Legal News

Cadwalader?s Partner Profit Down 30%; Chairman: Not Too Shabby

By Dan Slater

When Cadwalader cut 96 lawyers in July, the firm’s management blamed the “severe contraction” in the market for mortgage-backed securities. Christopher White, the firm’s chairman, told the Journal: “There was a bubble, we rode that bubble, it contracted, and we adjusted. Even knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t have changed a thing.”

What does White say now, given the firm’s announcement yesterday that its average profits per equity partner — or PPP — fell more than 30 percent, from $2.725 in 2007 to $1.88 million in 2008? “I’d like to think that we put most of our pain in 2008,” White tells the American Lawyer, adding that the $1.88 million profit number “is not too shabby.”

Revenue fell to $506 million, down 13.8 percent from $587 million. Interestingly, White told AmLaw that, following the Lehman bankruptcy in September, many financial services clients began hoarding cash, making collections difficult. That remains “an ongoing issue,” he said.

Word on Cadwalader’s numbers follows yesterday’s news that a handful of large West coast firms saw declining revenues in ‘08 as well.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on January 13, 2009 (boomark / email).