by Bruce | June 11, 2006 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
Although this is really by way of an update to the immediately preceding post, I think it’s worthy of standing on its own because, while it raises essentially the same issue, it approaches it from a sufficiently different perspective that it deserves its own...
by Bruce | June 8, 2006 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy
When both David Childs of Clifford Chance and Tony Angel of Linklaters say something’s a serious problem, I pay attention. The issue du jour (or should that be du decade?) is retaining associates who find the time demands and general stress of large law firm...
by Bruce | June 6, 2006 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
In the past 24 hours, I’ve spoken with the managing partner/chairs of two AmLaw 50 firms, and I heard something from each that I hear altogether too rarely: They know what their firms are not going to do, or be. The first put it in these terms (I...
by Bruce | June 2, 2006 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy
A regular reader (partner at an AmLaw 25 firm and, coincidentally, a fellow Princetonian) writes: "You write about lockstep and eat-what-you-kill, but you don’t say a word about “completely black box” compensation. There are some firms in which...
by Bruce | June 2, 2006 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, M&A, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management
Early last week I interviewed Eric Sivin, a founder and principal of Sivin Tobin Associates, a legal search and recruiting firm based here in New York. (And yes, that is their ad that has been running in the right-hand column of my site for a couple of months...
by Bruce | May 30, 2006 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy
An "evergreen" topic here at "Adam Smith, Esq.," because one despairs to find a durable equilibrium solution for it, is the perennial debate over "eat what you kill" (EWYK) vs. lockstep compensation systems. Each has its place in the...