- U.S. & Americas
- Lateral moves
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After nearly 25 years in New York's court system, First Department Justice John R. Higgitt is leaving the bench to join Quinn Emanuel as a partner, the firm announced on 3 November, according to the New York Law Journal. He will handle commercial litigation, arbitration and other civil litigation from the firm's New York office.
Higgitt has more than eight years of judicial experience and wrote more than 25 signed opinions, many involving Commercial Division appeals from New York and Bronx Counties, Quinn Emanuel said. Before joining the bench, he was Chief Court Attorney at the Appellate Term, First Department and at Supreme Court, Bronx County. He co-chaired the state's Advisory Committee on Civil Practice, wrote CPLR practice commentaries for McKinney's and teaches as an adjunct at Cardozo. His reported opinions include a roughly $700 million power-plant construction case, a $1 billion alter-ego liability judgment and a Nazi-looted art dispute, Quinn Emanuel said.
Higgitt joins Quinn Emanuel appellate group after Sullivan's 2025 retirement and Michel's Kirkland move
The hire follows changes at the top of the firm's appellate group. Kathleen Sullivan, who founded Quinn Emanuel's nationwide appellate practice, retired in 2025 after a 20-year career, according to Quinn Emanuel. Christopher Michel, a former appellate co-chair, left to lead Kirkland & Ellis's Supreme Court and appellate practice, Bloomberg Law reported.
The firm has been adding to the group. It promoted Ellyde R. Thompson to co-chair of its national appellate practice alongside William Adams, John Bash, Derek Shaffer and Sanford Weisburst, according to Quinn Emanuel. Its January 2026 partner class promoted 12 lawyers, including five in New York who work in complex commercial, M&A, bankruptcy and judgment-enforcement litigation, according to Quinn Emanuel. In March 2025, it hired securities litigator Michael E. Swartz from Schulte Roth & Zabel, according to Bloomberg Law. Global co-managing partner Michael Carlinsky called Higgitt's arrival "a strategic investment."
Gibson Dunn's four-partner appellate team among recent New York additions
Rival firms are pursuing many of the same lawyers. Gibson Dunn announced in April 2026 that a four-partner appellate and strategic litigation team led by former Acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall had joined the firm. Yaira Dubin leads its New York appellate practice, according to Gibson Dunn. Quinn Emanuel's appellate work extends across the country. Partners including Derek Shaffer and John Bash have argued or been tapped to argue at the U.S. Supreme Court since 2024, according to Quinn Emanuel.
A former judge brings a specific kind of value. Former judges often have to build business from the ground up, relying on their trial and appellate judgment and courtroom credibility rather than an existing book of clients, Bloomberg Law notes. For a firm focused on high-stakes disputes, a justice who wrote Commercial Division appellate opinions understands how the First Department reads those cases.
Judicial pay near $256,400 against far higher partner pay
The move is part of a wider flow of judges into private practice. New York's Presiding Justice of the Appellate Division is set to earn $256,400 effective 1 April 2026, according to the New York Office of the State Comptroller. U.S. district judges earn about $243,000, compared with partner pay at roughly ten times that level, and the gap is expected to widen, according to Bloomberg Law. Legal scholarship has also documented the growing movement of sitting and former judges into private practice, according to the NYU Journal of Legislation and Public Policy.
Higgitt is not the first First Department justice to make the move. Rolando Acosta, who spent six years as the court's Presiding Justice, left the bench in 2023 and joined Pillsbury's litigation practice, according to Bloomberg Law.
Quinn Emanuel has added a former First Department justice to an appellate group where Sullivan retired in 2025 and Michel moved to Kirkland. In New York, Gibson Dunn, Kirkland and Pillsbury have each added former judges or appellate chiefs since 2023. Commercial litigation and appellate work remain among the firm's main practices.
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