Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft is closing its offices in Beijing and Hong Kong, becoming the third major firm in the past 15 months to pull back from China.

In mid-2015, Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson closed its outposts in Hong Kong and Shanghai, while Chadbourne & Parke shut its office in Beijing that same year.

Some 25 lawyers, including four equity partners, will be affected by Cadwalader's decision to shut up shop in China. The firm told The American Lawyer that its two offices in the country will officially shut their doors by year's end.

The decision was made by an expanded management committee, convened this past summer to determine the best way to move the firm forward after a string of recent exits.

Lawyers at the firm first learned of the decision Thursday morning, when Cadwalader managing partner Patrick Quinn explained that a committee of partners, including an eight-member management committee, had taken "stock of what has worked and not worked for our firm over the past few years".

Going forward, Quinn wrote – in an internal memo obtained by The American Lawyer – that the firm has decided to focus more narrowly on financial institutions, large corporations and private equity funds. The new focus, he noted, triggered the decision to close Cadwalader's outposts in Asia. The New York-based firm also has offices in Brussels, Charlotte, Houston, London and Washington DC.

"It was a very difficult decision," Quinn wrote. "We have very capable attorneys and staff in these offices – great lawyers and great people. However, by refocusing the firm's resources and investments on practices that are most closely aligned with our strategy, we can grow sustainably and with a higher degree of predictable success."

Though Quinn wrote that demand so far this year is up, Cadwalader has shrunk considerably in recent months. The firm now lists 386 lawyers on its website, down 14% from the 448 lawyers reported by Cadwalader for The American Lawyer's Am Law 100 rankings for 2015. After the 25 additional departures in Asia, Cadwalader will be left with about 360 lawyers, or almost half the size of the firm just before the financial crisis of 2008.

The firm's litigation and antitrust sections have been decimated by recent defections, with a significant winnowing in bankruptcy and other practice areas. Since 1 January, at least 17 partners have moved to other firms, including some with significant business.

The largest loss occurred in August, when a four-partner antitrust team led by one of the firm's biggest rainmakers, Charles 'Rick' Rule, decamped for Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison. Earlier this week, Cadwalader corporate litigation chair Martin Seidel jumped to Willkie Farr & Gallagher, while the firm's executive compensation head Steven Eckhaus left in early September to join McDermott Will & Emery.

Additions have been harder to come by at Cadwalader. The firm recruited King & Wood Mallesons' European finance chief Jeremy Cross for its funds finance practice in London this summer, while capital markets partner Chris Gavin joined its New York office in February from Perkins Coie.