by Bruce | February 20, 2009 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Practice Group Management
When non-lawyers ask what’s happening in the world of law these days (i.e., what ATL is covering), our first response is usually one word: layoffs. It’s been a dominant theme in our coverage since the fall. —Above The Law (today) While I might...
by Bruce | January 28, 2009 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Strategy
Robert Shiller, the Yale economics professor who has co-authored the forthcoming Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy and Why it Matters for Global Capitalism, has an important op-ed in The Wall Street Journal. Shiller’s op-ed itself is an...
by Bruce | January 17, 2009 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Leadership, Strategy
I recently wrote about the dearth of critical thinking abroad in the land. Now I’d like to bookend that piece with a classic from The Harvard Business Review, "Why Don’t Managers Think Deeply?" The opening lines are priceless; I would ask you...
by Bruce | December 27, 2008 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Leadership, Strategy
Actually, the formulation of that headline that I prefer these days is the famous inversion by the Nobel economist Paul Samuelson: "If you’re so rich how come you’re so dumb?" And yes, that brings us promptly to the Bernard Madoff scandal. Among...
by Bruce | November 23, 2008 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Strategy
Consider a nonrandom selection of headlines from The New York Times, The Financial Times, andThe Wall Street Journal: Citigroup Pays for a Rush to Risk Citigroup Tries to Steady Stock Turmoil Continues in Banking Sector Citigroup: You Can’t Step Into the Same...
by Bruce | October 28, 2008 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Globalization
In the nearly five-year history of "Adam Smith, Esq.," you could have counted the number of guest columns on one finger. As of today, make that two. The following comes from E. Leigh Dance (see immediately below), who has a strong perspective on what...