Cadwalader shrinks after management changes
Cadwalader says it is having a strong year despite the loss of 10 percent of its lawyers since Jan. 1.
The law firm has lost 41 lawyers this year, including 11 partners who left the partnership, the Am Law Daily (sub. req.) reports. The defections follow management changes and a drop in average profits for the firm’s equity partners of 15.3 percent in 2014 and 6.8 percent last year.
One management change was the sudden loss of James Woolery, who left to start a hedge fund in January 2015, the same month he was slated to take over as chairman.
Another high-profile lawyer, Christopher Cox, “quietly left the partnership” in February this year to become executive vice president for a longtime client, The Medicines Co., according to the Am Law Daily article. He remains as a senior counsel. Cox told Bloomberg News he had some mild health issues and the new job offered better work-life balance. He had been co-chair of Cadwalader’s corporate department, according to Bloomberg.
Also leaving Cadwalader was the co-head of its litigation department, Louis Solomon, who joined Greenberg Traurig in May along with three senior partners. The litigation group has been particularly hard hit, the article says, dropping from 147 to 102 lawyers since 2014.
Cadwalader managing partner Patrick Quinn says the smaller size of the litigation department can be explained by a drop in demand for litigation services across the industry. “But we are absolutely committed to having a strong litigation department and are actively recruiting,” he told the Am Law Daily.
Quinn also told the Am Law Daily that the firm has a lateral growth strategy that “could take different forms. It could be individuals, groups or, theoretically, it could even be entire boutique firms.” The firm has added 12 lateral partners since January 2015, including one this year.
Quinn says demand is up in several of the firm’s practice areas, and billable hours are up 22 percent this year, compared to the same period last year. He says there is “tremendous success” in the firm’s antitrust and corporate groups, and there has also been a boost in white-collar, litigation and restructuring work.
