by Bruce | October 9, 2009 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Innovative Managing Partners, Leadership, M&A, Strategy
Hogan & Hartson/Lovells? As amply reported (Legal Week, The National Law Journal, The Lawyer), the firms are in merger talks and, since no one is remotely denying the reports, we can only assume it’s all quite for real. We’ll get to what we think it...
by Bruce | August 28, 2009 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management
Pop quiz: Which of these would be worse: Learning that, based on economic performance, lawyers in your practice group (including yourself) would be getting year-end raises smaller than average across the firm; or Feeling that you, individually, are being...
by Bruce | August 13, 2009 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Practice Group Management
Among the phrases, and phenomena, that now seem so hopelessly “last August” is that of the fabled Work-Life Balance. (“So last August” has been a phrase around town for several months now, referring especially to examples of wretched...
by Bruce | July 10, 2009 | Articles, Compensation, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Profiles of Individuals, Strategy
Last week I had a chance to sit down with Tomasz Wardynski, founding partner of Wardynski & Partners, based in Warsaw, which is now a firm of close to 250 people including 137 lawyers with 22 partners, of whom 9 are equity and 13 are salaried or limited partners....
by Bruce | June 9, 2009 | Articles, Compensation, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
Doubtless over the weekend many of you read the NYT’s longish story, “A Study in Why Major Law Firms Are Shrinking.” Truth in labeling would have changed the headline to “A Profile of White & Case So Far This Year,” but perhaps that...
by Bruce | May 5, 2009 | Articles, Compensation, Finance, Marketing, Practice Group Management, Strategy
From the famous annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway, “Woodstock for capitalists,” comes news a couple of days ago from the WSJ that Warren Buffett, long an investor in newspapers, sees “unending losses” for the industry. He then makes even...
