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Wall Street Law Firm Pays Price for Dealing With Donald [1]

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Date: 2025-05-12

Wall Street Law Firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft–It Discovers That Dealing with Donald Backfires “B i g ly” May 12, 2025

Far too many big name institutions, businesses, and “blue chip” law firms have decided that it might be better to make deals with that Demagogue/Dictator Wannabe Donald so they will avoid damages from that “unfair and unbalanced” resident in the White House. Well guess what? Such actions often backfire “b i gly.” The “Wall Street Journal” recently reported that the law firm based in New York City, the Wall Street giant Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP, known as Cadwalader, has attorneys in its behemoth firm that are far from pleased with this capitulation to Donald. Cadwalader is fearful that Trump saw them as “weaponizing” the legal system against him. While other major Wall Street law firms have filed litigation against Donald refusing to yield to his threats and blackmail, Cadwalader, along with several other major Wall Street firms, have “negotiated” a $100-million pro-bono or free legal services deal with him. And what happened? As a result of this caving to Donald, employees of Cadwalader are exiting this firm or “walking away with their feet.” Cadwalader claims that its independence has not been “compromised.” Give me a break! Cadwalader’s exiting employees rightly appear unconvinced. J.B. Howard, a counsel at Cadwalader, wrote an internal resignation letter protesting the Trump deal and has left the firm. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-law-firm-resign_n_6822471de4b0abb58358aa6f

And one of the former partners at Cadwalader was Todd Blanche. Blanche worked at Cadwalader for nearly six years and represented clients “in the tank” with Donald, including Rudy Giuliani associate Igor Fruman and former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort. Blanche himself left Cadwalader and founded Blanche Law to represent then former President Donald. After Donald won re-election in November, 2024, he nominated Blanche as deputy attorney general in the U.S. Justice Department. Blanche was confirmed by the GOP-controlled Senate by a narrow 52-46 vote and took office on March 6, 2025.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todd_Blanche

Here’s a close-up look at the Cadwalader firm.

The Cadwalader firm was founded in 1792 and is New York City’s oldest law firm. It is headquartered in Lower Manhattan. As of 2022, Cadwalader has about 400 attorneys. It currently operates out of five offices across the U.S. and Europe. In addition to its Wall Street office in NY City, Cadwalader has offices in Washington, D.C., Charlotte, N.Carolina, London, England, and Dublin, Ireland. In 2021, Cadwalader had revenue of $608.9 million with per profits per partner of $4.38 million. https://www.law.com/americanlawyer/2022/01/21/cadwalader-saw-partner-profits-soar-by-70-as-revenue-grew-more-than-30-in-2021/?slreturn=20220218165051

Famous members of this firm included name partner George Wickersham, an antitrust lawyer who became a partner in 1887 and was named U.S. Attorney General under President William Howard Taft. President Taft’s brother, Henry W. Taft, also became a name partner in 1899 and served as special assistant to the U.S. Attorney General from 1905-1907.

Other attorneys who are members of the Cadwalader firm have included Oscar Cox, the General Counsel of the WWII era Lend-Lease Administration, Michael E. Horowitz, Inspector General of the U.S. Justice Department, and Charlie Wang who was also a CEO of car companies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadwalader,_Wickersham_%26_Taft





The Cadwalader firm made Catherine Noyes Lee its first female partner in 1942, way earlier than most big firms promoted women to partnerships. Besides doing work typical for Wall Street firms including corporate transactions, tax law, and representing many Fortune 500 companies, Cadwalader did pro-bono work that assisted women, children and immigrants.The firm additionally represented pro-bono Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai while she was still hospitalized after being shot by the Taliban. Cadwalader ultimately established the Malala Fund, a non-profit that advocated for women’s access to education.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadwalader,_Wickersham_%26_Taft

When top notch attorneys leave such a formerly highly-thought of law firm, this action, IMHO, constitutes a red warning light that Donald and his former Cadwalader friend Todd Blanche are threatening “big time” a firm with a fine reputation to “fall in line” or else. Cadwalader should join the other firms fighting Donald’s attempts to attack our democracy or like everyone else who deals with Trump, its stellar reputation will be hopelessly tarred. For generations, top-flight Wall Street lawyers have served U.S. Presidents from both parties, and have helped them act ethically and legally in dealing with complex matters. Donald, however, is a fellow out to destroy the guardrails of our democracy and could care less about serving his country. Cadwalader must think twice before losing many more talented lawyers and landing on the wrong side of history.





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