Cadwalader trio snubs offer to stay
The New York management ;of ;Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft has failed in an attempt to buy back three of the seven London partners who left for Paul Hastings.
Cadwalader is understood ;to ;have ;offered litigation partner and office head Michelle Duncan (pictured), restructuring partner Karl Clowry and funds partner Christian Parker financial incentives to stay.
The trio will soon be free to join Paul Hastings along with their four colleagues Conor Downey, Justin Jowitt, Tom O’Riordan and Charles Roberts. Around 15 associates are expected to accompany them.
The departures leave the London office with just four partners. The US firm, which was one of the first to make mass redundancies last ;year, ;also ;laid ;off another nine associates in its Charlotte and New York offices and saw New York reinsurance and disputes partner Clifford Schoenberg quit for Mayer Brown.
It ;has ;also ;reduced salaries in Charlotte as it tries to cut costs further. The firm’s average profit per equity partner dropped by 30 per cent, from £1.87m in 2007 to £1.29m in 2008.
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Readers' comments (2)
Anonymous | 26-Jan-2009 10:13 am
Three of seven
Gosh, that's got to hurt for the four who weren't offered "financial incentives" . Not that any of them would want to stay at this point anyway, but when a firm like Cads can't be bothered to bribe you (when it's offering cash to your colleagues), you have to start wondering if maybe it's about you and not about the economy.
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anon | 26-Jan-2009 3:54 pm
Two Tiers
Obviously Paul Hastings is importing two tiers of partners. The ones that CWT triied to buy off are the ones that actually bring in some cash. The lucky others are just catching the wave. Probably their heads were on the CWT block anyway.
Whatever Paul Hastings seeks to import they should ensure that the new recruits are not bringing along the infamous CWT culture - otherwise PH will just be importing problems.
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