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 17, 2009 | Articles, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Practice Group Management, Strategy
Indicia: Is This Bull Cyclical or Secular in the WSJ, which contains the following observations as well as the following chart: Many investors are now calling the rebound in stocks since early March the start of a new bull market. But it could be only a temporary...
by Bruce | June 15, 2009 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Innovative Managing Partners, Leadership, Strategy
Today we have an extremely unusual–for Adam Smith, Esq.–guest column. Indeed, if memory serves, this is only the third column in the history of this site (5 years, nearly 1,000 columns) not written by me. Leigh Dance is today’s...
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 | June 3, 2009 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy
The more I reflect on the news of GM’s bankruptcy, the more shocking I find it. My reaction is surprisingly akin to that when I learned of Eliot Spitzer’s or Bernie Madoff’s flameouts: How on earth could this happen? What were they...
by Bruce | May 30, 2009 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
According to data published by Citi Private Bank, covering the vast majority of large US-based firms, the compound annual growth rate of yearly revenues from 2001–2007 was 10.6% and that of profits per partner was 9.3%. Put differently, the average...