By James R. Hagerty 

As a lawyer, Bill Urquhart represented clients including International Business Machines Corp. and Qualcomm Inc. in litigation. He was better known, though, for his creative tactics in recruiting lawyers to join the Los Angeles-based firm where he was a partner, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.

He wore a Hawaiian shirt and flip-flops to interviews. When recruiting at Harvard, he rented a house, set up a margarita machine and a beer keg, and treated the process more like a party than an interview. He sealed one hire by sending the candidate a BlackBerry, a bottle of Cristal champagne and a set of Quinn Emanuel business cards bearing her name, before she accepted his offer.

John Quinn, who co-founded Quinn Emanuel in 1986, credits Mr. Urquhart with seeing the firm's potential for rapid growth and finding the right lawyers to drive it. When Mr. Urquhart joined in 1988, the firm had about 15 lawyers. It now has over 800 in 23 offices. The American Lawyer ranks Quinn Emanuel No. 23 among U.S.-based law firms in revenue terms. In terms of profit per equity partner, it ranks fifth.

Mr. Urquhart taught school in New York before studying law at Fordham University.

He was under treatment for cancer and died Oct. 4 of complications from a bone-marrow transplant. He was 72.

Patrick Curran, a University of Chicago law-school graduate, brought a girlfriend, Karen Milkosky, to dinner with Mr. Urquhart in 2007. During the meal, Mr. Urquhart, who was determined to hire Mr. Curran, turned to Ms. Milkosky and said, "If you get him to accept today, I'll buy the engagement ring," Mr. Curran recalled. "My face went bright red," he said, "and I blurted out, 'Well, now I'm not calling you until tomorrow.'"

He soon joined Quinn Emanuel and later married Ms. Milkosky -- after buying her a ring with his own money. He remains with the firm as managing partner of its Boston office.

Mr. Urquhart also recruited Kathleen Sullivan, a former dean of Stanford University's law school, to join Quinn Emanuel as head of its appellate practice in 2005. While still pondering his offer, she received the champagne and business cards. "What could you say but yes after that?" Ms. Sullivan asked in an interview. One reason Mr. Urquhart was good at making connections, she said, was that "he saw all people as the same. He was incredibly unpretentious."

Quinn Emanuel focuses purely on litigation and says it won more than $40 billion of damages for clients who lost money on mortgage-backed securities during the 2008-09 financial crisis. Mr. Urquhart helped steer the firm into the lucrative field of patent litigation.

Albert William Urquhart, always known as Bill, was born Feb. 20, 1947, and grew up in Massapequa, on New York's Long Island. His father was an insurance adjuster. His mother was an assistant to the president of Hofstra University.

Starting in high school, he worked as a lifeguard at Jones Beach. He won a track scholarship to Fordham, where he studied political science and earned a bachelor's degree in 1969.

He considered a career as a teacher and track coach. For several years, he taught at schools in New York and on St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. After concluding it would be hard to support a family on a teacher's wage, he enrolled at Fordham's law school, taking evening classes and working during the day at the law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges and later at Cravath, Swaine & Moore. As a junior lawyer at Cravath, he met Mr. Quinn, who also worked at the firm.

Mr. Urquhart later worked at Willkie Farr & Gallagher. From 1985 to 1988, he was general counsel for the New York Insurance Exchange, a short-lived organization that tried to compete with the Lloyd's of London insurance market.

At a New York restaurant in 1987, he spotted Mary Grigsby at the next table. She helped run a family-owned cheese business in Pittsfield, Ill. After a few dates, he began introducing himself as her fiance, though he never formally proposed. Within about six months, they married.

He often made friends by approaching strangers and asking, "Tell me something interesting about yourself?" He was genuinely interested in the answer, said George Dalton, a friend since law school.

Mr. Urquhart is survived by his wife, Mary, six children (including three from an earlier marriage) and eight grandchildren.

The native New Yorker thrived in Southern California. He cheered for the Lakers and dressed for the beach even when at the office. "He was always the least formal person in the room," his wife said. He also tended to be the center of attention.

--Sara Randazzo contributed to this article.

Write to James R. Hagerty at bob.hagerty@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 11, 2019 10:44 ET (14:44 GMT)

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