Tough Thursday at the Shark Tank

Way back in February 2006, The New York Law Journal asked, “Does the Future Belong to Cadwalader?” That piece found the firm reveling in its success and embracing its rep as a ‘shark tank.’  Managing Partner Bob Link asks rhetorically, "'Are we going to have difficulty sustaining this?'  No, short of some cataclysmic event that hits everyone else too."  Gulp.

Today—and perhaps only Shearman & Sterling is glad to hear it—Cadwalader is laying off 35 lawyers. It's not clear yet which departments or offices will be purged.  (Just a guess.)

Cadwalader's statement reads as if it were written by the Pentagon. ["Targeted personnel reductions"? "Strategic redeployment"? Really?]  What’s amazing is that this is comes via Hill & Knowlton, the supposedly "high-powered" PR firm, whose home page asks us: "What Does Success Look Like to You?"

Here is a bit of what Cadwalader associates told us in the good old days of 2007:

 "The firm is obscenely profitable, and they take pains to make sure the associates get top-of-the-market pay/bonus"

"They think that paying market absolves them of all other responsibility when it comes to associate satisfaction"

 "The firm made a value judgment when it hired in some of its major partners – profits over culture"

Anyway, this must have been quite a party.  California Gold Rush Carvery!

                                                                                    -posted by brian