Quinn Emanuel Elevates Ellyde R. Thompson to Appellate Practice Leadership
An accomplished appellate practitioner and counsel to high-profile clients, Thompson frequently represents parties before appellate courts nationwide.
NEW YORK – Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP, the world’s pre-eminent business litigation firm, announced today it has named partner Ellyde R. Thompson to the position of Co-Chair of its National Appellate Practice. Thompson joins partners William Adams, John Bash, Derek Shaffer and Sanford Weisburst as leaders of the group.
“Ellyde plays a crucial role in our firm’s appellate practice as well as our trial teams, where she helps craft arguments and build factual records primed for success on appeal,” said Executive Committee members Mike Carlinsky and Bill Burck. “Her appellate wisdom and razor intellect have made her an integral player in some of our biggest, best-known cases.”
Thompson’s cases range from hard-fought commercial disputes to First Amendment fights and pro bono representations. Her long history of representing clients on appeal after playing a key role at trial dates back more than a decade, having undertaken that role for clients such as Tesla and Elon Musk, Entergy Corporation, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Jay-Z, and Motorola. Ellyde served as part of the trial team that successfully defended Musk, Tesla, and the Tesla Board of Directors in a securities fraud trial, examining the Tesla chair of the board at trial and then arguing the winning Ninth Circuit appeal. In December, Thompson led the appellate team that won a Ninth Circuit ruling in a shareholder suit involving Tesla’s self-driving technology.
“Ellyde has been a star from the day she joined Quinn Emanuel,” said retired partner Kathleen M. Sullivan, who founded and built the firm’s appellate practice. “She understands the importance of strong written advocacy as well as unflappable oral advocacy and is brilliant at ensuring that trial teams preserve issues for later appeal.”
A former newspaper reporter, Thompson has a commanding knowledge of First Amendment law. In April, she led the drafting of an amicus brief in a death penalty case before the U.S. Supreme Court, Broadnax v. Texas. The brief argued that the defendant’s rap lyrics should not have been used as evidence against him. “A death sentence based in any part on protected artistic expression violates not only the First Amendment but our most basic principles of due process,” Thompson told the New York Times in its story about the case.
“I am honored and delighted to join the leadership of the National Appellate Practice,” said Thompson. “The practice group has received more accolades than I can count – deservedly so – and regularly handles some of the country’s most challenging appellate matters, from intellectual property cases to white-collar criminal defense appeals.”
A graduate of the Fordham School of Law, Thompson clerked for the Honorable Betty Binns Fletcher on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and worked as an associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, LLP prior to joining Quinn Emanuel. She was named a Law360 Rising Star in 2019.
###
Quinn Emanuel is the world's largest business litigation and arbitration specialist, with 1,300+ lawyers across 33 offices worldwide. We handle the cases that shape industries and set precedents.
Our approach is straightforward: we try cases. With thousands of trials behind us, we have secured some of the largest verdicts and settlements in legal history. This trial-ready posture changes negotiations when we represent defendants and maximizes outcomes when we represent plaintiffs.
The legal industry has repeatedly recognized this reputation. General counsel surveys have named us the "most feared" litigation firm five times - the firm opposing counsel least wants to face. We have earned top-tier rankings for our practices in intellectual property, bankruptcy, antitrust, international arbitration, white collar investigations, and complex commercial disputes from publications including The American Lawyer, Chambers & Partners, Legal 500, Law360, Legal Business, Global Arbitration Review, and JUVE.
But the recognition that matters most comes from results: the cases we've won, the precedents we've set, and the clients who return to us when the stakes are highest.