Law Firms

Cadwalader Splits Job of Managing Partner and Chairman

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On the heels of the layoffs of 35 associates, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft has changed the job of Robert Link, the firm’s chairman and managing partner.

Robert Link will stay in the job of managing partner and will handle day-to-day administrative responsibilities, the New York Law Journal reports. But the chairman position will be split from the job and given to Christopher White, chair of the firm’s global finance group, who will focus on strategic issues.

Under Link, who led the firm since 1994, Cadwalader has broken from second-tier status and emerged as one of New York’s most profitable firms, the story says. But the firm’s premier structured finance practice has been hit recently by volatility in the capital markets, prompting the layoffs. Cadwalader’s profits per partner fell from $2.9 million in 2006 to $2.7 million last year.

White and Link both pushed to improve profits at the firm in the 1990s by eliminating unproductive partners and practices, according to the story.

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