by Bruce | July 14, 2008 | Articles, Finance, Practice Group Management
I’ve been increasingly mystified, now bordering on troubled, by a new case of "the dog that didn’t bark." Here’s my question: Given that we’ve been slogging through this subprime/Alt-A/Bear Stearns/Freddie & Fannie...
by Bruce | July 14, 2008 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Practice Group Management, Strategy, Technology strategy
Here’s an addendum to the coverage I gave to Eversheds’ Report on The Law Firm of the 21st Century, as well as to the story I published last month on the conference held here in New York sponsored by Eversheds. This email came in over the weekend...
by Bruce | July 3, 2008 | Articles, Finance, Innovative Managing Partners, Leadership, Practice Group Management, Strategy
This is a column about wringing our hands. Our first text, from the Old Testament conventional debate, stems from today’s WSJ story on "Axiom Legal," headlined Newcomer Law Firms Are Creating Niches with Blue-Chip Clients, discussing the business model...
by Bruce | July 2, 2008 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Globalization, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management
Knowledge @ Wharton has an enlightening interview with William Weldon, CEO of Johnson + Johnson, on the challenges of leadership in a decentralized company. You may think the scale of J&J (120,000 employees, $61-billion in revenue, operations in dozens...
by Bruce | June 26, 2008 | Articles, Compensation, Finance, Practice Group Management
Three guesses what these numbers represent: Blank Rome 20 Cadwalader 35 Clifford Chance 6 Hunton & Williams ?* Paul Hastings ?* Powell Goldstein <10 Sonnenschein 37 Sutherland Asbill & Brennan 15* Thacher Proffitt 24 Thelen Reid 26 Total 174** *not verified...
by Bruce | June 21, 2008 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Practice Group Management, Strategy
Last week Eversheds sponsored a conference in New York, primarily targeted at senior inhouse counsel, to discuss the current and future state of relations between law firms and inhouse departments. It was not pretty. About 90% of the attendees were the chief...