Turks and Brahmins : upheaval at Milbank, Tweed : Wall Street's gentlemen take off their gloves /

The past 20 years have seen the transformation of law firms into giant business entities which market themselves to wealthy clients and to powerful attorneys they hope to attract. Typical of the new breed was Finley, Kumble, at one time the second largest law firm in the world, with 240 partners--whose greed and backstabbing were the principal reason for its demise in 1987. Founder Kumble explains how and why the firm collapsed, offering extremely candid observations and anecdotes about the persons involved. Kim Isaac Eisler's Shark Tank ( LJ 2/15/90) gives a more organized, objective look at the firm's fall; however Conduct Unbecoming , with its thoroughly intriguing mix of venom and humor, is highly recommended, especially to public libraries. The New York firm of Milbank, Tweed, as Pollock demonstrates, was one of those surprised and shaken by the rise of Finley, Kumble and their ilk. Founded in 1866, staffed by attorneys from solid WASP backgrounds, servant of wealthy families like the Rockefellers, Milbank, Tweed had never marketed itself. In the 1980s, the firm realized it would have to make changes in order to compete with other legal giants. Detailing those changes and their effects, Turks and Brahmins is an informative book, but, lacking the strong personalities and bitter clashes that enliven Conduct Unbecoming , it will probably not be as interesting to the lay reader. For legal and business collections.-- Sally G. Waters, Stetson Law Lib., St. Peters burg, Fla. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A journalist's detailed, if essentially pointless, account of how a Waspy Wall Street law firm named Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy took stock of its insularity--and then charted a new course designed to enable the partnership to survive and thrive in the demanding business environment of the 1990's and beyond. Pollock (a former editor of Manhattan Lawyer who's now a Wall Street Journal correspondent) traces Milbank, Tweed's roots back to a predecessor firm founded in 1866. For over a century, she recounts, the partnership prospered, largely on the basis of its close ties with the Rockefeller family, Chase Manhattan Bank, and a handful of other establishment institutions or individuals. During the go-so 1980's, however, the collegial gentlemen of Milbank, Tweed found themselves overtaken by events and upstart rivals willing to work on hostile takeovers, recruit legal talent from competitors, pitch prospective clients, reward results rather than tenure, and otherwise behave as though the practice of law was as much a commercial enterprise as a calling. By middecade, with the firm floundering and its profit-per-partner ratio on the wane, a band of Young Turks hunched a well-bred lobbying campaign that led to an overdue changing of the guard. The author makes a fine job of sorting out the aims, ambitions, and actions of the culture-shock troops in the thick of this low-key conflict. Unfortunately, though, she never explains why anyone--save blood relations and friends of the embattled principals or students of the bar's presumptive elite--should have particular interest in this tempest in an antiquated teapot. Nor is it at all clear that Milbank, Tweed will realize worthwhile gains from the wrenching reforms instituted at no small cost. A professionally prepared brief with no evident venue. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.