Next in our series on a taxonomy of law firms are the capital-markets centric firms.
If you think this moniker roughly translates to the classic New York white shoe elite, move to the head of the class.
But, as much in our world at the start of the 21st Century, it’s not exactly that simple. Here’s what’s different about these firms.
First, recall that we’ve hypothesized seven primary species:
- global players
- capital-markets-centric specialists
- corporate-centric (non-global) firms
- category killers
- traditional boutiques
- the hollow middle, and
- synergistic super-boutiques
My theory is that what’s exceptional—indeed unique in our taxonomy—about the capital-markets specialists is that the Great Reset mattered less to them than to any other category, and indeed to some of them it only reinforced their ability to go from strength to strength. Indeed, if you want to detour with me for a moment into how the Great Reset hit each of our categories, I’d say it hit ##1, 3, 4, and 5 “normally” in our industry, which is to say quite hard. It hit #6 with a couple of torpedoes below the waterline, which is to say very hard indeed, although the damage may not be entirely evident as yet to the naked eye, and #7 is the new category emerging largely in response to the Great Reset.
But the Great Reset’s impact on our topic du jour, #2? Not bad; maybe even half-good.
Why so?