Ex-Cadwalader Chairman Retires at 55 with No Plans to Resume Law Practice
At the age of 55, Robert Link is finished with law practice.
Link, the former chairman and managing partner of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, “quietly retired this summer,” the New York Law Journal reports. He told the legal publication that he may take a public interest job, but he has no plans to resume practice. For now, he is managing his investments, playing golf, traveling and spending time with his wife.
Link was replaced as chairman in 2008; the next year he was sent to London to take over the office after it lost seven of its 11 partners. The partner exodus followed an announcement by Cadwalader that profits had dropped by 30 percent, a decline some had attributed to Link’s emphasis on capital markets and real estate.
His early years at the firm were marked by success, the New York Law Journal says. “Link became the leader of the firm in 1994, a role that was formalized in 1998,” the story says. “Cadwalader in those years transformed into what Link called a ‘meritocracy,’ awarding partners who brought in business with more compensation. The firm posted record revenues and profits in the years that followed. By 2006, profits per partner hit an all-time high of $2.9 million, with gross revenues at $556 million.”
Cadwalader chairman W. Christopher White told the New York Law Journal that he had been promoted because there was more of a demand for strategic thinking, but the expectation was that Link would later resume day-to-day management duties.
White said Link told him in January that he planned to retire because he had “been there and done that” and didn’t want to return to management.
