Turks and Brahmins: Upheaval at Milbank, Tweed Wall Street's Gentlemen Take Off Their Gloves

Rating:
Summary: Law firm Life as Struggle
Review: This is a pretty good book. Fifty some years after John McCloy slapped his name on this firm, at a time when law firm compensation was more regimented and egalitarian among all equity partners, being compensated as a lawyer resembled getting tenure at a university--no one cared if you sat around dozing all day, because those still awake looked forward to sleeping all day eventually, but still getting paid just as much as some young lawyer pounding down 2000+ billable hours per year.

This changed among New York law firms, but Millbank, Tweed was slower than most to move to a multi-track partner system, or to key compensation to the revenue a given lawyer generated. At the core of this unwillingness to change was the mindset of the senior, contolling partners: it was the firm, and not any given lawyer, that got the business. During the time period covered by this book, several key younger partners begged to differ, and most of this book describes how these young "turks" influenced the older "Brahmins" to adapt the legal structure of the firm to the underlying economic structure. Use ot "Turks" also suggest an element of destruction, which is also a fair reading of how these younger lawyers were perceived by the older partners.

One younger turk in particular, by the name of Worenklein, is profiled, since he controlled millions of dollars in business as a result of learning the legal end of nuclear power plant financing. An interesting epilogue to his particular story is that Worenklein later left the firm he helped modernize, and last I heard, he was an investment banker, working on the same deals but making even more money off of them.

So should the old guys have stood fast and let Worenklein leave earlier? Or do you not hold the superachievers inside a law firm anyway? This book tackles questions like these in an evenhanded manner. Especially for law students who might be inclined to uncritically yearn to work in one of these bigger firms, this book casts accurate light on what goes on at the ruling levels, where compensation and quality of life decisions are made, uaually way beyond the purview of the younger lawyers.