Robert Link

Cadwalader Says Goodbye to Bob Link

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Former Cadwalader chairman Bob Link is being left off of the firm’s 2009 management committee. The news was told to the partnership during a meeting today. Link himself confirmed the news to AmLaw Daily:

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft’s former chairman and current managing partner Robert Link Jr. was not included on a recommended slate of candidates for the firm’s management committee given to partners today, a source at Cadwalader says.

The slate, recommended by the management committee, will not be acted on for another few weeks, the source says. Link, reached by phone, confirmed his name was not on the list.

“It really is part of our normal succession,” Link says. “It’s not something I’ve been part of planning for.”

Charlotte managing partner Jim Carroll is also out of the 2009 management loop.

The Lawyer, which first broke the news of Link’s ouster on Monday, reports that Cadwalader’s future is still very much up in the air:

But Link’s removal from power is far from the end of the story. Cadwalader has been reeling for months. Collapsed core markets, major lawyer layoffs and now a palace revolt, 2008 will go down as arguably the worst in Cadwalader’s 216-year history.

Inevitably, questions have been raised about the long-term future of the firm. How things play out later this week may offer some clues as to its shape, whatever that may be.

But one parting shot from CWT to the associates they laid off, after the jump.


In true Cadwalader fashion, the firm’s current managing partner, W. Christopher White, had encouraging things to say about the firm’s future:

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White, who was interviewed before any news emerged about the potential leadership shakeup, notes that the firm will stop paying severance — one of the factors contributing to the anticipated profit drop — to laid off associates in December. White says Cadwalader will enter into 2009 without those expenses and in a better position.

Way to get those layoffs done early, CWT. I’m sure that the 96 associates you fired will love to hear that their dismissal was timed so that their severance didn’t mess up 2009’s PPP.

If they even still care, I’m sure all of them have found new jobs by now.

Cadwalader To Oust Managing Partner [AmLaw Daily]

Cadwalloped! [The Lawyer]

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Earlier: Is It Time to Put Cadwalader on the Dissolution Watch List?

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