by Bruce | June 27, 2010 | Articles, Law Schools, Leadership
We’re not actually on a leadership jag here at Adam Smith, Esq., but we understand if you might feel that way. Deborah Rhode, who’s taught at Columbia and Stanford Law Schools, published a piece in the June American Lawyer (paid subscription required for...
by Bruce | June 18, 2010 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Leadership
For all the ink that’s been spilled on the evergreen topic of “leadership,” very little of it has issued from the academy: Almost all is the product of management gurus, self-appointed and otherwise. Recent work from Harvard Business School and...
by Bruce | June 9, 2010 | Articles, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, M&A, Strategy
Journalistic wisdom, or maybe it’s just engaging newsroom lore passed down, has it that one anecdote is a story but three anecdotes constitute a trend. If so, Dear Reader, we have a trend: Mayer Brown has been in secret merger talks with Simmons & Simmons as...
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 | May 4, 2010 | Articles, Leadership, Strategy
qual-i-ty: L qualitas 1a: peculiar and essential character […] 2a: degree of excellence, caliber … 2b: degree of conformance to a standard (as of product or workmanship)… 4a: special or distinguishing attribute, characteristic. –Webster’s...
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...