Fordham Law School Establishes A. William Urquhart Memorial Fund to Support Evening Division

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Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP

Nov 12, 2024, 13:05 ET

Honoring a Legal Visionary While Empowering the Next Generation of Law Professionals

NEW YORK, Nov. 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Fordham Law School has announced the A. William Urquhart Memorial Fund to strengthen its renowned Evening Division, currently ranked second in the nation and first in New York City by U.S. News & World Report. For more than 100 years, this program has offered working professionals the opportunity to pursue a top-tier legal education while managing their career and personal responsibilities.

This initiative honors the legacy of A. William "Bill" Urquhart, a distinguished attorney and name partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP. Urquhart joined the firm in 1988 and was instrumental in its growth from a small Los Angeles practice to a global litigation powerhouse. He is renowned for his business vision, litigation skills, and recruitment expertise. Urquhart passed away in 2019 at the age of 72 years-old.

"For more than 100 years, Fordham Law School has welcomed remarkably diverse and academically gifted students who are balancing career, family, and part-time legal study," said Fordham University Law School Dean Matthew Diller. "The Fordham Law Evening Division is a critical program that helps us to fulfill our mission of providing a legal education to students who work in the service of others. Many our most accomplished and successful alumni graduated from the evening program. Bill Urquhart was a leader amongst this group."

The A. William Urquhart Memorial Fund aims to:

Provide financial assistance to evening division students;
Develop hybrid online courses to accommodate students' busy schedules;
Enhance experiential learning opportunities;
Support students' emotional and physical well-being; and
Expand access to career planning and student affairs services.

Fordham's Evening Division attracts students with diverse backgrounds and experiences, enriching the academic environment. Notable alumni include Casey Adams, a former Obama campaign organizer and New York City government official, and Dr. Maureen Zakowski, a pathologist from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

"The A. William Urquhart Memorial Fund to Support Evening Division is a fitting tribute to Bill Urquhart, a mentor to so many young legal professionals," said Michael Carlinsky, Global Co-Managing Partner & Head of Complex Litigation at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. "We are grateful that Bill's legacy will live on through the students at Fordham Law School."

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP is a 1000+ lawyer business litigation firm—the largest in the world devoted solely to business litigation and arbitration with 35 global office locations. Surveys of major companies around the world have named it the "most feared" law firm in the world three times. Firm lawyers have tried over 2,500 cases, winning 86% of them. When representing defendants, Quinn Emanuel's trial experience gets better settlements or defense verdicts. When representing plaintiffs, Quinn Emanuel lawyers have won nearly $80 billion in judgments and settlements. Quinn Emanuel has also obtained seven nine-figure jury verdicts, four 10-figure jury verdicts, 51 nine-figure settlements, and 20 10-figure settlements.

Quinn Emanuel has been named the No. 1 "most feared" law firm by The BTI Consulting Group three years in a row and a total of five times in its annual "Most Feared Law Firms in Litigation" guide, in which in-house counsel named 46 firms they "want to steer clear of" when it comes to litigation. We were named "Commercial Litigation Law Firm of the Year" at the Chambers USA Awards 2024. The American Lawyer named Quinn Emanuel the top IP litigation firm in the U.S. and the firm as one of the top six commercial litigation firms in the country. The UK legal periodical, The Lawyer named us "International Firm of the Year." Law360 has most recently selected us as having Banking, Class Action, International Arbitration, and Trials "Practice Groups of the Year." Managing IP twice recognized us as having the "Best ITC Litigation Practice" and honored us with the "Patent Contentious West" award. Legal Business has named us "US Law Firm of the Year" three times, and our German offices have twice been named both "IP Litigation Firm of the Year" and "Patent Litigation Firm of the Year" by JUVE, Germany's most prestigious legal publication. Global Investigations Review, a leading legal periodical covering global white-collar investigations, named us the "Most Impressive Investigations Practice of the Year." Global Arbitration Review named us the 3rd best arbitration practice in the world. Global Competition Review named our antitrust and competition practice among the "25 Global Elite," and has included us in their list of the world's top 10 competition litigation practices.