by Bruce | November 24, 2010 | Articles, Globalization, Leadership, M&A, Strategy
By now we’ve all read about the Norton Rose/Ogilvy Renault/Deneys Reitz three-way combined business, putting together the UK, Canada, and South Africa. According to LegalWeek, “The combined business will rank as one of the world’s top 10 firms by...
by Bruce | November 14, 2010 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Leadership, M&A, Partnership Structures, Strategy
As has been widely reported (for example, on law.com), Proskauer and SJ Berwin announced shortly before the weekend that they had called off their merger talks, which were originally disclosed over half a year ago. The predictably anodyne statement, issued jointly,...
by Bruce | September 22, 2010 | Articles, Business Models, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Leadership, M&A, Marketing, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy
Attentive readers will know that I’m in Sao Paulo this week, where the talk of the town (well, at least the talk of The Bar) is this story which was reported yesterday morning in The Latin Lawyer:Any affiliations between international and Brazilian law firms...
by Bruce | August 28, 2010 | Articles, Finance, Globalization, M&A, Strategy
Hogan/Lovells Sonnenschein/Dentons Squire Sanders/Hammonds Proskauer/Berwins Question: Which of these four does not resemble the others? While you’re thinking about that… As LegalWeek described the Hogan/Lovells deal at the time: Aside from its...
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 | January 11, 2010 | Articles, Finance, Leadership, M&A, Strategy
Before it’s too late to miss the brief window of opportunity for prognostications about the New Year, here’s one more. But first, let’s back up a bit. By almost anyone’s lights, 2009 was dreadful for our beloved industry, even appalling....