by Bruce | August 28, 2009 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management
Pop quiz: Which of these would be worse: Learning that, based on economic performance, lawyers in your practice group (including yourself) would be getting year-end raises smaller than average across the firm; or Feeling that you, individually, are being...
by Bruce | August 24, 2009 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Law Schools, Practice Group Management, Strategy
When on the same day both the WSJ and Corporate Counsel publish feature articles heralding that the time has come for alternatives to the billable hour, it’s time to step back and ask if they might actually be right this time around. (It doesn’t hurt...
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...
