Quinn Emanuel Partners Named ‘Litigators of the Week’ by The American Lawyer for Victory on Behalf of Apple Tree Partners

Quinn Emanuel partners Andrew Berdon, Rachel Epstein, and Kathryn Bonacorsi have been named Runners Up in The American Lawyer's prestigious Litigator of the Week for their role in securing a $96.9 million victory for Apple Tree Partners, a leading life sciences venture capital investor.

Following a highly expedited trial in Delaware Chancery Court, Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick ordered specific performance requiring entities owned by the family trust of Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev to meet capital call obligations under the parties' limited partnership agreement. The ruling preserves funding for portfolio companies developing treatments for childhood blindness, cancer, obesity, and neurodegenerative diseases.

"The public interest strongly favors preserving potentially life-saving research programs," Chancellor McCormick wrote in her decision. The Court also found ATP to be "highly credible" and to have acted in good faith when issuing the capital calls.

The case went to trial in just over 100 days after the opening of discovery, with the parties producing hundreds of thousands of documents and taking over 20 depositions in an eight-week discovery period. The two-day trial included nearly 2,000 exhibits and testimony from nine live witnesses.

The Quinn Emanuel team also included partner Michael Barlow and associates Jessica Reese, Jonathan Acevedo, Jenny Braun, John Ferraro, and Taylor Jones.