Two weeks after Weil, David Lat of Original Jurisdiction reports that Cahill Gordon & Reindel may be facing its own existential moment. Citing multiple sources with contacts in the partnership, Lat says the 107-year-old finance firm, with profits per partner of $5.7 million last year, has lost eight finance partners in 2026 and may be acquired by a larger firm. Cahill had not responded to his requests for comment. We asked only this morning whether Big Law is too big to fail. Apparently the question has legs.
For a general counsel or chief legal officer, the lesson is plain. Cahill has fewer than 80 partners, so eight exits is about a tenth of the partnership. If one firm holds your key finance or deal work, ask who really owns the relationship and keep a second firm warm. Our guide to managing outside counsel covers how to evaluate firms. And for associates reading this with a knot in the stomach, our in-house counsel jobs page never closes.
As Lat puts it: “In the wake of the collapse of Weil Gotshal & Manges—a prestigious, profitable, 95-year-old firm—many of us wondered how long it would take before another Am Law 200 firm faced an existential crisis. We might now have an answer: just a few weeks.”
Read: Is Cahill Gordon The Next Weil Gotshal? at Original Jurisdiction