Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP - The Inside View

‘Money, money, money… must be funny,’ sings Donna Sheridan in Mamma Mia, though there’s certainly nothing humorous about the topic for associates at Cahill where bonuses are regularly above-market and matter values are frequently in the millions. And that’s certainly not where Cahill’s monetary affiliations end. It’s a firm that knows a thing or two about the world of corporate finance. Take it from our colleagues over at Chambers USA who impart the highest praise on the firm for its nationwide banking and finance and high-yield debt capital markets practices. Closely related, but on the litigious side, Cahill’s corporate crime and investigations offering is also nationally renowned. You won’t be surprised to learn then, that when the likes of Wall Street’s top dogs and various Fortune 500 companies find themselves in need of legal representation, Cahill’s often on speed dial.

“…a small BigLaw firm.”

Alas, what you may be surprised to hear that it wasn’t the financial reward which interviewees cited as their reasons for selecting Cahill. “What stood out to me about Cahill was the fact that it’s a small BigLaw firm,” multiple insiders echoed. What this means is the firm is “big enough to get large and complex cases, but not so large that it feels like a factory where you can’t make an impression.” Ultimately, “there’s not thousands of attorneys, so even at a junior level, you get the opportunity to work directly with partnership.” Indeed, the firm’s headcount sits at a modest 300 across a network of just four offices – New York, DC, Delaware, and London. All newbies join the firm’s New York office.

Strategy & Future

We caught up with Cahill’s chairperson, Herb Washer, to get the low down on recent strategic developments at the firm, including its new leadership team. “That includes me and other partners who have stepped up and taken responsibility for the management of the firm,” Washer details. Alongside a refreshed approach to the marketplace, as part of the changes, Washer explains the firm recently added a Director of Attorney Advancement: “Our goal there is to help associates develop in their careers and make sure they’re getting experience in the practices they want, and to make sure they’re getting the substantive experiences they want.”

Looking to the future, Washer notes that a big focus for the firm has been practice diversification: “Although we are focused on certain practices, I think we’ve been a bit too narrow in our thinking over the years, so the whole partnership team has committed to building out adjacent practice areas,” including project finance, structured finance, M&A, private credit, intellectual property, technology litigation, fintech and crypto. "We’ve grown organically, and also hired lateral partners who will help us move more strongly into those adjacent practice areas,” Washer adds.

Read more from our interview with Herb Washer under the ‘Get Hired’ tab.

The Work

Newbies at Cahill join either the corporate or the litigation group. Work allocation in both groups tends to be a rather informal affair; while first year associates in the corporate group can make use of a staffing group, the majority of associates find their work through the firm’s free market system.

In the litigation department, associates have the opportunity to do work involving antitrust, securities, white-collar, regulatory, and civil litigation. Given Cahill’s finance-focus, clients in this area naturally tend to be banks, financial institutions, and those in the FinTech space. “The practice area as a whole is very free flowing,” juniors praised of the variety of work available to them. In addition to the work typically carried out by the firm, juniors mentioned crypto as an area of increasing importance. “The crypto work isn’t necessarily crypto-heavy,” one junior mentioned, “there’s other stuff that these companies are dealing with that can really run the gamut.” Typical responsibilities for interviewees included things like doc review, preparing deposition outlines, attending depositions, and, of course, carrying out legal research. As one source put it, “Juniors are typically bearing the brunt of making sure the information we get on first-find review is packaged in a helpful and informative way for the people above us.”

Litigation clients: Deutsche Bank, Tesla, Clearview AI. Represented X Corp (formerly Twitter) in a class action alleging the company failed to properly secure its users’ data, ultimately allowing cybercriminals to gain access to their Personal Identifying Information.

“…the bread and butter of the firm is leveraged finance and capital markets…”

Over in the corporate department, Cahill’s clients (unsurprisingly) tend to be big banking institutions. Work here is often focused on leveraged finance, bond and credit agreements, and private credit. “We do a bit of company side work, but it seems like the bread and butter of the firm is leveraged finance and capital markets, so that’s where most of my work is,” one interviewee explained. The breadth of work the firm takes on is also expanding to include more crypto strengths; one associate noted, “There’s an element of corporate work now with crypto regulations and stuff like that, so it’s definitely expanding.” In general, corporate juniors were able to have a go at the first cut of ancillary documents and manage communications with clients, as well as plenty of due diligence. Responsibilities aren’t cut and dry though, as interviewees noted, “If you put in more and vocalize that you want to do more, you’re able to take on a lot of responsibility once you’ve proved you can.” In fact, one newbie mentioned, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody ask to do something and be given an outright ‘no.’”

Corporate clients: S&P Global, Galaxy Digital, Cable One. Represented ICON plc in its acquisition of Biotel Research, a provider of medical imaging and cardiac safety monitoring services.

Career Development

Career development was a hit for the associates we interviewed at the firm. Off the bat, newbies are assigned both a partner mentor and a senior associate mentor to show them the ropes; these mentors also cover performance reviews. To add further structure to associates’ development, the firm signs juniors up to a program called Cahill Academy. “We have a lot of training sessions right at the beginning,” an insider noted, “the firm recognizes that a lot of people are going in blind and may not have heard of things like financial calculations before. The program exists to build the groundwork there.”

Informal development and mentorship are very much a choose-your-own-adventure here. “I think Cahill has a reputation for being a little less hierarchical than many other firms,” one associate noted, “and in my experience, their motto of ‘responsibility when ready’rings true.” Ultimately, what this means is “if you’re someone who’s young and ambitious, it’s a great place to start your career.”

In terms of the path to partnership, sources unanimously noted, “I don’t feel it’s unrealistic to make partner here. Everyone is treated as having an equal opportunity.” But at the end of the day, making partner isn’t for everyone, and sources were clear on the fact that “if I decided to leave tomorrow, there are people here who would go to bat for me and help me find a client I’d be a good fit with.”

Hours & Compensation

Billable hours: no requirement

Cahill associates have no billable hour requirement, and sources were happy to report that there was no limit to creditable pro bono hours, too. Like any BigLaw firm, however, associates explained that hours could vary a fair bit on any given week: “If I’m not busy, I could have some 20-hour (billable!) weeks, but if I’m busy, I could be working from 9am to midnight or 1am.” Hours aside, interviewees appreciated that they were only required to be in the office three days a week.

“Being a leader in compensation makes it feel like the firm really values you as an associate.”

Cahill’s compensation is in line with the market, but the bonus structure was what really wowed our interviewees. The firm is known for handing out above-market bonuses, and even recently introduced a new ‘super bonus’ – available to exceptional associates who have been with the firm for four or more years. “Being a leader in compensation makes it feel like the firm really values you as an associate,” one interviewee noted.

Pro Bono

Pro bono was another pro for our interviewees, who appreciated the firm’s focus on such matters. As mentioned above, associates have no limit on how much pro bono work they can take on and count towards their billable tally. “We really don’t have a formal ratio on how much time we can spend on a pro bono client,” an insider noted, “pretty much everyone has at least one or two pro bono matters at any given time.”

Matters associates can get involved in include immigration, criminal proceedings and work with veterans, too. “People respect it as a time commitment,” one interviewee praised, “in the same vein as if I was working on a deal closing and had to take a back seat on other matters, if you were to say you have an ongoing pro bono matter where we’re going to appear before the judge tomorrow, people would understand you’d need to prioritize that.”

Pro bono hours

• For all US attorneys: undisclosed
• Average per US attorney: undisclosed

Culture

According to our interviewees, Cahill’s the kind of place where “folks work with their doors open. It’s common for folks to pop in with informal questions, and senior associates take their mentorship roles really seriously.” It all starts from the top down; “The partners are incredibly funny, down-to-earth, real human beings,” an associate gushed, “they are the ones who set the culture.” And all the way down it goes indeed: “As first years, we actually all sit together in the cubicles in the office!”

Associates reckoned the close-knit culture was a product of the firm’s cozier dimensions: “We’re a relatively smaller BigLaw firm, and that’s really helpful in navigating that early part of your career,” an interviewee explained, “You can learn most of the partners’ names within a year and get to know most of the associates.” Mingling with peers is also aided by the firm’s social events, which include happy hours, dinners, summer recruiting events, a Christmas party, and a winter law prom! Those with a competitive streak will also be pleased to hear Cahill has its own sports teams, ranging from softball to soccer to running.

Get Hired

The first stage: recruitment on and off campus  

OCI applicants interviewed: undisclosed   

Interviewees outside OCI: undisclosed   

Cahill participates in a wide variety of recruiting events and carefully considers candidates from law school organized programs as well as applicants who apply directly. “At Cahill, we are thoughtful in our selection process,” says co-chair of the hiring committee Meghan McDermott. “We celebrate the individuality of each candidate and we focus on the whole person in our recruiting process. While grades are of course important, we also focus on a candidate’s unique qualities and prior experiences because we’re looking for long-term contributors that will be successful first-year associates, not just summer associates.”

The firm recruits at a few different stages. “Cahill is committed to attracting top talent at earlier stages of a candidate’s law school career,” explains co-chair of the hiring committee Jason Hall, “which is why we’ve launched our exciting new 1L summer associate program, in addition to our traditional 2L program. By introducing promising first-year law students to our firm early in their legal careers, we’re creating new pathways for exceptional talent and enriching our firm’s culture and perspectives.”

Top tips for this stage:   

“Prior to your interview, research the law firm and the attorneys you are meeting, and reflect on what specifically interests you about the firm. During the interview, be sure to highlight your own prior experience and provide real-life examples that demonstrate your passion for the firm’s practices and how you would excel at the law firm.” – McDermott

Callbacks   

Applicants invited to second stage interview: undisclosed   

Candidates meet with two partners and two associates at the callback stage, with each interview lasting approximately 30 minutes. The panel could include junior associates, with Jason Hall telling us that “at Cahill, we believe that our associates are just as invested in the recruiting process as our leadership team. That’s why you’ll find our enthusiastic associates actively engaging with candidates over coffee, lunches, and casual conversations.” As he explains, “This collaborative spirit not only allows us to identify top talent, but also helps you get a genuine feel for our vibrant culture."

Top tips for this stage:   

“When choosing a law firm, it’s essential to look beyond the numbers and statistics of various law firms and really focus on a firm’s “X-factors”, which are those factors that set a firm apart from their peer firms. You should seek a place that resonates with your interests and qualities, and where you feel you belong. At Cahill, we believe our X-factors are our smaller firm size and collaborative culture. While we have all of the prestige, benefits, and compensation of a larger big law firm, our smaller size allows our firm to have a collegial feel, with easy accessibility to partners, plentiful mentorship opportunities, and a focus on individual development.” – McDermott

Summer program   

Offers: undisclosed 

Acceptances: 26

Summer associates can sample work across Cahill’s practice groups. “Our summer program at Cahill is more than just a glimpse into the legal world; it’s a dynamic experience where you’ll gain hands-on exposure across a variety of practices,” shares Hall, “From day one, you’ll be paired with dedicated members who are involved in your work assignments and eager to guide you. Our commitment to fostering meaningful relationships and providing real-world experience sets us apart from firms with rigid rotation systems. Here, you’ll be empowered to explore the work that interests you most.”

Top tips for this stage:   

“The innovative free market assignment system at Cahill is designed to empower our associates to take charge of their own careers. Here, you’ll find opportunity to embrace initiative and self-direction, allowing you to gain meaningful responsibilities, as soon as you’re ready. We’re committed to fostering an environment where ambition is rewarded, and the sky is the limit for your professional growth.” – McDermott

And finally….   

“Cahill is a New York-based firm, so showing that you actually want to be in New York is important!” – a third-year junior associate   

Interview with Herb Washer, Chairperson

Commercial strategy, market position and trends

Chambers Associate: How would you define your firm’s current position and identity in the legal market? What differentiates your firm from your peer firms in the market?

Herb Washer: I would say that we are quite New York centric. I think there has been a trend in the law to really build out these global law firms that have practices in every jurisdiction and cover every substantive area of law; our model is a bit different and a bit more focused. Our goal is to be ‘best in class’ in specific areas in London, New York, and Washington DC, but we’re really not focused on other locations. As a result of our regional focus in those places, we’re also focused on particular practice areas. We’re focused on financial institutions – both traditional institutions and more crypto and decentralized finance organizations – and obviously when we talk about our transactional areas, we focus on finance-related areas principally. On the litigation side, we again focus on securities and antitrust litigation and things like that.

What I would say is that our firm tends to be more focused on the goal of preserving the legal experience for the people that work here. The partners and associates feel like they’re part of a real law firm. As firms get significantly larger with thousands and thousands of lawyers, you lose that feeling of a professional organization and it starts to feel like a corporation; we’re trying to preserve the feeling of a professional organization where we work with our colleagues and not just other employees. Our size and focus allow us to retain that and that differentiates us from a lot of the massive – very successful, but massive – law firms out there.

CA: Have there been any developments at the firm over the past year that you’d like law students to know about?

Washer: I think one of the developments is that we’ve turned over our leadership – that includes me and other partners who have stepped up and taken responsibility for the management of the firm. I hope we’ve brought a new attitude to how we do things and how we tackle the changes in the marketplace. We’ve hired, for the first time, a Director of Attorney Advancement, and our goal there is to help associates develop in their careers and make sure they’re getting experiences in the practices they want, and to make sure that they’re getting the substantive experiences they want, whether that’s leading transactions or taking depositions on the litigation side. She’s also a resource for people who want advice on how to develop their career and what career paths there are – at the firm or more generally. She’s the person who’s really dedicated to ensuring that associates from their first year forward have a great experience and develop as lawyers. I do think that at much larger firms there’s a risk of getting lost and falling through the cracks, but because of both our manageable size and our renewed focus on attorney development, I think people get real attention at Cahill.

CA: Are there any domestic or international events/trendsthat are affecting any of the firm’s practices at the moment? Are there any trends that you think are affecting the business of law firms more generally, and how is that playing out with your firm?

Washer: On the litigation side there are always lawsuits and always government investigations, so that’s pretty steady and consistent. On the transactional side, the cooling of the interest rate environment is helpful. We’ve all seen and I’m sure you’ve heard at other firms, that as the US central banks and other central banks around the world begin to bring interest rates down, we’ve seen a corresponding increase in deals, M&A activity, financings, and refinancings. It's making it more affordable and more logical for companies to enter into transactions or refinance their obligations. We’ve seen an uptick, and that’s encouraged by the general economic environment at the moment.

CA: What is your firm’s commercial strategy focusing on, and how do you expect the next year to unfold?

Washer: I think for us our big focus has been on diversification. Although we are focused on certain practices, I think we’ve been a bit too narrow in our thinking over the years, so the whole partnership team has committed to building out adjacent practice areas. We’ve done a lot of leveraged finance historically, with companies that aren’t investment grade, but now we’ve been building out our related practices – project finance, structured finance, and M&A, for example. Over the course of the last year, we’ve grown organically. and also hired lateral partners who will help us move more strongly into those adjacent practice areas. Our strategic goal for 2025 is to continue to grow in those new areas and really ensure we have the breadth and depth of expertise required to put us into the top tier of firms in all of those areas. We’ve made a start there but need to finish the job in 2025, if you will!

CA: Your associates spoke about the new ‘super bonus’ that’s been introduced. What can you tell me about that, and the decision to bring that in?

Washer: Historically in law firms there’s been a tradition of paying all associates at the same seniority level the same amount of compensation regardless of the specific work they are doing and how dedicated they are to the firm. We are committed to paying top-of-the-market compensation to everyone who is in good standing, but we do have associates who provide extraordinary service and make an extraordinary effort on behalf of the firm, the clients, and their careers. The strong feeling is that it’s time to reward those people for that extra effort. In respect of last year, we paid  ‘super bonuses,’ which are above and beyond the top-of-the-market bonuses and compensation to reflect extraordinary performance. The goal is to size those so that for somebody who receives that, it really makes a difference in that they can pay off their student loans, or it could allow them to accelerate saving for the downpayment on a house. It’s not just ten, twenty or thirty thousand dollars – it’s something that will really impact the trajectory of their lives. People deserve that. Partners get paid for extraordinary performance and there’s no reason associates shouldn’t also. This was the first year so we’re experimenting a little bit, but it’s important to encourage the people who are going the extra mile for clients and for us, and we want that to be reciprocal, so we want to show them that we appreciate that.

CA: The associates we spoke to also told us that the firm’s crypto currency work is growing significantly; what can you tell me about that and how you think that might look moving forward?

Washer: We do think this is going to be a growth area for us going forward. We’re seeing more traditional banks and other financial institutions getting into the crypto and Fintech space, whether it’s allowing their customers to trade in crypto, or working on the tokenization and distribution of assets over de-centralized finance platforms. We think that the financial world is going to move into that space, and what you will find is that there aren’t too many law firms with the legal and technical expertise to operate at the highest level. The goal is to build that expertise to serve not only this generation of crypto and Fintech companies, but also the traditional financial institutions that enter the space. We will continue to make investments in people and resources to build out our team. The goal is to be the number one destination for clients playing in this area, so that requires real investment and real commitment, and we’re optimistic that we’ll see real growth.

Inside the Firm

CA: What’s the firm’s approach to bolstering diversity, equity, and inclusion?

Washer: It’s always a priority for us. I think we have done a terrific job, at least in recent years, of recruiting diverse candidates to the firm. When you look across our recent first year classes for example, there is very significant diversity in those classes so we’ve been excited to see our progress there. The difficulty, of course, is ensuring that the people you bring in develop properly so you have a diverse mid-level class, senior level class, and partnership. That requires an ongoing commitment by the firm to really track and assist people in their careers. One of the major responsibilities of the Director of Attorney Advancement is to make sure that all incoming associates, including diverse associates, are really getting one-on-one coaching and help with their careers. Our goal is to retain and promote our diverse associates so that we have diversity throughout our ranks as we go forward over the course of the years – to focus on that backend piece to help folks develop once they get to the firm.

The Legal Profession

CA: How do you predict the rise in AI will affect the ways in which lawyers work? How will it affect the services law firms provide?

Washer: I did a town hall a couple of days ago and we take anonymous questions in advance, and one submitted was: ‘How long will it be until we’re all replaced by AI associates?’ I assured people that it’ll be well after my career ends! I think AI, like the computer, can be a tool. It can accelerate some tasks and make some things easier, but it absolutely does not replace lawyers and their judgement, and the actual analysis that is required to give clients good work product. It’s a tool like any other and in some contexts it’s not an entirely reliable tool, so I think we’re in ‘wait and see’ mode. We’re certainly tracking it; there are AI tools out there that can be useful to us and our clients and we’ll avail ourselves of them. It will be quite some time before AI has any meaningful impact on our need to have human beings to perform that legal work. In the future it will be a more and more helpful tool and we’ll invest in those tools and they’ll become useful, but I don’t see this replacing humans.

The Fun Bit

CA: What was the first car you owned?

Washer: The first car I owned was my grandmother’s sky-blue Buick Skylark. She gave that to me after she’d driven it for about 15 years and I actually loved that car. I wasn’t at all cool – it didn’t help me get dates or anything! But it was a car and I was happy to have it. That was my first car; I loved that thing, and it ran very well and consistently for years.

The first car I bought after I became a lawyer was a convertible BMW – a BMW 3 series convertible. I had always wanted one; ever since I was a kid I thought they were the coolest thing. It wasn’t very practical, but I couldn’t be dissuaded.

CA: What memory/moment has stuck with you from law school?

Washer: I would say probably ‘Legal Follies’ – we had a law school variety show and it was skits and musical numbers put on by the law students. I remember doing it as a 1L and it was a little crazy because I was studying for my first year of final exams and I was in rehearsals for what we called the ‘Legal Follies’ show. It was an utterly chaotic time in my life, but it was really fun. Some professors would perform in these skits; we had a contracts professor, Wally Miller, and we did one particular number with him. It was really fun – and a way to take your mind off the seriousness of studying for 1L final exams. That’s probably a good example of work/life balance – I’m not sure I achieved perfect work/life balance there, but I just remember being overcommitted to everything at that particular moment. It was also a great way to get to know the people in my law school class that I didn’t know.

The other was as we were preparing for first semester 1L finals. My roommate and I decided to throw an igloo party in our apartment, and covered our apartment in white butchers’ paper to make it look like an igloo. We spent about 100 hours doing that.

CA: Which actor/actress would you want to play you in a biopic about your life?

Washer: I don’t think I can answer that question! I have to say I haven’t given it a lot of thought – I hope no one would ever make a movie about my life. I would go with a young Harrison Ford. He did a legal movie long ago called ‘Regarding Henry.’ I started at what became Clifford Chance Rogers and Wells and it was actually filmed in our offices and, of course, everybody was all atwitter about it. It was a great movie, and young Harrison Ford made an excellent lawyer, so I’d go with that!