Jan 25 (Reuters) - William Burck, a former deputy counsel to President George W. Bush, has left Weil Gotshal & Manges to co-manage the Washington office of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.

Burck, 40, served under President Bush from 2005 to 2009, after which he joined Weil's Washington office as a litigation partner. Before working for the White House, he was an assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York from 2003 to 2005.

Burck and Quinn Emanuel attorney Jon Corey, who launched the Washington office in September after moving from Los Angeles, where Quinn Emanuel is based, are leading a group of 10 attorneys who will expand the firm's international litigation and dispute resolution work. The team includes former Alston & Bird attorneys Paul Brinkman, Alan Whitehurst and Alex Lasher, who joined when the office opened and are intellectual property litigators with experience in international trade.

Quinn Emanuel opened a Tokyo office in 2007, a London office in 2008, a Mannheim, Germany, office in 2010, and a Moscow office last year.

Burck's focus is on white-collar criminal litigation and investigations. While at Weil, he defended fuel suppliers Mina Corp and Red Star Enterprises in a Congressional probe into allegations that they bribed Kyrgyzstan officials. The investigation found no credible evidence of wrongdoing.

During his stint at the U.S. Attorney's office, he worked on the prosecution of Martha Stewart, who was convicted of lying to investigators about the sale of her shares of ImClone Systems. Stewart served five months in prison.

Arnold & Porter partner Marcus Asner, a former federal prosecutor who worked with Burck at the U.S. Attorney's office, said Burck wrote most of the government's briefs in the Stewart case. "He had a reputation as a very smart guy who could write quickly," Asner said.

Working at Quinn Emanuel, a pure litigation firm, should reduce the problem of conflicts of interest that can arise in large-firm litigation, Burck said.

"I wouldn't say that was the driver [of the move from Weil], but there were definitely some cases that I would've liked to pursue that I couldn't," he said, although he declined to identify specific cases.

Burck graduated from Yale Law School in 1998 and clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, as well as for Alex Kozinksi, on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney's office, he was an associate at Sullivan & Cromwell.

A Weil spokeswoman issued a statement about the departure of Burck, who started working at Quinn Emanuel on Wednesday.

"We have a deep bench of very talented lawyers and we wish Bill well in his future endeavors."

(Reporting by Leigh Jones)

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