Firm Profiles

It wasn’t what Dickens had in mind, but mortgage–backed securities work, it turned out, meant the best of times and the worst of times, too. For Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, the good times saw booming profits per partner; the bad times—and they were really bad—saw a credit crisis that rocked the firm. One of the first large firms to lay off lawyers during the downturn, Cadwalader cut its roster deeply, and repeatedly, as a dramatic lull in work decimated its structured finance department (in one layoff round in 2008, nearly 100 lawyers were let go). In fiscal year 2007 Cadwalader numbered 645 lawyers; by 2010, the firm was down to 481 (including just 58 equity partners). It ranked eighty–first of 84 firms on The American Lawyer’s Recession Performance Index, which looked at revenue, staffing, and profits between 2007 and 2009.

Yet even with all the recent turmoil, Cadwalader—the second–oldest continuously operated law firm in the country—remains a major force on our rankings. It continues to be a highly leveraged and highly profitable firm with a small partnership—although it has brought in more laterals in recent years.

The firm has also reappeared in the top five on the Am Law Profitability Index. And perhaps most promising of all, revenue in 2011 saw a slight uptick—4.4 percent—after years of steady decline. “The pickup was pretty much across the board, but litigation was particularly strong, ” says Cadwalader chairman W. Christopher White. In fact, White says, litigation represented approximately 40–42 percent of the firm’s revenue.

Meanwhile, Cadwalader has been looking to new practice areas—and regions—for growth. It opened a Hong Kong office in 2010 to assist financial institutions and companies doing business in Asia. In 2011 it launched an energy and commodities practice based in a new Houston office.

Still, Cadwalader 2.0 has had its glitches. The firm lost a major dealmaker when senior partner Dennis Block left for Greenberg Traurig in 2011. And in January 2012, it lost a trio of bankruptcy partners to Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman. Junior lawyers have also had their gripes: Cadwalader ranked 102nd (out of 126 firms) on The American Lawyer’s 2011 Midlevel Associates Survey. The best of times may indeed come again—but to a very different–looking Cadwalader.

—Updated as of 1/2012