John M. Quinlivan never forgot his service in World War I. In 1925, at age thirty-three, he was admitted to the Minnesota bar, and began work at the Veterans Administration. Except for three years in the Attorney General's Office and one year in private practice, he was employed in the Veterans Administration until death on January 1, 1943, at age fifty. Later that year, he was recalled in memorial services for the Hennepin County Bar Association:
"He was shy and unassuming in manner, yet he possessed a quiet confidence which was most reassuring to those he represented. In his legal work he exemplified the highest ideals of the legal profession. To him the practice of law was not a game in which lawyers attempted to win at any cost, but a noble profession whose true end and purpose was a diligent and earnest search for the truth, in which both the judge and the lawyers owned a definite obligation. In his death the bar lost an intelligent and honest lawyer, his country a loyal servant and a patriotic citizen, his wife a devoted husband and his friends and a true steadfast friend. He will be missed by most by those who knew him best."
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