by Bruce | September 8, 2021 | Articles, Finance, Globalization, Just Plain Interesting, Leadership, Strategy
A few weeks ago, the investigation Credit Suisse commissioned Paul Weiss to undertake into how the bank’s relationship with Archegos Capital Management went so wrong–inflicting $5.5 billion of losses on Credit Suisse and a total of $10-billion in losses...
by Bruce | August 15, 2021 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Ineffable
Pop quiz: What language has no words for “democracy,” “science,” or “religion?” While you’re mulling that one over, with apologies to one of the great English language rhetoricians and bromide-busters of the 20th Century,...
by Bruce | August 8, 2021 | About the Site, Articles, Book Reviews, Just Plain Interesting
This column is becoming something of a tradition, and traditions must be maintained. On my desk, and thereabouts, these days: Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe, Niall Ferguson Why bureaucratic and complex systems, which seem to promise reliability and predictability,...
by Bruce | August 4, 2021 | Articles, Build Back Better, Cultural Considerations, Leadership, Practice Group Management, Question of the Month
It’s been awhile since we’ve offered you all up a “Question of the Month,” but we never promised our readers consistency. We hope you have come to appreciate variety, however, so in that spirit, you know what to do: [poll...
by Bruce | August 2, 2021 | About the Site, Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Recruiting
In today’s FT, Andrew Hill, their gifted and prolific management essayist, published a column of that name (link works only for FT subscribers) discussing the unheard-of pressures on corporate deal lawyers–partners and associates alike–given the...
by Bruce | July 30, 2021 | Articles, Ineffable, Leadership
We’ll be brief. Two thumpingly different examples of leadership behavior crossed my desk in the past 24 hours, one unforgettable in its inspirational caliber and the other equally memorable, but for the “frogmarch-that-person-to-the-door” response it...
by Bruce | July 25, 2021 | Articles, Build Back Better, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership
We’ve written that leaving the office was trivial, at least in retrospect–“fire alarm’s going off, everyone leave the building”–but that returning is going to pose one of the most complex...
by Bruce | July 9, 2021 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, M&A, Technology strategy
Scorching new data out on the volume of deal-making over the last 12 months or so, from Refinitiv courtesy of The Wall Street Journal (“Cash-laden companies are on an M&A Spree”). Ready for some once-in-a-lifetime-career numbers?: In the first six...
by Bruce | July 6, 2021 | Articles, Build Back Better, Business Models, Finance, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy, Technology strategy
We’ve written at fair length about our “maroons/grays” model for segmenting the law firm industry. Essentially, the model rejects customary or traditional dimensions of “compare and contrast” including: Size (revenue or headcount) Type of firm (litigation boutique,...
by Bruce | June 8, 2021 | Articles, Build Back Better, Finance, Leadership, Practice Group Management, Recruiting, Strategy
If we’ve heard that once over the last couple of months….. It’s getting to the point where we wonder if those words threaten to become the lyrics of the Great Summer of 2021 Breakout Pop Hit Single. Actually, we leave that to the Great Clive Davis...