Cadwalader Partner Profits Drop 30%, Less than Rumored Amount
Some rumors had put the drop in partner profits at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft at 50 percent. So the news of a 30 percent decline doesn’t seem all that bad.
Average profits per equity partner at Cadwalader fell to $1.88 million for 2008, down from $2.725 million the year before, the Am Law Daily reports.
Cadwalader’s new chairman, W. Christopher White, put a positive spin on the news in an interview with the Am Law Daily. He noted that the firm has gone through layoffs and said it is now positioned for 2009.
“I’d like to think that we put most of our pain in 2008,” White told the publication. He also said the $1.88 million in profits per equity partner “is not too shabby.”
“Our financial restructuring people are very busy, parts of our litigation department are very busy, and those are important engines in a downturn,” he told the Am Law Daily. But he conceded work is slower in private equity, real estate finance and capital markets practices.
The news follows a report that Clifford Chance has warned partners in an internal memo that profits per partner at the firm could also plunge by 30 percent. At Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, profits per equity partner have dropped 21 percent, to $1.315 million.
