by Bruce | December 9, 2004 | About the Site, Adam Smith Himself, Articles, Just Plain Interesting
Adam Smith’s thought (the real Adam Smith, that is) has been famously characterized by the economist George Stigler as a "stupendous palace erected upon the granite of self-interest." I have long labeled this a "mischaracterization,"...
by Bruce | December 8, 2004 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Practice Group Management, Strategy
Perhaps the single most challenging question to answer cogently—from both the economic and intellectual perspectives—is what can law firm managers actually do to increase profitability? You imagine rightly, dear reader, that I have sacrificed...
by Bruce | December 7, 2004 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, M&A, Strategy
More on the Piper Rudnick/DLA deal again courtesy of The Financial Times. Nigel Knowles, managing partner of DLA, tosses out the unnecessary comment that "Piper Rudnick’s reasons [for the deal] may be slightly more defensive, while ours may be...
by Bruce | December 6, 2004 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, M&A, Strategy
So it’s official: DLA is merging with Piper Rudnick (which has already, more or less, merged with Gray-Cary). The resulting firm, whose name will not long remain "DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary," will be the second largest globally by revenue,...
by Bruce | December 3, 2004 | Articles, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, M&A, Strategy
The American Lawyer is out with its annual survey of AmLaw 200 leaders and they are, as Aric Press succinctly puts it, "a confident bunch." And why shouldn’t they be? The heck with 9/11 and the heck with the 2000 bubble melt-down: 88%...
by Bruce | December 2, 2004 | About the Site, Articles, Knowledge Management, Technology strategy
The always-inspiring Joy London of "excited utterances" has penned a Blogging 101 article for Legal IT. Although much of what Joy has to say is targeted at what might charitably be described as the extreme novitiates in the audience (what a blog is,...