Law Roundtable

Law Roundtable

Exploring the region between Law and Economics.

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Adam Smith, Esq.


July 22, 2008, 9:43 am, 323273

I recently had the chance to sit down with Jay Zimmerman, Chairman of Bingham, to discuss the changes he's seen over his career, and to talk about the future of the legal industry and Bingham. Herewith a synopsis.

Jay (Harvard, Harvard Law) started his career in New York at ...


July 21, 2008, 9:43 am, 322644

My friend Prof. Bill Henderson of Indiana University School of Law has just published a highly significant column titled "How the 'Cravath System' Created the Bi-Modal Distribution." At least one blog ("MoneyLaw") has already deemed it "The blog post of the year;" be that as it may, it's ...


July 18, 2008, 9:43 am, 321697

Does it strike you (as it does me) that the noise level surrounding "innovation" in law firms is reaching crescendo proportions? Just in the last few months, I've written about Legal OnRamp, Allen & Overy's mini-conference on innovation here in New York, Eversheds' 21st Century Law Firm survey, ...


July 14, 2008, 9:43 pm, 319405

I've been increasingly mystified, now bordering on troubled, by a new case of "the dog that didn't bark."  Here's my question:  Given that we've been slogging through this subprime/Alt-A/Bear Stearns/Freddie & Fannie financial quicksand for a solid year, where is all the restructuring and insolvency ...


July 14, 2008, 1:43 pm, 319235

Here's an addendum to the coverage I gave to Eversheds' Report on The Law Firm of the 21st Century, as well as to the story I published last month on the conference held here in New York sponsored by Eversheds.  This email came in over the ...


July 10, 2008, 9:43 am, 317535

Richard Turnor, a partner in the Private Client Group at Allen & Overy, has penned for Managing Partner Magazine one of the more thoughtful pieces on the implications of the Legal Services Act in the UK.   In particular, he asks the ...


July 5, 2008, 5:43 pm, 315468

At long last, Adam Smith has been honored in his native Edinburgh, with a prominent statue outside St. Giles' Cathedral on the Royal Mile.

As reported by the FT, the unveiling was yesterday:

Vernon Smith, ...


July 4, 2008, 9:43 am, 315327

Watching Fireworks on the Fourth:
Coney Island, 1962
[Thanks to Magnum]


July 3, 2008, 5:43 pm, 315156

This is a column about wringing our hands.

Our first text, from the Old Testament conventional debate, stems from today's WSJ story on "Axiom Legal," headlined Newcomer Law Firms Are Creating Niches with Blue-Chip Clients, discussing the business model of Axiom and other firms, ...


July 2, 2008, 7:43 pm, 314649

Knowledge @ Wharton has an enlightening interview with William Weldon, CEO of Johnson + Johnson, on the challenges of leadership in a decentralized company.   You may think the scale of J&J (120,000 employees, $61-billion in revenue, operations in dozens upon dozens of countries) ...