by Bruce | May 13, 2010 | Articles, Compensation, Finance, Leadership
Orrick announced on May 12 that “it will no longer use or report, internally or publicly, the metric of Profit Per Equity Partner.” Please join me in prayer, dear congregants, that this will inaugurate a trend. I’ll explain in a moment, but first,...
by Bruce | April 21, 2010 | Articles, Finance, Globalization, Strategy
“Indian law group names City leaders in call for action against foreign firms” read the headline in LegalWeek a few days ago. The (brief) article goes on to explain that a group called the Association of Indian Lawyers filed a petition for a writ...
by Bruce | April 19, 2010 | Articles, Finance, Partnership Structures
As has been widely reported on law.com and Bloomberg, Dewey raised $125-million in a private placement of bonds, reportedly sold to institutional investors (mostly insurance companies) with maturities of 3–10 years. Rates paid were not disclosed. The firm was...
by Bruce | April 8, 2010 | Articles, Finance, Practice Group Management, Profiles of Individuals, Strategy
Last week I had a chance to sit down with Howard Altarescu of Orrick, who I felt compelled to get to know better when he was the first, and still the only, person to know the answer to a question I like to pose, whenever I have the chance, to groups of lawyers...
by Bruce | April 7, 2010 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Strategy
The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., The Common Law at p. 1 (1881) Of all the pithy and enduring observations that have been made about our profession (and, yes, our industry), this may be my all-time...
by Bruce | March 19, 2010 | Articles, Compensation, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
A few days ago the juxtaposition of two articles, one in The Wall Street Journal and the other in The Times (UK), struck me as too rich not to point out. The WSJ wrote, in “Gap Widens Between Tech Richest and the Rest,” that: A handful of cash-rich...