by Bruce | November 3, 2016 | Articles, Globalization, Leadership, M&A, Strategy
Nearly 20 years ago Robert Hughes published The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia’s Founding, still perhaps the definitive historical treatise on Australia’s founding from the continent’s discovery by the West to Britain’s decision to...
by Bruce | October 28, 2016 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership
As regular readers know is my custom, when I return from a trip to London I typically endeavo(u)r to distill my reactions in a brief report. As my trip this week was especially brief (shy of 72 hours), this report will be too. By way of background, I had 10 meetings...
by Bruce | October 17, 2016 | Articles, Business Models, Finance, Just Plain Interesting, Strategy
In connection with an ongoing research/whitepaper project, further about which affiant sayeth not, I had occasion to look at the Original AmLaw 50 from 1985. Here are the first three columns: Rank, firm, and gross revenue: Aside from the historic time warp we...
by Bruce | October 12, 2016 | Articles, Just Plain Interesting
From the redoubtable David Warsh of Economic Principals: When the Nobel Prizes were established, in 1901, the Nobel Foundation for perhaps a decade sought to spirit laureates into Stockholm in order that they should be available when their recognition was announced....
by Bruce | October 3, 2016 | About the Site, Articles
Word came this weekend that my friend and one of Adam Smith, Esq.’s closest long-time partners in the surprisingly small world we inhabit had died a few days ago of a sudden heart attack; Ward was 69. I can’t even remember the first time I met Ward, as it...
by Bruce | September 23, 2016 | Articles, Business Models, Globalization, Strategy
Along with Brexit and the apparently unsinkable Trump, another surprise has been brewing on the world stage and I hope you’ve noticed. Globalization—measured by the most fundamental and reliable metric, crossborder trade volume—has ended its ever upward...
by Bruce | September 19, 2016 | Articles
Yours truly will be moderating three webinars over the next six weeks or so on the EU’s requirements for data protection, security, and confidentiality. Our panelists will be highly qualified practitioners in these fields from firms such as K&L Gates,...
by Bruce | September 11, 2016 | Articles, Compensation, Finance
And now we come to the main event, the poisoned chalice bequeathed to us by Steven Brill. Let us proceed from the specific to the general, or if you prefer the structural to the symbolic. Are the reported numbers accurate? Silly question. We all know the answer to...
by Bruce | August 30, 2016 | Articles, Compensation, Finance, Leadership, M&A, Partnership Structures, Strategy
As we enter strategy, planning, and retreat season in advance of 2017, a quick recap of some of the ways we help our clients that they consistently find most valuable. Strategy In today’s unforgiving marketplace, growing evidence points to the reality that firms...
by Bruce | August 17, 2016 | Articles, Finance, Leadership, Strategy
Last year The American Lawyer introduced a new metric into its annual reports, “Profit per lawyer,” or PPL. Briefly, here’s what they said about it back in April, the second year they calculated it: Introduced last year, this metric is an alternate way of looking at...
