Layoffs, Partner Profits

Cadwalader Profits Per Partner Are Up, Way Up

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Cadwalader conducted layoffs, early and often. Massive, bloody layoffs. Now, Am Law Daily tells us what they won:

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft on Tuesday reported a 28 percent increase in profits per partner, the firm’s first positive results since 2007.
Yet while the firm enjoyed a slight increase in net income, some of the increase in its per-partner average earnings appears attributable to a nearly 21 percent loss in the number of equity partners. Gross revenue fell nearly 10 percent, a drop that W. Christopher White, the firm’s chairman, calls “very strong in light of a steep contraction in the finance market.”

I think that there are going to be a lot of stories about firms that conducted massive layoffs who are now experiencing PPP increases.
More details after the jump.


Cadwalader’s chairman, Chris White, acknowledged that CWT’s aggressive cost cutting maneuvers contributed to its glorious profits:

Cadwalader in 2008 announced layoffs affecting 131 associates, job cuts that preceded much of the rest of the legal industry. The firm continued to cut jobs in 2009, though not nearly at the same level. The firm announced layoffs affecting 25 lawyers globally in early 2009; in July, the firm offered a one-year sabbatical to 34 lawyers. Cadwalader reported 457 lawyers at the end of August 2009, down 12.6 percent from a year earlier when the firm had 523.
“We continued to adjust to the contraction in the financial markets, and in 2009 recognized the benefit of the very difficult decisions that we made in 2008,” White says.

Cadwalader’s PPP hit $2.41 million in 2009. And that is why firms play the layoff game.
THE AM LAW 100: Cadwalader Posts Higher Profits, Lower Revenue [Am Law Daily]
Earlier: Nationwide Layoff Watch: Cadwalader offers ‘sabbaticals’ to 34 lawyers
Breaking: Cadwalader Announces Layoffs of 96 Lawyers!

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