R. Brian Timmons

Brian Timmons is the Global Head of Complex Litigation and Chair of the Private Investment Fund Litigation Practice for Quinn Emanuel. A highly regarded trial lawyer with a national litigation practice, he has tried many cases to verdict in multiple locations throughout the United States, including New York, Delaware, and California. He has also represented clients in legal proceedings and arbitrations around the world, including in Hong Kong, Singapore, South America, the United Kingdom, Europe and the Cayman Islands. Clients praise him for his brilliance, tenacity, judgment, and skill in the courtroom. As described by one client, Timmons operates “with skillful maneuver, surprise, and a violence of action like nothing you’ve ever seen before.”

He has been named one of the “Best Attorneys of America” by Rue Ratings and was recognized as among the “top 1% of attorneys in America” for Complex Litigation by Premier Lawyers of America.  He was named Litigator of the Year in 2020 by the American Institute of Trial Lawyers, elected to the Irish Legal 100 in 2020, and selected as one of the 500 Leading Litigators of America by Lawdragon for 2024.  He received the “Distinguished Lawyers of America” award for 2019 and 2020 and has been recognized as one of Southern California’s “Super Lawyers” every year from 2006 to the present by the Los Angeles Magazine.

He has represented clients from nearly every industry and in nearly every setting.  He specializes, however, in complex disputes involving finance, accounting, or corporate governance.  His practice includes commercial litigation, partnership disputes, M&A litigation, accounting firm liability cases, securities and commodities litigation, creditors’ rights, avoidance and other bankruptcy-related litigation, market manipulation, SEC enforcement actions, structured financial product litigation, including ISDA disputes, battles for corporate control, boardroom and breach of fiduciary duty disputes, and trade secret and employee mobility litigation.  He regularly represents investment fund managers (private equity funds, private credit funds, hedge funds, venture capital funds, mutual funds), financial institutions, public and private corporations (both foreign and domestic), creditor committees, litigation trusts, audit committees, boards of directors, family offices, and high net worth individuals, including a several well-known celebrities.

Mr. Timmons was born and raised in rural Idaho and attended Duke University on a football scholarship.  He graduated from Duke in the top 2% of his class, studied finance and economics at the London School of Economics, was a Teaching Fellow at Harvard College, and graduated from Harvard Law School with honors, where he also served as the Managing Editor of an academic law journal.  He has been published in The Wall Street Journal and Newsweek Magazine and he currently serves on the Harvard Law School Leadership Council.  Before joining Quinn Emanuel, he participated in the federal indigent defense panel program and was a partner at Latham & Watkins.