practice areas
honors + affiliations
Member, Federal Bar Association
Member, American Bar Association
Member, National Asian Pacific American Bar Association
Recipient, St. Robert Bellarmine Award, presented by Loyola University Chicago School of Law for distinguished service to the community, the legal profession, and the law school (2010)
Dean's Diversity Council, Young Alumni Events Committee, Diversity Mentor, First-Year Student Mentor, and Moot Court Coach at the Loyola University Chicago School of Law
bar admissions
- Illinois
- District of Columbia
Court Admissions
- U.S. Supreme Court
- U.S. Courts of Appeals for the First, Third, Seventh, Tenth, and Eleventh Circuits
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
- U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
- Chicago
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77 West Wacker Dr.
Chicago, IL 60601-5094
Phone: 312.324.1780
Fax: 312.324.1001
Romeo S. Quinto, Jr., is a partner in Morgan Lewis's Litigation Practice. Mr. Quinto focuses his practice on complex commercial litigation, with an emphasis on private antitrust litigation, class action defense, and trade secret disputes. He has successfully litigated such claims as price discrimination under the Robinson-Patman Act, misappropriation of trade secrets, unfair competition, trademark infringement, and consumer fraud. Mr. Quinto has also represented and advised one of the leading financial institutions in mortgage servicing in relation to recent legal and regulatory changes affecting mortgage defaults and foreclosures. Clients served in these matters include national and international companies in the auto manufacturing, financial services, food, pharmaceutical, and tobacco industries.
Mr. Quinto is also an appellate advocate, having achieved significant client victories in merits and interlocutory proceedings in state and federal courts. His appellate victories include overturning class certification in a substantial antitrust matter, obtaining affirmance of a judgment exceeding $1 million in an insurance brokerage dispute, and achieving the dismissal with prejudice of a removed class representative purporting to assert lending and other claims on behalf of a nationwide class.
Mr. Quinto's public interest work includes successfully representing a pro bono client before the District of Columbia Office of Citizen Complaint Review (now D.C. Office of Police Complaints), which led to new police policy regarding the treatment of minors accompanied by an adult under arrest.
Prior to joining Morgan Lewis, Mr. Quinto was a partner in the Global Litigation Practice in the Chicago office of an international law firm.
From 2001 to 2003, Mr. Quinto served as a law clerk to Judge David D. Dowd, Jr., of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. Prior to that, he served as a volunteer attorney at the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago.
Mr. Quinto earned his J.D. from Loyola University Chicago School of Law in 2000, where he served on the Loyola University Chicago Law Journal and was a member of the National Moot Court Team, and where he currently coaches moot court for the school's Honors Appellate Advocacy Program. While in law school, he externed at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Division of Enforcement. Mr. Quinto earned his B.S. in economics from DePaul University in 1997.
Mr. Quinto is admitted to practice in Illinois and the District of Columbia and before the U.S. Supreme Court; the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the First, Third, Seventh, Tenth, and Eleventh Circuits; the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia; and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
Selected Representations
Note: This list includes engagements completed prior to joining Morgan Lewis.
- False advertising litigation. Represents major consumer products companies in putative class actions filed in state and federal courts where plaintiffs assert RICO, consumer fraud, and other claims for alleged false advertising.
- Product liability litigation. Represents a biopharmaceutical company in series of products liability cases filed in state and federal courts across the country.
- Trade secrets arbitration. Represented an individual entrepreneur against his former employer, a major hedge fund company, in an AAA arbitration involving multimillion-dollar claims of trade secret misappropriation, noncompete violations, and breach of fiduciary duty, and multimillion-dollar counterclaims of breach of compensation agreements; case settled on eve of trial.
- Antitrust matter. Defended automobile manufacturer in federal court against dealers alleging claims under the Robinson-Patman Price Discrimination Act, Automobile Dealers Day in Court Act, and various state franchise and other laws; successfully opposed class certification of putative nationwide class on all claims, 543 F.3d 141 (3d Cir. 2008); case then settled.
- Class action dispute. Obtained a Seventh Circuit decision that dismissed with prejudice a plaintiff who asserted lending and other claims purportedly on behalf of nationwide class in Refund Anticipation Loan litigation; opposed plaintiff's petition for writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court, certiorari denied in Reynolds v. H&R Block Services, Inc., 129 S. Ct. 898 (2009).
- Trade secrets dispute. Represented international food company in a case against competitor involving claims and cross-claims for global trade secret misappropriation, unfair competition, and tortious interference; case settled via mediation.
- Trade secrets litigation. Represented an insurance adjusting firm in prosecuting claims in federal court for misappropriation of trade secrets under the Uniform Trade Secrets Act arising out of Hurricane Katrina-related insurance litigation.
- Insurance brokerage dispute. Obtained jury verdict in excess of $1 million in federal court on claim for breach of insurance broker's fiduciary duty, successfully defended verdict in resulting appeal to the Eleventh Circuit, and obtained favorable opinion on questions certified to Supreme Court of Florida. Toomey et al., v. Wachovia Ins. Servs., Inc., et al., 450 F.3d 1225 (11th Cir. 2006), certified questions answered, 994 So. 2d 980 (Fla. 2008), and judgment affirmed, 547 F.3d 1291 (11th Cir. 2008).
- Election challenge and resulting fee shifting dispute. Represented a statehood party candidate in a gubernatorial election challenge filed in federal court in Puerto Rico; obtained a favorable ruling on attorney's fees issue in District Court; won resulting appeal on fees issue in the First Circuit in Rosselló-González v. Acevedo-Vilá, 483 F.3d 1 (1st Cir. 2007).
- Antitrust matter. Defended tobacco company in federal court against moist snuff competitor Swedish Match for claims under Section 2 of the Sherman Act, the Lanham Act, and various other laws; case settled.
- Antitrust matter. Represented plaintiff cranberry producer in federal court against competitor on claims for violation of Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act; case settled.
education
- Loyola University Chicago School of Law, 2000, J.D.
- DePaul University, 1997, B.S.