Adam Smith, Esq.
A blog named after the Scottish philosopher and contemporary thinker, Adam Smith, Esq. supplies readers with frequent commentary on the economics of law firms. This blog is authored by legal marketing consultant and attorney, Bruce MacEwen of New York, New York.
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Featured Articles
New York Today and Tomorrow
Our texts for today come from (in inappropriate order) the New Testament, as it were, and Peter Kalis, the chairman of K&L Gates: "The metaphysical question is whether you can have bulge-bracket Wall Street firms without Wall Street," says Kalis. "The capital markets, when...
Recent Articles
Happy 2009
This is actually a new-for-2009 Waterford crystal ball, approximately 10 feet in diameter, weighing over 12,000 pounds, covered with 2,668 crystal triangles, and illuminated by more than 32,000 LEDs. Happy big bad bright New Year. Actually, Dear Reader, I imagine many of you, as I, will...
Perspective
Perspective. It's time for some. A friend of mine who's the lead financial reporter for one of the original three networks prompts these thoughts. Not that he/she subscribes to the view that it's time for some "perspective"--au contraire. To paraphrase their view: "We're in a ...
If You're So Smart, Why Aren't You Rich?
Actually, the formulation of that headline that I prefer these days is the famous inversion by the Nobel economist Paul Samuelson: "If you're so rich how come you're so dumb?" And yes, that brings us promptly to the Bernard Madoff scandal. Among the multitude of "we should have seen...
Merry Christmas
Rockefeller Center, Christmas 2008 Photograph by Bruce MacEwen
Thacher, Proffitt & Wood LLP: 1848 - 2008
A Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays story of the first order: As noted this morning by The New York Times, Above The Law, and The WSJ Law Blog, Sonnenschein is acquiring about 100 lawyers, including 40 partners, from 160-year-old Thacher Proffitt & Wood—technically,...
Rumors of My Death
"Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated." —Mark Twain, in a cable from London to US publishers, who had mistakenly printed his obituary. And so, for the entirety of my career, has it been the case with predictions of the demise of the billable hour. If...
"Structural Breaks" and Other Timely Phenomena
A smart friend of mine, in a conversation apropos the financial meltdown, recently wondered if people "aren't reading too many newspapers and not enough history." He has a point. So forthwith, a little history. According to McKinsey in "Financial crisis and reform:...
What's Your Attrition Rate Lately?
An unspoken, and certainly uncelebrated, aspect of the law firm associate personnel model is built-in attrition. "Built-in" can have two traditional meanings, and one new one: Traditional A: They wash out of their own accord, because of a variety of factors: they've paid...
Greetings from London
I'm here in The City for the week, having arrived Sunday morning and going home to New York Thursday evening. The purpose is essentially a series of meetings with various firms I'm having with my partners Ward Bower and Tony Williams, but that doesn't mean I haven't been able to enjoy a few...
