by Bruce | March 23, 2005 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, M&A, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy
"From pace-setter to basket case in the United States?" Shall we all guess what firm got stuck with that donkey-tail over at law.com? Alas, of course, it was Clifford-Chance. The questions du jour are (1) what went wrong? (not so we can...
by Bruce | March 19, 2005 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Partnership Structures, Strategy
I have often written on the tension between lockstep compensation and eat-what-you-kill, and I’m coming to the view that a nuanced, subjective, and openly ad hoc approach is probably the best, all things considered. Each of the polar end-points on that...
by Bruce | March 17, 2005 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
Lockstep vs. eat-what-you-kill: Joined at the hip? Legal Week argues, using the apparently unending saga at Clifford-Chance as a journalistic "hook," that the boundary zone between the two models is wide and flexible, not narrow and bright. Now at one...
by Bruce | March 16, 2005 | Articles, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, M&A, Partnership Structures, Strategy
Despite the stupefying fact that The Wall Street Journal reported late last year that 45% of Americans believe "literally" in the Biblical story of Creation, whereas only 31% subscribe to the theory of evolution (have you thanked a teacher today?), Darwinian...
by Bruce | March 6, 2005 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy
To risk stating the obvious, a major downside of acquiring powerful lateral partners or small groups thereof is that they will not stay. Now The American Lawyer has a piece covering the story of same over the past five years or so, complete with a helpful and...
by Bruce | March 1, 2005 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Knowledge Management, Leadership, M&A, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy, Technology strategy
Hildebrandt and The Law Firm Group of the Citigroup Private Bank, with help from Baker-Robbins, are out with their 2004 year-in-review together with some prognostications for 2005. The New York Times, in its wisdom, headlined the story, "Partnerships More...