by Bruce | October 14, 2008 | Articles, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Practice Group Management
Making the rounds is a presentation by Sequoia Capital on "startups and the economic downturn," which constitutes a sort of come-to-Jesus meeting for that storied VC firm’s portfolio companies. It tells a tale of radical gloom, with...
by Bruce | October 10, 2008 | Articles, Globalization, Leadership, Strategy
Today’s Wall Street Journal profiles H. Rodgin “Rog” Cohen, Chairman of Sullivan & Cromwell. Here at “Adam Smith, Esq.,” we’re not into gossip and we’re not into profiling celebrities (well, celebrities in our world,...
by Bruce | October 7, 2008 | Articles, Finance, Globalization, Strategy
A few weeks ago I posed the question to you all: Will the realignment of the top financial services institutions fundamentally alter the long-term demand for legal services? Here’s how you voted: A couple of aspects of these seem worth commentary: ...
by Bruce | October 4, 2008 | Articles, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Strategy
With all the body blows the New York City financial services industry and its attendant handmaidens (BigLaw, that would be you) have taken in the past couple of months, it may be time to remind ourselves that for the past two centuries or so, ever since New...
by Bruce | October 1, 2008 | Articles, Finance, Strategy
Analogies are imperfect (that’s why they’re called analogies), but here’s an interesting thought experiment tying together the wild rides investment banks have had on Wall Street during the past few weeks and the potential impact of the Legal...
by Bruce | September 26, 2008 | Articles, Leadership, Strategy
It’s all over for Heller Ehrman. One of the best single pieces of coverage comes from The San Francisco Chronicle. Heller was founded in 1890, rode through the 1906 San Francisco earthquake (in the aftermath of which the nascent client Wells Fargo Bank set up a...