Cahill’s Wake-Up Moment Spurs Unlikely Moves After 105 Years (1)

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 ...