Four partners from the finance practice of Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft, including the firm’s head of leveraged finance, are heading to Proskauer Rose, extending a string of losses for one of the nation’s oldest law firms.
Charlotte-based leveraged finance leader Ronald Lovelace ended his two-and-a-half-year tenure at Cadwalader last week to start work at Proskauer, Lovelace said in an interview with Bloomberg Law. Fellow finance partners Jared Zajac, Patrick Yingling, and Joseph Polonsky are joining Lovelace in the move.
“There’s no doubt that Cadwalader has a great reputation and great practices,” Lovelace said in an interview. “Every single person I talk to in private credit says that Proskauer isn’t just their counsel but their number one counsel.”
The group, which will help launch Proskauer Rose’s North Carolina office in the banking hub of Charlotte, are the latest exits from New York’s oldest law firm. More than 30 partners have parted ways with Cadwalader this year, while eight have joined the firm, according to a review of public attorney hire announcements.
Cadwalader didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The team joining Proskauer regularly advises large financial clients in nine- and ten-figure finance transactions with corporate borrowers. Lovelace represented JP Morgan in a deal to provide $2 billion in credit for Oncor Electric Delivery, and Polonsky counseled MUFG Bank in providing a $3.5 billion credit facility for Berkshire Hathaway Energy Company, according to their online Cadwalader profiles.
“There’s a lot of finance work in Charlotte, and we see Ron and his team as the foundation of the office,” said Proskauer chair Tim Mungovan. “We’ll continue to grow it from there.” Mungovan said Proskauer is in final talks with a landlord about leasing office space in Charlotte’s financial district.
The three partners joining Lovelace in the move to Proskauer also accompanied him in a group move from King & Spalding in early 2023.
In other Cadwalader departures, eight partners are leaving for Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe, which is also opening a Charlotte office with some of the new hires. Ira Schacter, a recently-appointed co-head of the Cadwalader corporate department, left for a job overseeing the financial services group at the newly-merged mega-firm McDermott Will & Schulte.
Cadwalader, in previous statements, has said it’s having a better year financially than in 2024, which according to the American Lawyer was the firm’s highest-grossing year with $638 million in revenue. More recently, in comments to the Global Legal Post, the firm said it’s “on track to have one of its best years in the firm’s history.”
Cadwalader recruited commercial real estate partner Steven Kolyer from Sidley Austin at the beginning of August. Dan Meade and Douglas Mintz also returned to the firm after practicing at Paul Weiss and Schulte, respectively.
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