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...
by Bruce | March 12, 2010 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Strategy
Not every day do we get what appears to be good news on the much bruited-about topic of the US’s global competitiveness. But courtesy of today’s FT we have just that, in New York ties with London for finance crown. A consultancy with the...
by Bruce | March 8, 2010 | Articles, Finance, Globalization, Strategy
This weekend I received by courier from the UK the just-released report The Next Wave: Globalization After the Crisis, published by Jomati Consultants LLP, the London-based affiliate of Adam Smith, Esq.  If you don’t know Jomati, you should:  Based in the...
by Bruce | February 23, 2010 | Articles, Compensation, Finance, Leadership, Strategy
Earnings Season is now in full throat, and we’re beginning to see a remarkably consistent pattern emerge: Revenues essentially flat to down 10% Profits flat to slightly down-but PPP flat or even up a bit I generalize, of course. But here is some of the evidence...