Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP (known as Cadwalader) is a white-shoe law firm, and is New York City's oldest law firm and one of the oldest continuously operating legal practices in the United States. Attorney John Wells founded the practice in 1792. Cadwalader's Lower Manhattan headquarters is one of five offices in three countries. In 2022, the firm had approximately 400 attorneys.
Overview
New York City's oldest law firm, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft is headquartered at 200 Liberty Street in Lower Manhattan. The firm's managing partner, Patrick Quinn, oversees approximately 400 attorneys as of 2022. It operates out of five offices across the United States and Europe. In addition to its Wall Street location, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft has offices in Washington, D.C., Charlotte, London and Dublin. In 2021, Cadwalader generated $608.9 million in revenue, with profits per partner of $4.38 million.
History
In 1792, attorney John Wells, a Princeton graduate who was one of approximately 80 lawyers in New York City at the time, founded the law firm that ultimately became known as Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. The firm became a partnership called Wells & Strong in 1818 when George Washington Strong joined Wells' practice.
Wells' death in 1823 prompted Strong to bring in George Griffin as partner. Griffin then left in 1838 and George Washington Strong partnered with Marshall Bidwell. George Washington Strong's son, George Templeton Strong, a lawyer and noted diarist, joined the firm in 1844. The firm became known as Strong, Bidwell & Strong. The firm became Bidwell & Strong in 1855 after George Washington Strong's death. Charles E. Strong, George Templeton Strong's cousin, became the firm's chief in the 1870s. During his tenure, he considered shuttering the firm and moving from law to banking. In 1878, Strong partnered with John Lambert Cadwalader, who was assistant secretary of state during President Ulysses S. Grant's administration.
Corporate law and civic responsibility
George W. Wickersham, an antitrust lawyer, joined the firm in 1883 and made partner in 1887. Wickersham was named U.S. Attorney General under President William Howard Taft. Henry W. Taft, President Taft's brother, began working at Cadwalader in 1889. He became partner in 1899 and served as special assistant to the U.S. Attorney General from 1905 to 1907. The firm became known as Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft in 1914.
In the 1930s, Cadwalader was involved with the custody trial determining the guardianship of Gloria Vanderbilt. Catherine Noyes Lee became Cadwalader's first female partner in 1942.
Cadwalader expanded its footprint as the firm opened an office in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1996, established a London presence in 1997 and opened its first office in China, located in Beijing, in 2005.
In the mid-1990s, a group of young partners formed what some at Cadwalader referred to as Project Rightsize, an effort from 1994 to 1995 to remove less productive partners. The group shuttered Cadwalader's office in Palm Beach, Florida, and reduced a branch in Los Angeles, California. In all, 17 partners, nearly 20 percent, left the firm. Critics said the move was driven by individuals' financial interests and two former partners successfully sued Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft for violating its partnership agreement.
Following the September 11 attacks, Cadwalader assisted families of those killed, including immigrant families. A portion of the firm's post-9/11 work occurred when attorneys learned there was no central resource for families seeking benefits; as a result, Cadwalader lawyers put together the "Handbook of Public and Private Assistance Resources for the Victims and Families of the World Trade Center Attacks", which was released in November 2001. The firm released an expanded version the following year.
During the financial crisis of 2007–2008, Cadwalader reduced its number of lawyers by about 20 percent in 2008. A reporter for The Wall Street Journal suggested the move was meant to lower operating costs as demand for its services decreased. Then-Chairman W. Christopher White stated, "There was a bubble, we rode that bubble, it contracted, and we adjusted". Also during the fiscal crisis, Cadwalader attorneys served as advisers for the U.S. Treasury as Chrysler and General Motors restructured. Cadwalader expanded in China with a Hong Kong office in 2010. In 2011, it opened offices in Houston and Brussels.