Sheila Birnbaum Leaves Skadden for Quinn Emanuel

Sheila L. Birnbaum, one of the country’s top product liability defense lawyers, is switching firms.

Ms. Birnbaum, a longtime partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, is joining Quinn Emanuel Urguhart & Sullivan along with another Skadden partner, Mark Cheffo.

“It is exceedingly rare that any firm has the opportunity to add world-class, one-of-a-kind talent of Sheila’s caliber,” said John Quinn, the managing partner at Quinn Emanuel. “To say that we are pleased she is joining us is an understatement.”

The move is a loss for Skadden, which under Ms. Birnbaum’s leadership has built a premier product liability practice, defending companies from complex mass tort claims. She is also considered one of the pre-eminent insurance defense litigators. In 2003, Ms. Birnbaum won an important victory before the United States Supreme Court in a landmark case, Campbell vs. State Farm, securing the reversal of a $145 million punitive damages claim against the insurer on the ground that it was unconstitutionally excessive.

In addition to State Farm, her clients have included Wyeth, Pfizer and Dow Corning. There are a few dozen lawyers in Skadden’s mass torts and insurance litigation practice; it is unclear whether any junior lawyers are joining Ms. Birnbaum at her new firm. Her co-head of the practice, John Belsner, will serve as sole chairman, Skadden said in an internal memo to its partners.

“I had a wonderful run at Skadden and have many great friends there,” Ms. Birnbaum said in a statement. “However, the opportunity to join Quinn Emanuel was an offer I could not refuse. Its pure litigation model is a more natural fit with my practice.”

Ms. Birnbaum is 73, and Skadden’s mandatory retirement age is 70, a factor that could have a played a role in her decision to leave, according to a person briefed on her decision.

With its hire of Ms. Birnbaum, Quinn Emanuel continues its ascent up the Big Law ladder. A litigation-only shop with more than 600 lawyers and a big trial practice, Quinn Emanuel is one of the most profitable firms in the country, posting profits per partner last year of $4.4 million. The firm has been aggressively hiring partners away from other firms, most recently bringing on two partners from Weil Gotshal & Manges’s Washington office.

Ms. Birnbaum, a Manhattan native and graduate of Hunter College and New York University School of Law, is perhaps the most prominent lateral hire in Quinn Emanuel’s 27-year history. In 2011, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. chose her to serve as the special master of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund program. From 2006 to 2009, she mediated settlements for 92 families of victims of the terrorist attacks who decided to pursue their clais in court rather than be compensated by the original compensation fund.

In an internal memo issued on Tuesday, Bruce Goldner, the head of Skadden’s New York office, wrote, “Over her past 30 years at Skadden, Sheila has built a world-class mass torts practice, and her contributions to the firm, as well as to the legal profession in general, cannot be overstated.”