Summary: Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft is pleased to announce that it has added three high-profile attorneys to its group of partners.
According to the American Lawyer, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft has hired three high-profile partners. The news is a good sign for the firm, which witnessed a 15 percent drop in partner profits in 2014, and several departures at the beginning of the year. According to Wikipedia, the firm is one of the oldest in the United States, and was founded in 1792.
On Tuesday, the firm announced that Chad Mills, a transactional energy partner with Sutherland Asbill & Brennan, would be joining the firm’s Houston office. As of a couple of weeks ago, no attorneys were listed for this firm location. Cadwalader managing partner Patrick Quinn said, “Chad is a good example of an overall firm strategy for firm growth.” Quinn took over as the firm’s leader after James Woolery, the heir apparent for the firm, left to start his own investment firm.
In November 2013, six attorneys at the firm were promoted to special counsel.
According to Quinn, last year, the leaders of the firm decided that the energy practice was one that Cadwalader needed to invest in. That area of the firm had lost some key attorneys, however. Four partners left for Sidley Austin, and a fifth partner joined Bracewell & Giuliani before transferring to Willkie Farr & Gallagher a month ago.
In some oil companies, in-house counsel has said that expenditures on outside legal advice will be cut since the price of oil is dropping. However, Quinn thinks that the hit to the oil industry will increase the demand for legal services. He explained, “Anytime there’s a disruption in any market, it usually generates opportunity for folks to transact in that market.” Quinn added that he predicts increased activity “not only in acquisitions, where folks who want to invest in the energy space see an opportunity to buy companies for a more attractive price,” as well as “a raft of restructuring.”
In 2012, the firm’s profits were down, but its revenue increased.
Quinn said that Cadwalader is committed to the Houston market and is optimistic about growth in the area. The firm opened its Houston office in 2011 with two attorneys. So far, it has employed a maximum of five attorneys. Quinn said that Cadwalader will “look to our success in Charlotte” as an example for its Houston office. That office was opened with four attorneys in 1996 for the firm’s banking clients. Presently, it employs over 40 attorneys.
Additionally, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, Anne Tompkins, will join the Charlotte office’s white collar practice. She will join Kenneth Wainstein, who led the investigation into academic fraud at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Antitrust partner Vincent Brophy will join the firm’s Brussels and London from
Clockwise from top left: Mills, Tompkins, Quinn, Brophy, Wainstein
Over the summer, Jones Day threatened a parody website with litigation.
Quinn said that the new additions to these practices are examples of how the firm is growing even more in its strongest areas.
Source: American Lawyer
Photo credit: eventbrite.com, chambersandpartners.com (Brophy, Quinn) Wikipedia (Tompkins), acc.blogs.starnewsonline (Wainstein), media.licdn.com (Mills)