A History-Making Litigator Leaves Biglaw To Launch A Boutique

After 25 years at a top Biglaw firm, this star litigator decided it was time for a new adventure.

Roberta Kaplan

Big news in Biglaw: Roberta A. Kaplan — the legendary litigator whose history-making Supreme Court win in United States v. Windsor toppled the Defense of Marriage Act, helped bring about nationwide marriage equality, and rocketed her to fame (and Above the Law Lawyer of the Year honors) — has left the storied partnership of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. Kaplan and three other high-powered lawyers have launched what should soon become one of the nation’s leading litigation boutiques, Kaplan & Company LLP. (Christine Simmons of the American Lawyer broke the news over the weekend, and Stephanie Russell-Kraft had a Big Law Business story on it earlier today.)

Julie Fink

Robbie Kaplan’s new firm consists of four lawyers at the current time: partner Julie Fink, who worked with Kaplan at Paul, Weiss and rejoins her now after working in-house at Pfizer; senior counsel John Quinn, coming from Sullivan & Cromwell; and associate Rachel Tuchman, who just graduated from Yale Law School.

But Kaplan & Company will soon have more company. Kaplan said she expects to have a dozen or more lawyers onboard by the fall. The firm will be based out of offices just a short walk south from Paul, Weiss, in the Empire State Building (featured prominently in cool artwork on the new firm’s website).

I spoke yesterday by phone with Kaplan, Quinn, and Tuchman (whom I’ve all had the pleasure of meeting before). The trio overflowed with enthusiasm for their new venture — especially impressive coming from Quinn and Tuchman, who were spending a beautiful Sunday afternoon in July not at the beach, but with their Biglaw-alumna boss.

John Quinn

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John Quinn, who joins Kaplan & Company after six years at Sullivan & Cromwell (meaning he’s no stranger to working on weekends), said he had a great experience at S&C — taking depositions as a second-year, working on big-ticket antitrust and securities cases — but that the chance to work with Robbie Kaplan, “a personal hero,” was “a dream opportunity.” He discussed the move with mentors at S&C and his alma mater, Harvard Law School; detecting his excitement, they all urged him forward.

“Everything here feels like it’s moving in a great direction, in terms of both clients and recruits,” Quinn told me. “We’re confident this is going to be an incredible thing.”

Rachel Tuchman

Rachel Tuchman might be the least experienced member of the team — she worked with Robbie Kaplan as a summer associate at Paul, Weiss last year, then graduated from Yale Law earlier this year — but her zeal for the new venture matched that of Kaplan’s and Quinn’s. Tuchman has already had the chance to work on a headline-making case, helping Kaplan and Paul, Weiss lawyers prepare the petition for rehearing en banc in Campaign for Southern Equality v. Bryant, the challenge to the Mississippi “religious freedom” law that some regard as the most extreme anti-LGBT law in the nation. Tuchman’s name on the brief of course bears the obligatory asterisk, noting that she’s not yet admitted to the bar and working under the supervision of counsel.

Tuchman graduated from YLS this year, and we’re now well into July, so of course I had to ask: are you taking the bar exam? And are you worried about the test given how hard you’re already working on cases like Campaign for Southern Equality?

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“I’m feeling good — my bar prep has been a team effort,” Tuchman said. “John and Robbie have been quizzing me about Property and Evidence. I’m hopeful that I can pass the bar after having Evidence explained to me by Robbie Kaplan!”

And of course I spoke to Roberta Kaplan herself. Here’s a (lightly edited and condensed) write-up of our conversation.

DL: Congratulations on your new firm! But some might wonder: you had what many would regard as a legal dream job, partnership at Paul, Weiss, which came with power, prestige, and gigantic profits per partner. And you also got to work on great pro bono cases like Windsor, with the full support and huge resources of PW. So why are you making this move?

RK: I will cherish my time at Paul, Weiss as long as I live, and I revere my mentors there. What I learned at the firm made me the lawyer I am today and helped me to get to where I am now.

[Ed. note: And the warm feelings seem to be mutual. As Brad Karp, chairman of Paul, Weiss, told the American Lawyer, “Robbie will always be a part of the Paul Weiss family. We are proud of her accomplishments.”]

I’m now 50. I spent the first 25 years of my life outside of Paul, Weiss, and then the next 25 years of my life at Paul, Weiss. So I had to ask myself: what do I want to do for the next 25 years?

Was this turning point like my “midlife crisis”? Maybe — but instead of having an affair or buying a fancy car, I started my own law firm.

DL: Paul, Weiss is, of course, one of the world’s greatest law firms. What are you hoping to achieve at Kaplan & Company that might be different from what you were doing at PW?

RK: I had been sensing over the past several years that the kind of litigation I focus on — business-to-business, commercial litigation, incredibly fun work that gets you into court a lot — was becoming increasingly hard for the big firms to handle. It’s not a Paul, Weiss issue, but an issue facing large firms more generally.

Paul, Weiss still works on, and is a leader in, bet-the-company cases — and I hope to handle such cases myself at my new firm. But there are a lot of cases that, while not “bet the company,” are incredibly important — and at current Biglaw rate structures, making some of these cases work economically is just impossible.

So I started thinking that it would be nice to have a practice where I could have more flexibility on billing rates and fee arrangements. It would be nice to have a rate structure where I could get back into that game — and back into court, which is a great way for associates to learn how to litigate, and how I learned to litigate at Paul, Weiss.

I worked on a number of such cases at Paul, Weiss. Many of those cases and clients are moving with me, or will be represented jointly by Kaplan & Company and Paul, Weiss, going forward.

DL: There are many virtues to boutique practice, such as the flexibility with fees that you mention. But Biglaw does have its advantages, including tremendous resources and staff. Take giant, document-intensive cases that are the bread and butter of many large law firms. Do you expect to do many of those?

RK: One of my pending cases at Paul, Weiss falls into that category, and I will not be working on that case. At least right now, those types of cases — the ones with gazillions of gigabytes of data, and dozens of staff attorneys — are not the ones we are looking to do. There are firms that can do that work much better. We’re looking for cases where lawyers can get into court.

Q: How would you describe the culture and structure of Kaplan & Company?

RK: As explained on our website, I like to think of us as a “new-fashioned” and “old-fashioned” firm. We’ll reflect the values that I grew up with at Paul, Weiss of collaboration, teamwork, and giving everyone a voice. We will deliver the highest quality of representation to our clients. We will be extremely efficient, innovative, and lean, not unnecessarily drawing out litigation or overstaffing cases.

We will have a major public interest and pro bono component. Our goal, as stated on our site, is “to fuse together a private commercial practice with a public interest practice for the mutual benefit of both.” I have always treated pro bono clients just like all my other clients, and that will continue. Pro bono work makes you better as both a lawyer and a person.

We expect people to work hard — but on the other hand, one thing that has been lost somewhat in firms is quality of life. I want our lawyers to be able to balance their firm work with personal life and family life, as well as with professional life outside the firm, such as bar association and pro bono work.

Finally, I can’t change the fact that I am a woman with many great women as colleagues. We will be, aside from a few prominent exceptions — such as Beth and Alex’s shop [Wilkinson Walsh + Eskovitz, the elite boutique launched by Beth Wilkinson and Alexandra Walsh, two other star women litigators from Paul, Weiss] — one of a small number of women-run top law firms.

[Ed. note: Like good colleagues keeping a senior colleague on her toes, John Quinn and Rachel Tuchman reminded Kaplan that, well, she could change the fact that she’s a woman — which of course she realizes, as a crusader for transgender as well as gay and lesbian rights. But as a cisgender woman, Kaplan is not inclined to change the fact that she’s a woman.]

DL: I know you’ll be very busy over the next few months, launching the firm and working on the many cases and clients that have moved with you. But as someone who loved your memoir, Then Comes Marriage (affiliate link), I have to ask: are you working on a second book?

RK: No [laughing], God forbid! That was so difficult to write.

DL: I can see why — it was a deeply personal book, covering some painful periods in your life. But your next book could be very different. Maybe a novel? Or a book of career advice for young, diverse lawyers?

RK: First let’s wait to see if they make a movie out of Then Comes Marriage. I’m happy to report that there has been some interest.

DL: Excellent! It would be a great movie, as an inspiring story of both personal and professional triumph, against long odds. Who would you want to be played by?

RK: Hmmm…. I’ll have to think about that. But I will say that Mary McCormack did a great job portraying me in When We Rise [the ABC miniseries about LGBT rights created by Dustin Lance Black, the Oscar-winning writer of Milk].

DL: Final question. There are a lot of young lawyers who have gotten involved in pro bono work and political activism in the past few months — for example, the Biglaw associates who went to the airports to aid immigrants affected by the travel ban. But, as readers of Above the Law well know, there are also a lot of young, debt-saddled, unemployed or underemployed law school graduates out there.

Say a young progressive came to you and said, “Robbie, I admire your career, and I want to do what you do. I want to go to law school to fight on behalf of social justice.” What would you say to this person?

RK: Absolutely! Absolutely go to law school. One thing we have seen under the current administration is how the courts and the Constitution have endured.

Judges might disagree over results in particular cases, such as the travel ban litigation. But there has been no disagreement about the respect that must be paid to the courts and to the constitutional values of our system.

DL: Values that you have been standing up for, and vindicating, for the past quarter century. Congratulations on the launch of Kaplan & Company, and good luck in the years ahead!

Roberta Kaplan, Champion of DOMA Fight, Leaves Paul Weiss to Start New Firm [American Lawyer]
Roberta Kaplan Leaves Paul Weiss To Launch Her Own Firm [Big Law Business]


DBL square headshotDavid Lat is the founder and managing editor of Above the Law and the author of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel. He previously worked as a federal prosecutor in Newark, New Jersey; a litigation associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; and a law clerk to Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at dlat@abovethelaw.com.