| Type | Limited liability partnership |
|---|---|
| Industry | Law |
| Founded | 1919 |
| Headquarters | New York, New York, USA |
| Key people | William M. Hartnett, Chairman, Executive Committee, Susanna M. Suh, Co-Administrative Partner, Jonathan D. Thier, Co-Administrative Partner, Penny Windle, Co-Administrative Partner |
| Revenue | US$323.5 million (2010) [1] |
| Employees | Approximately 600 |
| Website | www.cahill.com |
Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP (founded 1919) is a prominent New York-based international law firm with offices in New York, Washington, D.C. and London. According to The American Lawyer, Cahill is consistently among the most profitable law firms in the world.[2][3]
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Cahill opened its doors at 120 Broadway in 1919 as a small firm that quickly built a national reputation in the financial and corporate areas. By the end of the Depression, it had expanded to handle bankruptcies, reorganizations, and regulatory matters. During and after the Second World War, under the leadership of John T. Cahill, former United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, the firm grew dramatically. As Cahill Gordon Reindel & Ohl, it moved to 80 Pine Street, where it remains. Partner John Ohl, a tax specialist, retired in 1976 [4]. The firm established its Paris office in 1928, though it closed in 2000 when the firm opened its London [5] office. Today, Cahill maintains offices in London and Washington D.C., though by far its largest office is in New York City. Renowned for its corporate finance practice and work in high stakes lawsuits, Cahill remains a successful law firm with approximately 300 attorneys.
Cahill's litigation practice is one of the more prominent in the United States, handling high-profile securities, antitrust and first amendment litigation. The firm's partners have made frequent appearances before the United States Supreme Court. For instance, National Broadcasting Co. v. United States helped establish the power and authority of the Federal Communications Commission. Another case, Times-Picayune v. United States, is among the Court's most important antitrust rulings.
On behalf of Cahill, Floyd Abrams successfully defended The New York Times in the landmark New York Times Co. v. United States case. In that 1971 case the Supreme Court of the United States refused to permit the Nixon Administration to stop the publication of thousands of pages of Vietnam War-related government documents. Thereafter, Abrams and Cahill became prominent defenders of the media and First Amendment rights. On September 9, 2009, Abrams argued before the Supreme Court on behalf of Senator Mitch McConnell in the highly publicized re-argument ordered by the Court on the constitutionality of McCain-Feingold, defending the rights of corporations and unions to donate unlimited amounts of money to political allies in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. Cahill attorneys have appeared before the Supreme Court on behalf of the press in numerous cases of national importance.
In late 2005, David N. Kelley joined the firm as a senior litigator, having retired as United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Under his leadership, successful convictions for securities violations were obtained against Martha Stewart, Bernie Ebbers in the collapse of MCI Worldcom, and John Rigas for his role at Adelphia.
Cahill's corporate practice has assisted in the development of numerous financial products and services. This firm is prominent in the US capital markets, the Euromarket and bank lending market, often advising the investment and commercial banks in their roles as underwriters, initial purchasers, arrangers, agents and dealer managers. It was Cahill that represented the financing sources in many of Wall Street's historic buyouts, beginning with the leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco in 1989, up through the mega-buyouts of TXU, Hospital Corporation of America, Kinder Morgan, Harrah’s, Alltel, First Data and Clear Channel in the 2006 and 2007 LBO boom, where the largest buyout records were set.
Cahill is also active in the equity markets, especially as underwriter's counsel. They advised the underwriters in the IPO of hospital-operator HCA Holdings, which is reported to be the largest ever private equity-backed IPO on a US exchange [6] and represented JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and the other underwriters in the IPO of media measurement group Nielsen Company, which raised $1.6 billion.
Described by Hoovers as “a name plenty of high-profile clients have banked on,”[1] Cahill advises banking stalwarts Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan, UBS, and Wells Fargo as underwriters in debt and equity offerings, including IPOs, and as arrangers in leveraged loans. Bloomberg L.P. and Thomson Reuters consistently rank Cahill as the number one legal advisor to U.S. and Euromarket high yield bond underwriters in their legal league tables, and rank the firm among the most active law firms representing underwriters in other debt and equity categories. Reuters Loan Pricing Corp. ranks Cahill among the leading law firms representing bank lenders in the U.S. leveraged loan market.