by Bruce | June 11, 2006 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
Although this is really by way of an update to the immediately preceding post, I think it’s worthy of standing on its own because, while it raises essentially the same issue, it approaches it from a sufficiently different perspective that it deserves its own...
by Bruce | June 8, 2006 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy
When both David Childs of Clifford Chance and Tony Angel of Linklaters say something’s a serious problem, I pay attention. The issue du jour (or should that be du decade?) is retaining associates who find the time demands and general stress of large law firm...
by Bruce | June 2, 2006 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy
A regular reader (partner at an AmLaw 25 firm and, coincidentally, a fellow Princetonian) writes: "You write about lockstep and eat-what-you-kill, but you don’t say a word about “completely black box” compensation. There are some firms in which...
by Bruce | June 2, 2006 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, M&A, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management
Early last week I interviewed Eric Sivin, a founder and principal of Sivin Tobin Associates, a legal search and recruiting firm based here in New York. (And yes, that is their ad that has been running in the right-hand column of my site for a couple of months...
by Bruce | June 1, 2006 | Adam Smith Himself, Articles, Compensation, Finance, Just Plain Interesting
From the Journal of Economic Education (hat tip to "Truth on the Market") comes the first study I’m familiar with examining whether the choice of undergraduate major has any effect on a lawyer’s career earnings. And guess what? If you...
by Bruce | May 30, 2006 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy
An "evergreen" topic here at "Adam Smith, Esq.," because one despairs to find a durable equilibrium solution for it, is the perennial debate over "eat what you kill" (EWYK) vs. lockstep compensation systems. Each has its place in the...
