Cahill Gordon & Reindel

Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP traces its origins to 1919, when Joseph P. Cotton, George S. Franklin, William G. McAdoo and Francis McAdoo joined forces to establish the business law practice of McAdoo, Cotton & Franklin. The firm's early work was principally in the financial and corporate areas, including a substantial international practice, often for investment banker clients, and it soon added an offshore corporate clientele. The firm reports top rankings in capital markets and lending league tables published by Bloomberg, Debtwire and LSEG, and states that it ranks #1 in U.S. High Yield Corporate Bonds by volume for the first half of 2026, generating more than $52 billion in proceeds and capturing nearly 30% of the market.

In 1919, Joseph P. Cotton, George S. Franklin, William G. McAdoo and Francis McAdoo joined forces to establish the business law practice of McAdoo, Cotton & Franklin. The firm's early work was principally in the financial and corporate areas, including a substantial international practice, often for investment banker clients; soon thereafter, the firm added an offshore corporate clientele. Prior to co-founding the firm, William G. McAdoo served as President Wilson's Secretary of the Treasury until his resignation in December 1918, and in that post played leading roles in establishing the Federal Reserve System (he was its first chairman) and in mobilizing the nation's economy during WWI. Joseph P. Cotton, senior partner of the firm throughout its first two decades, handled some of the largest reorganizations of the day; when the Federal Reserve System was organized in 1913, Cotton acted as counsel and established the constitutionality of the Federal Reserve Act in the case of First National Bank v. Union Trust Company (244 U.S. 416). Founding partner George S. Franklin participated in the negotiations of many important reorganizations, including The Goodyear Tire Rubber Company, the merger of the Chrysler and Dodge Automobile Companies and the organization of the Republic Steel Corporation, as well as the railroad reorganizations of the day. In 1920, led by McAdoo, the firm served as the general counsel for the founders of United Artists, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith. Thurlow Gordon was recruited by George Franklin to Cotton & Franklin in 1917 following his five years of government service as Special Assistant to Attorney General Wickersham.

1. 1Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLPcahill.com
2. 2History | Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLPcahill.com