Cahill’s wake-up moment spurs unlikely moves after 105 years

Cahill Gordon & Reindel was weathering a historic slump in the high-yield and leveraged loans market, which it’s long dominated, that drove its revenue down 20 percent over a three-year period.

But it was the defections of roughly a dozen partners over that time, something Cahill had never experienced, that “woke us up to the realities of the legal market,” managing partner Herbert Washer said.

The more than 300-lawyer firm, not accustomed to major change in its 105 years in business, realized it was time to rely less on cyclical corporate finance markets. It’s moved into or expanded in private credit, bankruptcy, M&A, project finance, white-collar, cryptocurrency, congressional investigations, and intellectual property litigation, hiring 17 partners away from other top firms and in-house roles since 2022. Cahill also tweaked its compensation system to retain its top talent and bring aboard lateral hires.

“By all metrics—demand, value of time, billing, revenue—I think the firm is up substantially over 2023,” Washer, who took over from William Hartnett as Cahill’s sole leader in January, said in an interview with Bloomberg Law. “We’ve not just sustained the business—we’ve grown the business.”

Cahill’s size and low overhead, with only four offices, give it the financial power to pay for top talent, Washer said.

“We have very high profit margins, which effectively means that we can pay our partners a greater percentage of our revenue than many, if not most, of our peers,” he said. “That allows us to offer competitive compensation to lateral partners because we have the profit margins.”

Duane Morris Partner Clash Escalates in Non-Equity Status Suit

The bad blood between Duane Morris and a partner suing the law firm is getting worse as they fight over which court should hear the case.

The firm has perpetrated a “massive tax fraud” by classifying some of its lawyers as “non-equity partners,” Meagan Garland said again in a court filing.

Garland is suing Duane Morris, alleging the firm intentionally misclassified her and other attorneys to reduce business and tax expenses. A Black woman, she also accuses Duane Morris of paying women and minorities less than their male, white counterparts.

Duane Morris wants the suit moved from Oakland, California, to San Diego, where Garland works. The firm said in its own court filing that it plans to call unnamed partners also based in San Diego, who will testify that Garland performed poorly on the job and took a prolonged medical leave.

Garland has responded by accusing the firm of a “smear campaign.”

The suit is one of several cases, including three this year, scrutinizing Big Law’s use of the partner title for lawyers earning a fixed income, rather than a share of profits. It’s unique because Garland is suing Duane Morris while continuing to work at the firm.

Duane Morris has taken an aggressive defense posture after retaining a team from Proskauer Rose, another large firm. Proskauer’s employment department has represented several law firms in discrimination litigation with partners.

Lawyers Give More to Harris in 10 Days Than Trump in Entire Race

Lawyers gave more to Vice President Kamala Harris in the first 10 days of her presidential campaign than to former President Donald Trump in nearly two years, according to Federal Election Commission records.

The Harris campaign received nearly $8.3 million in about 26,000 individual contributions from donors who listed “attorney” or “lawyer” as their occupation in the 10 days after President Joe Biden left the ticket and endorsed Harris as the Democrat’s new nominee on July 21, the latest FEC data analyzed by Bloomberg Law shows.

That’s nearly a third of the $26 million the Biden/Harris campaigns received from lawyers since April 2023, when Biden announced he was seeking re-election. The Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign together have raised about $6.88 million from lawyers since the former president announced his candidacy on Nov. 15, 2022, according to FEC records. Trump’s campaign itself took in about $6,200 from lawyers in the first 10 days of his official candidacy.

Lawyers historically have given more—and in recent elections, much more—in individual contributions to Democrats than Republicans in presidential elections.

“Now it seems hard to find any of the largest firms that are right-leaning,” said Derek Muller , election law professor at the University of Notre Dame Law School. “It’s just been a kind of slow and steady drift over the last several presidential cycles.”

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