by Bruce | February 7, 2007 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
It has been amply reported that last month New York, and then all major national, firms went to $145,000/year first-year associate salaries, and that the following "Simpson Thacher bump" raised the ante to $160,000/year. Several people have asked me...
by Bruce | February 3, 2007 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Knowledge Management, Leadership, Marketing, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy, Technology strategy
Mark Chandler, a Senior Vice President and the Secretary and General Counsel of Cisco, gave a speech last week in San Diego at the Northwestern School of Law’s 34th Annual Securities Regulation Institute, which has been getting a fair amount of play online, and...
by Bruce | January 27, 2007 | Articles, Compensation, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy
Lately there’s been heightened discussion of whether firms’ Managing Partners should be full-time CEO’s, or whether the traditional custom of their being active practitioners, billing gobs of hours on real live client matters and managing the firm...
by Bruce | January 19, 2007 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy
A reader has asked my opinion on "diversity," and while there’s not much new or scintillating to say about its worthy objectives or general feel-good quotient, my approach will be to examine it through the lens of firm performance: Do more...
by Bruce | January 4, 2007 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, M&A, Partnership Structures, Strategy
I got the news on my BlackBerry early this afternoon, but it’s all over the place now (WSJ, American Lawyer, Bloomberg [where yours truly is quoted]): The Dewey-Orrick merger is not to be. I’m sorry. I felt from the beginning it held great...
by Bruce | January 3, 2007 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
Aric Press, always worth reading, writes in this month’s American Lawyer about potential challenges to the Rosy Scenario common wisdom of leaders of the AmLaw 200. He reports: "So is there anything to worry about for the future of the...