The London office of Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft has suffered the collapse of its English law capital markets practice with the departure of partner John Walker and a team to rival Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy.
Walker, who joined the firm from Wilde Sapte in June 1997, resigned last week and has already started work at Milbanks. Senior associates Fred Van Oordt, who resigned last Friday (12 May), and James Warbey, who resigned on Monday (15 May) will join him. Walker said: “The practice of Milbank in the US and here is focusing on structured finance, securitisation and project bonds, which is a better fit than I had at Cadwaladers.”
His resignation follows that of fellow capital markets partner James Starkey, who left Cadwaladers to join his long-standing client AIG Financial Products in January, and senior capital markets associate Vincent Keaveny, who left to join Norton Rose as a junior partner in December.
Cadwaladers is left with seven London partners. The office still boasts a US law capital markets capacity through partner Jim Croke.
