by Bruce | March 30, 2012 | Articles, Compensation, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Recruiting, Strategy
A Wharton School professor has analyzed the performance, and pay levels, of external hires vs. internal staff promotions. He used personnel data from a division of a major US investment bank for 2003—2009, and the characteristics of that talent market are remarkably...
by Bruce | March 23, 2012 | Articles, Business Models, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, M&A, Partnership Structures, Strategy
The reaction to my last column on the developments at Dewey has been as strong as to any piece I can remember writing in the near-decade Adam Smith, Esq. has been around. But for those of you who may be feeling overdosed on Dewey coverage, events are not letting the...
by Bruce | March 16, 2012 | Adam Smith Himself, Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, M&A, Partnership Structures, Strategy
Two firms have this week received far more press attention than, one suspects, they counted on or quite know how to cope with: Our own industry’s Dewey LeBoeuf, and of course the iconic (good and bad sense) Goldman Sachs. Goldman Let’s take Goldman...
by Bruce | February 13, 2012 | Articles, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
The preliminary Citi 2011 report is out and it’s time for a bit of reading between the lines. In particular, we like to focus less on what’s said than on what is studiously elided. Here’s the top line: For law firms, 2011 was a tale of two years....
by Bruce | January 27, 2012 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, M&A, Partnership Structures, Strategy
Lots of ink has been spilled lately about how M&A activity in the legal sector has picked up. Let’s stipulate that’s true. I for one believe it to be the case, and have been involved in more conversations along those lines in the last several...
by Bruce | January 27, 2012 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, M&A, Partnership Structures, Strategy
Lots of ink has been spilled lately about how M&A activity in the legal sector has picked up. Let’s stipulate that’s true. I for one believe it to be the case, and have been involved in more conversations along those lines in the last several...