Cadwalader Corporate Leader, 40-Year Vet Exits for McDermott (1)

Ira Schacter, a longtime Cadwalader lawyer who leads the firm’s corporate practice, is leaving for the newly-formed McDermott Will & Schulte.

New York-based Schacter this week informed Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft colleagues that he is joining McDermott, according to two sources with knowledge of the move. He departs after 40 years at Manhattan’s Cadwalader.

Cadwalader and McDermott on Thursday confirmed Schacter’s upcoming departure. Schacter didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

The move marks one of McDermott Will & Schulte’s first major lateral partner hires since finalizing the merger this month of McDermott Will & Emery and Schulte Roth & Zabel. The combined firm boasts about 1,750 lawyers and $2.8 billion in total gross revenue from last year.

At McDermott, Schacter will lead a new financial services vertical within the transactions practice that aims to work with clients involved in alternative financing—including private equity, hedge funds and insurance, a McDermott spokesperson said.

“We’re moving quickly to identify areas of growth for clients, and we see a hybrid future of lending, especially in an environment where banks are no longer rivals to private credit,” Harris Siskind, head of the global transactions practice at McDermott, said in a prepared statement. “In the age of AI and rising demand for digital infrastructure, Ira’s arrival will help to position us as the partner of choice as banks and private credit firms embark on co-financing the future.”

Cadwalader, Wall Street’s oldest law firm, has seen a string of partner exits this year. The losses include departures from a real estate finance group that has been an important revenue driver for the firm.

Schacter took over this year as co-chair of Cadwalader’s corporate practice—serving alongside William Mills—after Richard Brand left in February for White & Case. He is known for representing life sciences, energy, and financial clients in M&A transactions and structured finance deals.

“Ira has been with Cadwalader for 40 years and a valuable colleague since 1985,” a firm spokesperson said. “We wish him the very best in this next chapter of his career.”

Schacter was part of a Cadwalader team that represented global bank BNP Paribas last year in a $5 billion financing of Apollo Global Management’s securitized products business, ATLAS SP Partners. He led a group in 2021 that represented Healthcare Royalty Partners in a $125 million revenue interest financing agreement with Spero Therapeutics.

Cadwalader lost real estate finance co-chair Bonnie Neuman and three fellow partners to Sidley Austin in April. It also lost Ingrid Bagby to Haynes & Boone in June, while Richard Hanson exited for Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in July, less than a year after joining Cadwalader.

The firm has also had some wins in lateral partner hiring. Commercial real estate partner Steven Kolyer joined from Sidley Austin at the beginning of August, while financial restructuring partner Douglas Mintz jumped from Schulte and London-based fund finance partner Doug Murning joined from Ashurst in March.

Cadwalader previously said it’s on track to beat its record financial year in 2024, when it reported $638 million in gross revenue.

Cadwalader was one of nine Big Law firms that cut deals with President Donald Trump earlier this year to avoid executive orders that penalized some rivals. The firms collectively pledged nearly $1 billion in free legal services on causes shared with the White House.

Three litigation partners departed the firm in the weeks following the deal: Phara Guberman and Ken Breen left for Foley & Lardner, and Ellen Holloman quit for Kaplan Martin.

Cadwalader is the former professional home to Todd Blanche, Trump’s deputy attorney general. Blanche left the firm in 2023 so he could defend Trump in a New York criminal case accusing the president of falsifying business records to conceal payments to an adult film actress.