Cadwaladers tops UK growth

New York's Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft grew faster last year than any other US firm with a presence in London, a recent survey has found.

The National Law Journal's 1998 survey of the 250 largest US firms revealed that the recently-merged New York and San Francisco firm Thelen Reid & Priest had grown the fastest of all US firms, at a rate of 105.4 per cent.

But 350-lawyer Cadwaladers had grown organically by 31 per cent - the third largest such growth rate in the country, after New York's Battle Fowler and Newark's Gibbons Del Deo Dolan Griffinger & Vecchione.

Cadwaladers' all-English law office in London has gone from zero to 18 lawyers since it opened in June last year.

Recent recruits include project finance partner Paul Griffin and assistant Jolie Norris from Ashurst Morris Crisp.

Bob Link, managing partner, said: "What we have done over the past five years is to restructure Cadwaladers and being in the UK is part of that. We are making ourselves more profitable, running as a business and focusing on market needs and niches."

Link revealed that Cadwaladers had doubled its average profits per partner since 1994/95 and predicted that average profits next year would hit $900,000.