by Bruce | March 25, 2008 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Practice Group Management, Strategy
The attentive among you may recall that I was in London last November where, among other things, I was pleased and flattered to have been asked by Guy Beringer of Allen & Overy to participate in a panel hosted at A&O’s Bishopsgate headquarters on...
by Bruce | March 21, 2008 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Practice Group Management, Strategy
No question is posed to me more frequently these days than, "What does this economic environment mean for law firms?" To which the only sensible answer is, "It’s way too soon to predict anything for sure, but each firm’s own situation is...
by Bruce | March 8, 2008 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management
A major article appears in this month’s American Lawyer, penned by Ben Heineman, most famously ex-GC of GE, and David Wilkins, Harvard Law professor. Both are now deeply involved in HLS’s Program on the Legal Profession, whose stated mission is "to...
by Bruce | February 25, 2008 | Articles, Finance, Practice Group Management, Strategy
So once it’s in The Wall Street Journal it must be a real phenomenon, right? I’m referring to today’s "Why BigLaw Is Bracing for a Leaner 2008," along with its companion piece on the WSJ Law Blog. A sampling of the evidence adduced behind...
by Bruce | February 22, 2008 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Practice Group Management
Tuesday I attended one of the regular lunch-time meetings of the ABA’s "Back to Business Law" project which describes itself as "a pilot project sponsored by the ABA Section of Business Law, [to] provide periodic continuing legal education...
by Bruce | February 18, 2008 | Articles, Compensation, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Practice Group Management, Strategy
While we’re all obsessing over the sub-prime crisis, the credit crunch in general, the housing market’s retrenchment, the inability to mark to market CDO’s, the devilish tendency of "liquidity" to be robust when you don’t need it and...