanuel from CMS in 2010, where he trained and qualified, serving as a partner from 1999 to 2010.
A commercial litigation lawyer by speciality, he has been active in financial, banking, insolvency and civil fraud-based litigation for more than 25 years. His return means Quinn Emanuel now has 30 partners in its London office, having posted strong revenue figures to start 2025’s reporting season.
Hickmott has represented a wide range of stakeholders in defending and pursuing claims, as well as resisting and enforcing judgments. He has represented clients in high-value financial litigation across all the major onshore and offshore jurisdictions, both for institutions and individuals.
He has acted for funds in restructuring and distressed debt disputes, insolvency professionals in bringing claims and adjudicating on proofs, and for numerous sophisticated high-net-worth litigants in bringing and defending claims in established and emerging markets.
During his first stint at Quinn Emanuel, he represented the liquidators of Stanford International Bank in litigation relating to the priority of insolvency officeholders and their entitlement to control of the insolvent estate, as well as related complex civil and criminal asset recovery proceedings, both at first instance and appellate level.
He also represented the UK government in 2001 by making an emergency application to the High Court to place UK rail infrastructure operator Railtrack into Special Railway Administration, and advised the government on issues arising from that collapse following the Hatfield rail disaster. Railtrack later became Network Rail, with the latter now due to be renationalised.
Other career highlights include the 2012 Klockner Pentaplast restructuring, helping his client successfully dislodge the equity holder, Blackstone, and take control of the German plastics company.
Hickmott was also instructed along with Alex Gerbi to pursue a claim against PwC’s Cypriot and Ukrainian branches related to the 2016 crash of the Ukrainian bank, PrivatBank.
London litigation involving that bank was resolved in July with a favourable ruling by the Commercial Court, following extended proceedings with Hogan Lovells as the lead solicitors for the bank against former owners Igor Kolomoisky and Gennady Bogolyubov, in a claim valued at up to $2bn.
Quinn Emanuel also has strong Ukrainian connections, having acted for Ukraine in its successful bondholder action against Russia, which went to the UK Supreme Court, as well as acting pro bono in its successfully upheld ECHR claim against Russia.
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