first man firs.t..I DID THIS UNREAL YALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hahaha. 2 rocks.

well-played, lat.

Looks like he was a grade grubber as well - a lot of Am Jur awards but no law review. The firm bio doesn't say "no law review," but it's hard to believe he was on it and left it off the bio. Every other non-descript "qualification" is listed. He was an accounting major as well. I guess if he wasn't managing partner at CWT he'd be selling real estate in Knoxville. The pussies at CWT must cringe every time his CV is made public. Is a double Tennessee a TT or a TTT?

Wow 5, either you're trying to incite an argument, or you're the most pathetic human in the world.

maybe bob can invite all the people CWT laid off for "economic reasons" to come live in his new $6 million pad.

I grew up in Southampton. I remember when the Fowler family began subdividing the field that became Halsey's Path. They filled a lovely potato farm with grotesque "McMansions." Also, and I kid you not, a corner of that field was over a Native American burial ground. All told, this seems like massive karmic payback.

I didn't even read the article but I hope he loses

what's the over-under on how long until the first bedbugs show up?

1: I'm not the only one who is wondering how the h*ll he made MP of that firm with his TTT background. That is the REAL story here.

HTH.

He's suing for 60k as if a guy who can afford a 6m weekend home that he probably only uses during the summer should worry about 60k. Vindictive.

"All told, this seems like massive karmic payback."

Yeah, he has a $6M summer home in the Hamptons and his damages are a measly $60K. If he loses the lawsuit, guess what, he still wins.

11 - He made MP because he is smarter than people like you who simply think that they can rely on their T14 education.

PS: YOU ARE A TOOL AND YOU KNOW IT :)

I think #12 inadvertently answered #11's query.

14 - what is a "tool" ???

15 top notch.

11, it probably has something to do with the $26 million book of business. Just a guess.

To everyone against #11 above, obviously he must be a good attorney because he made it to MP despite his TTT status.

I would be more interested in how he got into the firm. It is difficult enough to get an intererview with BIGLAW from a T14, I can't imagine how one would get in with a TTT "pedigree".

I would put it differently: Here's what Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft – is funding with the lay-offs off 35 lawyers in January, and then 96 more last month.

18, he didn't start at CWT right out of law school. I'm sure that he had made a pretty strong reputation for himself in Atlanta and then in New York before he made the jump to CWT.

I like how the firm's website is all Tennessee orange!

I love when a "real world" story comes to the pages of ATL and a lawyer (who is also loaded and at big law) is involved. All the top school law students get all freaked out. When are they gonna get it?? 2 years out of law school and no one cares about where you went, all they want to know is whether you can make money for the firm or not.

To those at top schools, make friends, and keep in touch. One day those people you went to school with in undergrad might own a business and need a law firm.

22: Wrong. I know very talented attorneys 3, 4+ years out who can't get a decent BIGLAW job because of their TTT school.

HTH.

hey lat -- last time i checked, you have a blog.... Link is the MP of a whiteshoe law firm. Don't you have anything better to do than be so concerned about his personal life? You seem to prove more and more just how jealous you are. hugs & kisses!

Agree with 23--try getting a job as a 5th year "superstar" with your JD from University of the Pacific at most V20ish firms. Now, on the other hand, if you have $2MM portable...

24 = incoming CWT first-year.

who spends $6MM without a house inspection

23/25, those aren't decent jobs that your friends can't get, they are hell jobs working with people who think less of someone because of their school.

Why is EVERY comment thread on this site about credentials? This is an article about a real estate dispute, and the first thing people notice is that the "pedigree" of a principal doesn't match their preconceptions. Bunch of sniveling technocratic fascists, you really want to live in a caste system don't you? Law school is a joke, all people learn how to do is manage entitlement systems.

ATL has become autoadmit II

28- try lateralling as a midlevel. Firms care almost as much about school and grades for laterals as they do with new hires

$6m and it isn't on the beach -- doesn't even have a view of the beach! Are you fucking kidding me? I understand the Hamptons are expensive but jeez. For $6m I want to be on the beach.

29 - I am not disputing that, but if it is true, it is irrational behavior that gets reinforced by all the obsessing about rank order on sites like this. Why lateral? If you are unhappy with your peers/work then fine, if you are just looking for more prestige then you are buying into the hierarchy that you are complaining about. There are plenty of big law firms that pay well and hire laterals based on their track record as lawyers.

FIRST!! YES. FIR ... Ah, hell!

Your pedigree doesn't matter if you're a superstar. Superstar's have a book of business. You can't be a superstar as a mere service associate -- all you are is a lackey. As a lackey your pedigree matters because lateral firms have no other way of determining how good a lawyer you are, unless the partners you work for are willing to vouch for you. Of course, if the partners you work for are willing to shill for jobs for you, you're probably in need of a soft landing because you're a nice guy but _not_ a superstar.

33 - I mostly disagree. We aren't looking for mids with books of business, for chrissake. The books mids can get (generally), we don't want. We're looking for mids who are "superstar mids," and those include the technically sound, not just the schmoozers. Obviously you don't do much interviewing--it's usually easy to tell how good of a lawyer someone is in a 2-minute conversation, and then the next 28 can be spent on the normal interview questions (sports, restaurants, etc.).

yeah like any midlevel has a "book" worth 2 sh*ts to a good firm.

"Goldman Sachs, operator"

"Hi, I'm 4 years outta Cardozo...do you guys need a lawyer?"

Guys at my high-school bought six million dollar non-waterfront Hamptons estates all the time. It was no big deal.

Pedigree wasn't as big of a deal when this guy became partner. Check out the websites for Cravath, Davis Polk, etc and see where partners who graduated in the 1970s and early 1980s went to law school. Elitism is relatively recent.

26 -- that's cute. you'd love to think that wouldn't you. if you do your job right and effectively, you have nothing to worry about and only recognition and fame to gain. get with it!

Does no one here know who Link is? Read this article to learn who Link is, what he's done at CWT, and why there's plenty of schadenfreude at their current situation.

http://www.law.com/jsp/llf/PubArticleLLF.jsp?id=1170682662248

Here's how Link feels about prestigious schools:

"There's a big imbalance in terms of expectations of law graduates and law firms," said Link. "It's all these history majors who found out they couldn't get jobs in history and decided to go to law school."

His views on the subject mark another departure from New York's traditional elite. Whereas those firms lavish attention on Ivy League law graduates with prestigious judicial clerkships, Link wants lawyers who want to be in the business and want to work hard in it. He said his ideal candidate would probably be someone slightly older with previous work experience, maybe on Wall Street.

He has no use for Yale Law School.

"I don't think we even recruit there anymore," he said of the law school often regarded as the nation's most intellectual. "They don't seem to produce the kind of lawyer we want."

Perhaps more than most firms, Cadwalader has made an effort to find the cream of students at nonelite schools.

Bob "missing" Link is out in his Hamptons home (with a leaky cold pool) while I am stuck trying to hustle interviews and collecting $405/week unemployment. I feel so bad for Bob and I'm sure a judge/jury would agree. And to the poster who said he has a $20M+ book of business if that was so there would not have been as many layoffs.

39 - if it was "cream" that they staff their office with, why the stealth layoffs through performance reviews.

Seems to me that there may have been quite a few flies mixed in with this cream.

Bob Link = $6 million home.

You = Very angry anonymous commentator on online tabloid.living in a tiny studio apartment trying desperately to vent your frustration at life.

Say what you will about his law degree but he's living in the multi-million dollar home. Look around your apartment and tell me how you stack up. If his law degree makes him a TTT, what does that make you?

wow

umm 42, that is his weekend getaway. so odds are he has two 6+ million dollar homes.

I was honestly surprised by his degree and happy to see it.

-1

11/23, are you:

A) a college student, law student, or lawyer using "HTH"; or

B) a high school kid posting here and pretending you know what you're talking about.

either way, i feel sorry for you.

co-sign, 45

co-sign, 45

This site sure has gone to shit.

First, the comments in the Lolita post are impossible to read as a result of all the deleted comments.

Reading the commenter at #150 trashing comment #150 is confusing. It is hard to tell whether that person is making a joke or whether there are deleted comments.

Also....WHERE THE FUCK ARE THE NON-SEQUITURS???!!!????!!!??

48 here again:

Here is the comment at $150:

"Congratulations to 150 for being an asshat."

Now, is commenter #150 calling himself an asshat? If so, that would indeed be funny.

Also...REOPEN THAT GOD DAMNED THREAD IMMEDIATELY!!!!!!!!

48 and 49 here,

THE CAPS LOCK WILL BE TURNED OFF IN 3, 2, 1....

thank you.

Hey Lat/Mystal, none of this would have happened if you had posted the Non-Sequiturs.

Don't make me have to bust out the SHAME POLE!

In 2003, around $80 billion of CMBS were issued. Chris White, chair of Cadwalader’s real estate department, purchased a luxurious summerhouse in the Hamptons on a sizable plot of land overlooking the water. As opposed to renovating the house, he burned it down (i.e., donated it to the local fire department to be used in disaster simulations in exchange for a massive tax write off) and built a far more opulent, Gatsbyesque estate.

In 2004, around $130 billion of CMBS were issued. Chris White purchased a five-year-old, two-story Tudor, with stained glass and mullion windows, a multi-car garage, and a swimming pool…for two million dollars. He burned it down too….this time to improve his view.

In 2007, around $240 billion of CMBS were issued. Bob Link, Cadwalader’s managing partner, purchased a six million dollar Hamptons mansion.

In 2008, just over $12 billion of CMBS have been issued. Cadwalader has laid off 131 associates, and Bob Link has sued his contractor for sixty thousand dollars…. And the year’s not over yet. But this ominous cloud does of course have a silver lining…looks like Cadwalader’s been named as of counsel to Bob Link in his action against his contractor, which means that it could indeed rack up some major legal fees documenting, evaluating, cataloguing, summarizing, creating issues lists, and writing memoranda of law relating to Bob’s moldy basement.

Bottom line: Chris should have taken a break from serial house burning or, better yet, taken a hint from the fire department’s disaster simulations and attempted to simulate and plan for the effect of a cataclysmic drop in CMBS/CDO volume on Cadwalader, and Bob should have spent a little less time hunting for luxury homes and a little more time investigating latent defects in the foundation for Cadwalader’s business model. Because of their epic lack of foresight, they’re now stuck with one massively moldy structured finance basement. What’s more, that moldy structured finance basement also happens to house the contractors who are responsible for the structural flaws in the first place. Translation: it’s not going to be an easy problem to fix.

Maybe his is just "rainmaking" for the firm. $60k is nothing, but I bet they can rack up a few hundred grand in legal fees pretty quick.

"As a lackey your pedigree matters because lateral firms have no other way of determining how good a lawyer you are"

Perhaps they look at your work product and talk to your clients? Just a thought . . .

This is a great item. TY, ATL

I have a $12 million home and went to Yale.

bob had cadwaladersean inspect the grounds. he obviously missed a couple of spots.

CWT to 190k PPP!