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 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...
by Bruce | April 29, 2009 | Articles, Compensation, Finance, Partnership Structures
On the balance sheet of essentially every corporation of any size or degree of profitability appears the line, “Retained Earnings.” I have never seen such a line on the balance sheet of any law firm. Why not? More importantly, what should the capital...
by Bruce | March 17, 2009 | Articles, Compensation, Finance, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy
The news out of Dewey & LeBoeuf–that 66 partners, or about one in five of their 350 partners, have seen their compensation cut over the past 15 months by up to 80%–begs for an explanation, or at least some commmentary. First, what’s going on in...
