by Bruce | April 14, 2016 | Articles, Client Relationships, Practice Group Management
A bit ago here in New York a dinner was held with the legendary Ben Heineman (GE SVP/GC from 1987 to 2003, Harvard BA and Yale JD [editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal], Rhodes scholar, Potter Stewart clerk) and 50 or so GC’s or senior inhouse counsel from...
by Bruce | April 7, 2016 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Recruiting, Strategy
On a cross-country flight this week, I read most of Smarter Faster Better, by Charles Duhigg, currently on the NYT’s top 10 hardcover/nonfiction list of best-selling books. It’s fair to characterize the reviews it’s gotten as “mixed,” and...
by Bruce | March 29, 2016 | Articles, Globalization, Leadership, Strategy
Though none of us can sanely claim to know what the future holds (I leave that to the fanatics), it’s abdicating your responsibility as a leader not to think about it. How do you go about that? In the most general terms: Creatively, deeply, and with a view to...
by Bruce | March 18, 2016 | Articles, Compensation, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Recruiting, Strategy
When an especially provocative and ingenious piece is published analyzing a noteworthy aspect of the sea BigLaw swims in, one may feel an obligation to one’s readers to weigh in on the conversation. Particularly when the original piece was published under...
by Bruce | March 11, 2016 | Articles, Compensation, Finance, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management
A few years back, as exceptionally studious and faithful readers might conceivably recall, I wrote two pieces on the lateral hiring frenzy, Our Arms’ Race and Our Arms’Race (2), which took an almost across-the-board stand against lateral partner hiring....
by Bruce | February 24, 2016 | Articles, Business Models, Leadership, Strategy
We now come to our fifth and final installment: Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death. “Irrelevance” is a subtle touch. It’s a fair bet that not too many readers of Adam Smith, Esq. see themselves as, or would be content to be, spending their working...
by Bruce | February 22, 2016 | Articles, Business Models, Leadership, Profiles of Individuals, Strategy
We now come to Stage 4, Grasping for Salvation. Illustrative is the contrast between how HP and IBM responded in terms of choosing new CEOs when each company’s growth slowed dramatically in the 1990’s. HP first: It faced a choice as it sought to replace...
by Bruce | February 19, 2016 | About the Site, Articles
The observant and—one can hope—the unobservant alike among you will note an updated look here at AdamSmithEsq.com. We readily admit this “refresh” means more to us than it means to you, and we’re fine with that. Indulge us a moment. A few of the...
by Bruce | February 16, 2016 | About the Site, Articles
In the midst of our series on Jim Collins’s How the Mighty Fall, it occurs to me it might be valuable to pause and talk for a moment about language. Partly this is prompted by a bit of self-consciousness on my part, that the true value of Collins’s five...
by Bruce | February 15, 2016 | About the Site, Articles
AccessData webinar series: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of the FRCP Amendments I will be moderating a series of three webinars on the amendments to the FRCP. Registration is free and each webinar will last about 45 minutes. AccessData is running an eDiscovery...
