Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP announced today that Thomas C. Rubin has joined the firm as special counsel in the Seattle office.  Before joining the firm, Mr. Rubin spent seven years as Microsoft’s Chief Intellectual Property Strategy Counsel and was the head of the copyright, trademark and trade secret group at the company.  He has vast expertise in intellectual property, technology, licensing, internet, media law, corporate governance and investigations.  Mr. Rubin was also an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York where he was one of the country’s first prosecutors of computer and intellectual property crimes.  He argued and won three cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and was awarded the Department of Justice Director’s Award for Superior Performance as an Assistant United States Attorney. Mr. Rubin is also a recipient of the Los Angeles County Bar Association's Corporate ADR Award. 
 
During Mr. Rubin's time at Microsoft he spearheaded complex litigation, enforcement, product development, licensing, marketing, and global policy strategies across Microsoft’s business divisions.  He also led many collaborative efforts with other leaders in the technology and content industries, including briefs before the U.S. Supreme Court, California Supreme Court, Second Circuit, Ninth Circuit and Eleventh Circuit; policy initiatives; and product partnerships.
 
John “Jay” Neukom, managing partner of the firm’s Seattle office, said: “Intellectual property litigation is the firm’s biggest practice area.  Tom’s deep practical experience in the nuts and bolts of the business side of things will be extremely beneficial to the firm’s stable of high-tech clients.”   
 
Tom Rubin said: “I loved my time at Microsoft.  However, I really missed being in court trying cases.  Quinn Emanuel tries more cases than any firm I know, so the fit was natural.” 
 
Mr. Rubin received his J.D. with distinction from Stanford Law School and received his B.A. with distinction from Yale University.  He clerked for both the Honorable James L. Oakes on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the Honorable Leonard B. Sand on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.  Mr. Rubin is currently teaching an advanced copyright seminar as a lecturer at Harvard Law School and previously taught two advanced copyright seminars at Stanford Law School and a criminal justice seminar at Yale College.  He also has testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, and does frequent speaking engagements nationally and internationally on legal, policy, and business issues related to content, innovation, and the Internet.
 
Quinn Emanuel is a 700+ lawyer business litigation firm—the largest in the world devoted solely to business litigation and arbitration with 18 global office locations.  Firm lawyers have tried over 2,400 cases, winning 88% of them.  When representing defendants, Quinn Emanuel’s trial experience gets better settlements or defense verdicts.  When representing plaintiffs, Quinn Emanuel lawyers have won over $47 billion in judgments and settlements.  Quinn Emanuel has also obtained five 9-figure jury verdicts, twenty-four 9-figure settlements, and twelve 10-figure settlements.  The American Lawyer named Quinn Emanuel the top IP litigation firm in the U.S. and named the firm one of the top six commercial litigation firms in the country.  We were voted four times as one of the four “most feared” firms by General Counsels at Fortune 500 companies — the lawyers they “least like to see” on the other side.  The Lawyer named us “International Firm of the Year.”   Law360 selected us as Antitrust, Appellate, Banking, Class Action, Insurance, Product Liability and IP “Practice Groups of the Year.”  Managing IP twice recognized us as having the “Best ITC Litigation Practice” and honored us with the “Patent Contentious West” award.  Legal Business has twice named us “US Law Firm of the Year,” and our German offices have been named both IP Litigation and Patent Litigation Firm of the Year by JUVE, Germany’s most prestigious legal publication.  Global Investigations Review, a leading legal periodical covering global white collar investigations, named us the “Most Impressive Investigations Practice of the Year.”  Further information is available at www.quinnemanuel.com.