On Monday, January 19, the partners of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft interrupted their Martin Luther King Day holiday to join a hastily scheduled conference call. Patrick Quinn, the firm’s managing partner, delivered the stunning news that James Woolery, who was slated to take over as the firm’s chairman that month, was leaving to start a hedge fund. Woolery didn’t join the call to explain his decision.
Woolery was only two years into a three-year deal that guaranteed him at least $8 million annually, more than any other partner at the firm. When he joined Cadwalader in February 2013 from JPMorgan Chase & Co., where he co-headed its North American mergers and acquisitions group, expectations ran high. Woolery, whose pedigree also included having been a partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, was immediately handed the title of deputy chairman and made co-leader of its M&A group. A year later, the firm announced that Woolery would take over as chairman at the start of 2015, and Woolery predicted a strong run for Cadwalader. “I think 2014 is going to be a real growth year,” he said then.
