Recently in About the Site Category

On Tuesday, October 5, I'll be facilitating a workshop here in New York at the AMA Executive Conference Center (1601 Broadway @ 48th Street, entrance on 48th) on What You Need to Know to Make Alternative Fee Arrangements Work. 

Richard Wyatt, co-head of litigation at Hunton & Williams, will also be a key presenter, along with others.

More information is available here. 

Hope to see you there!

I will be in Sao Paulo from September 21st--24th. 

Aside from a couple of speaking presentations, the primary goal of my trip will be to gather market intelligence on this intrinsically fascinating, deeply promising, and yet, at least to North American eyes, often inscrutable market.

I have long believed that we tend to underestimate the long-run importance of the "BRIC" countries, and this trip is part of an intentional effort on my part to educate myself better about them, up-front and first-hand.  As for the importance of Sao Paulo, it's not merely the financial center of Brazil, but the most populous city proper in the Americas--over 11 million residents--and the second most populous metropolitan area--nearly 20 million residents.

In any event, if any Adam Smith, Esq. readers are in Sao Paulo and would like to get together, please drop me a note. I promise to arrive with nearly insatiable curiosity, and no preconceptions.  I promise to leave with at least the curiosity part intact.

 

With great pride, we would like to announce that Sam Caspersen has joined Adam Smith, Esq. as a Contributing Editor.

Following his graduation from Harvard Law School, Sam practiced at Sullivan & Cromwell, where he focused on private clients.  Client engagements included corporate representation of privately held companies and complex internal investigations concerning billion-dollar plus companies owned in significant part by family trusts.

Subsequently, Sam acted as counsel to the 9/11 Commission, where he led the multi-faceted investigation of the evacuation and rescue effort at the World Trade Center.  He was primary author of a chapter of the best selling 9/11 Commission Final Report and testified at a public hearing under intense media scrutiny.  

After the 9/11 Commission,  Sam joined the Gerson Lehrman Group ("GLG"), which manages a network of 250,000 subject matter experts.  Clients leverage GLG's expert network for due diligence and consulting solutions.  At GLG Sam worked closely with senior partners at leading law firms, who engaged GLG to provide strategic consulting, domain expertise, customized marketplace intelligence, and due diligence solutions. 

In addition to his JD from Harvard, Sam received a BA in history and political science from Brown University and a Diploma in International Relations, with Distinction, from the London School of Economics. 

Sam resides in New York City.

At Adam Smith, Esq., Sam will focus on research and writing, as well as engaging in background interviews with industry leaders from private law firms, in-house departments, and academe.

Again, we are extremely pleased to welcome Sam on-board:  Not only will you come to know him as a stylistically gifted and analytically pellucid writer, but those of you who may be fortunate enough to meet Sam in person in future will discover his winning combination of intellectual rigor and great personal warmth. 

This afternoon I'm off to Europe for two weeks on business:  Barcelona, Madrid, and London.  (OK, so it's going to be 70/30 or 80/20 business; give a lad a break.)  The netherworld gods of WiFi willing, online access should be seamless.

I look forward to reporting from the road.

We are pleased to announce that Janet Stanton, a Partner in Adam Smith, Esq., has joined the Board of Directors of Doug Varone & Dancers. 

Doug Varone`s modern dance troupe, based in New York, is one of the longest-established and most pre-eminent in the nation.  Here are a few things the press has had to say:

"Varone's ability to convey depths of emotion through highly charged, physically exciting choreography has made him a rarity among his generation."
The New York Times

"Varone dancers are kinetically thrilling. They go all the way, both when they're in vivid, rushing motion and when they're in deep stillness."
New York Observer

"Varone drenches his choreography in emotionality. An exquisite program of works, recent and established, that showcased top-notch dancing from the nine-member company as it celebrates two decades."
Washington Post

Founded nearly 25 years ago, Doug Varone and Dancers is the resident company at the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center. On tour, the company has performed in more than 100 cities in 45 states across the U.S. and in Europe, Asia, Canada, and South America. Stages include The Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, San Francisco Performances, London's Queen Elizabeth Hall, Toronto's Harbourfront, Moscow's Stanislavsky Theater, the Venice Biennale, and the Tokyo, Bates, Jacob's Pillow and American Dance Festivals.

Those of you in the New York City area who might be interested in seeing the company`s work should consider attending their forthcoming Gala, on May 10, from 7:00 - 10:00 pm.

With humblest apologies:  

Dear Reader:

As you may know, we recently moved the monthly Adam Smith, Esq. newsletter from a free to a paid-subscriber model. The Adam Smith, Esq. website remains free--only the newsletter is now a premium offering.  We have been publishing the monthly newsletter for nearly four years, on a free subscription model until very recently, but because of the premium content appearing in the newsletter--articles discussing topics which have not appeared on the website and never will appear there--we needed resources to support the investment required to publish the newsletter.

I'm publishing this notice since this month's newsletter just went out to subscribers today, and we would be delighted if you would join their ranks.

Subscriptions are annual and are available for:

• Law firms, which entitle everyone in the entire firm--partners, associates, paralegals, staff, etc.--access to the newsletter.  (Pricing depends on overall firm size.)
  
  
• Individuals
  
  
• Media companies
  
  
• Other organizations and corporations, and
  
  
• Educational institutions

Please go here to sign up.

---

Here's an overview of what's in this month's newsletter:

Financial Reporting Season	What do the results tell us so far?
Recap of Key Articles	Fun With Numbers looks at Sonnenschein's announced results and asks why the change of accounting principles just so happened to occur last year. Predictions for 2010 posits that people wrote off 2009 but that they may not be quite so willing to write off 2010.  And if not, then what? Game Theory, Anyone? updates the time-tested precepts of game theory to try to gain some insight into navigating our turbulent times.  Hint:  Think dynamically, not statically. THe Digitalization of the World asks whether that trend is overblown.
The Newsletter-Only Article	The Psychology of Pricing, in which I discuss a new perspective on "Alternative Fee Arrangements," one that doesn't deal with blocking and tackling or techniques and tactics, but rather on what behavioral economics is beginning to learn about people's expressed preferences about how they're charged..
Quotes of the Month	Tom Stoppard
Client Relationship Series	Are teams that keep clients underappreciated compared to the "big wins" that bring cilents in originally?
New York City	The New York Public Library

 

I would like to believe the content of the newsletter has demonstrated its value to you and your colleagues over the years we've been publishing it, and I strongly urge you to sign up now.

Please let me know if you have any comments, observations, or questions.

We very much look forward to welcoming you--or in many cases, continuing to welcome you--to the Adam Smith, Esq. newsletter.

Best,

Bruce

The Great Hill in Central Park Today

Speaking of interesting conferences in New York, on Monday, February 1st, from 1:00--5:00 pm, LexisNexis is hosting a "Business of Law" Symposium at the New York Hilton, Sixth Avenue @ 53rd Street, home of the annual LegalTech confab, which this flies under the flag of.

Why do I mention it?

Because I'm giving the keynote, called Economic & Strategic Perspectives on the Current Environment, and I'll also be moderating the three subsequent hour-long panels, on:

• Knowledge Management:  How technology can drive competitive differentiation.
  
  
• New Structures for the New World?:  Addressing what components of the conventional law firm business model might need to change, including:
  • Associate career paths
  • Alternative fee and billing models
  • Revenue and profitability models
  • Lateral recruitment, and improving the batting average, and
  • Law student recruiting--taking on the NALP menace
    
    
• Future Strategies:  If growth for growth's sake is no longer the universal solvent we once perceived it to be, what new strategies are plausible, effective, and needed in the marketplace? 

If I may say so, we've also recruited some top-drawer talent for the panels, including Harry Trueheart, Chairman of Nixon Peabody, Bill Bachman, Chief Operating Officer of Bingham McCutchen, Sally King, Regional Chief Operating Officer of Clifford Change, Aric Press of The American Lawyer, David Lat of Above the Law, Oz Benamram, Chief Knowledge Officer at White & Case,and Saul Rosenberg, Director, Knowledge Operations, McKinsey & Company--as well as many talented others.

Bonus for attendees:  Audience members will be given wireless polling devices allowing you to vote anonymously and see the results displayed in charts at the front screen in real time.    Accordingly, each session will feature several questions for the audience designed to enlighten, or perhaps uncover latent inconsistencies in attitudes.

There's no special charge for the event:  More info here. 

Hope to see you there!

Ever wonder where the Times Square New Year's Eve balls go when they're retired?

No?

Well, then, putting that aside straightaway, we're here to enlighten you.

The New York Times has now revealed that they end up about 50 feet underground, in a subbasement of 1 Times Square, the building from whose summit they once descended.  There have been a total of 8 balls, at least by the somewhat improvisatory enumeration of Jeffrey Straus, CEO of the firm that produces the New Year's Eve celebration.  Unfortunately, Balls ## 1 & 2 have disappeared.  Balls ##3, 4, and 5 turn out, actually, to have been the same ball, serving from the mid-1950's to the mid-1990's, but in separate incarnations:  The original (#3), the same ball in the form of an apple, briefly during the early 1980's (#4), before reverting to its original form (3 with an asterisk), and finally #5 when it got new skin and rhinestones.

#7 was a one-of-a-kind, serving only one year at the turn of the millennium, and we are now on #8, one covered with 2,688 Waterford Crystal triangles bolted to 672 LED modules, and capable of producing 16-million colors.

#6, you ask?

Here it, ingloriously, is:

 

Best wishes to you and yours

in this magical holiday season

and throughout 2010.

We at Adam Smith, Esq., hope for all of you 
peace, health, prosperity, and the realization of your dreams.

The Christmas Tree at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in the Medieval Sculpture Hall

The results of our Reader Survey are in and this provides a brief recap of the results...and the announcement of who won the $200 Amex gift card, just in time for last-minute holiday shopping.  

The most important aspect of the survey is not, in a way, helping us compile a profile of who you all are; it's the immensely valuable input you provided in talking about the key challenges confronting your firms in this environment, as well as some nicely phrased observations about "Adam Smith, Esq." itself.  Suffice to say you individually and collectively raised several timely and some unforeseen topic areas for us to pursue in future columns.

First, thank you to all who responded.  We're all under enormous time pressure.  That said, 237 of you completed the survey.  Our research maven characterized that as a "robust" response.

Some gleanings from the results:

• 86% of responders are from the US.  Of the remaining 14%, many precincts were heard from including Austria, Australia, Canada, China, The Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Italy, France, Germany, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, Poland, Russia, Scotland, Sweden, the UK, and--no, we can't resist-- Kazakhstan.
  
  
• Among US responders, nearly 45% come from the AmLaw 50, 61% from the AmLaw  100 and nearly 75% are in the AmLaw 200.  On the other end of the spectrum, 14% come from single-office firms.
  
  
• Again among US respondents:  Nearly 10% reported being MPs, Firm Chairs or members of the firm's management or executive committee.  Partners accounted of 31% of responses, associates 39% and "C"-suite professionals nearly 6%.
  
  
• In terms of demographics, the median age of responders is 38 years, and median, annual household income is $227,000.
  
  
• The male/female split was 87%/13%.  (We'd certainly like to improve the balance of that ratio - and if you have suggestions - don't be shy.)
  

While we're at it, here are a few other "facts" about the site.  In the year ending November 30, Adam Smith, Esq.  generated over 4.5 million page views, or on average over 375,000 per month.  This is a 16% increase over the previous 12 months.  For perspective, newspaper readership declined 10% in just the six months ending September 30.  To say this is gratifying would be our own understatement of the year.  And you, dear readers, have made this possible.  We humbly thank you.

This survey is enormously important to us at Adam Smith, Esq.  Not only do the results provide a clearer picture of the issues you are dealing with, it also offers insights applicable to the legal industry, at large. 

---

Here is more detailed information about you.

Note that all these charts "read" clockwise from noon.

The breakdown of your roles at work.  What's interesting here is the upward skew, towards partners vs. associates and towards members of senior management of firms among partners.

What types of firms you are in. Clearly readers of Adam Smith, Esq. tend to come from larger firms.

Next, the breakdown by practice area.  One amusing detail in this chart is that none of you is retired (or willing to admit it):

You are a youngish crowd:

Finally--on the topic of the survey--those of you who responded may recall that we asked you what is "the most pressing/frustrating strategic, financial, or business issue facing me/my firm."

Here is a highly selective sampling of your responses:

• The firm's identity. It's foundational and is showing itself through attorney pay, international expansion and information to partners and associates.
• Not being intentional in thinking about change.
• Preservation of shared values, culture and cohesiveness in the face of relentless expansion and consolidation
• I think you nailed it your recent blog (on laterals) regarding lack of strategy. Law firm partners running a multi million dollar business need to think like executives, not like a frat house brothers. Furthermore, there is oftentimes (probably way too often) a general disdain of creativity, passion, excellence, and ability to question from firm managers. What seems to be solely valued is billings --not even collections! While the "Great Reset" is happening all around, law firms are still not getting how they themselves need to morph/reset into something new, agile, flexible, creative, and compensate accordingly. I sincerely doubt that we will replicate the past with regard to the business of law firms, even if the economy does "come back."
• Lack of a meaningful strategic plan.
• Integrating multiple divergent practices into a coherent international enterprise. Converting from a loose confederations of lawyers who don't actually like each other very much into a multinational.
• Surviving a shift to the new reality when we don't seem ready to do it; getting parterns to be more forward thinking and innovative; moving fast enough to respond to market opportunities

---

And, now the winner of the $200 Amex gift card...drum roll, please.

We are delighted to report that the winner is a corporate associate in the New York office of an AmLaw 50 firm.  We phoned our winner to give him the news and congratulate him, and ask if he could permit us to identify him here on "Adam Smith, Esq."   (We should note that we called around 6:30 on a Friday evening and he picked up his own phone on the first ring.) 

He replied, most professionally, that he'd have to check and get back to us.  In about five minutes, he phoned back to report that the marketing people would prefer we not identify him.  No reason given.

What follows is done without his knowledge or permission and can only come as news to him.

We don't believe that "no reason" is a good reason, and so we choose to take issue with the good folks in marketing and suggest that you look up a certain associate who's University of Washington BA in Accounting and Economics, a licensed CPA, and a Columbia Law JD/Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, where he was also a member of the Columbia Business Law Review.

A worthy winner, we surmise.  Marketing support or no marketing support.

Again, thank you for your time and especially the care and thought evident in your responses.

 

Your last chance to take the Readers' Survey is this weekend. 

As of Sunday night, it will close and we will conduct the random drawing for the $200 gift card from among those who have completed the survey and entered the contest.

Fair warning!

Nearly 2,000 of you already subscribe to our monthly e-newsletter, which we've been publishing for over 3-1/2 years, since the spring of 2006. 

To those of you who do subscribe, what follows will be repetitive since you've already seen it in this month's issue of the newsletter, which arrived in your inboxes earlier today. 

But for those of you who haven't yet subscribed, we wanted to offer you the opportunity.  Please read on.

We've been alerting you for some time to the fact that the newsletter would move to a paid model, and the day has arrived.

Why are we doing this?

• We've been publishing the monthly newsletter for over 2-1/2 years, starting in the spring of 2006, and hitherto it has always been free, as, of course, has the main Adam Smith, Esq. website and online publication itself.
  
  
• The rates are modest--even more so for firm-wide subscriptions.  An entire firm can subscribe for the equivalent of between 10 and 50 individual subscriptions, depending on the size of your firm.  This way, the newsletter will abe available to all your personnel at all your locations.
  
  
• Based on what we believe to be the unique coverage of our industry that Adam Smith, Esq. provides--importantly including, as you know, articles and other content we publish in the newsletter that are not available anywhere else--we need the resources that only paid subscribers can provide to be able to continue providing the same high level of content and discourse you have come to expect from us.
  
  
• We also intend to add additional features and contributors to enhance the newsletters' value to you.  The plain reality is that those investments will require resources.
  
  

Subscriptions are annual and are available for:

• Law firms, which entitle everyone in the entire firm--partners, associates, paralegals, staff, etc.--access to the newsletter.  (Pricing depends on overall firm size.)
  
  
• Individuals
  
  
• Media companies
  
  
• Other organizations and corporations, and
  
  
• Educational institutions

Please go here to sign up.

 

---

Here's an overview of what's in this month's newsletter:

What's On Your Minds	What people are talking about
Recap of Key Articles	Covering why laterals' motivation for moving may be different now than before the Great Reset What laterals ought to know about firms before joining (think "Offering Memorandum") A discussion of Reed Smith's (related?) decisions to dial back 1st year associate salaries and hourly requirements and to require its non-equity partners to pony up a capital contribution The first and second installments in our "Law Firm Business Models" survey, covering (a) Regional Firms; and (b)  Boutiques.
The Newsletter-Only Article	An extended discussion of differences of opinion about the future of alternative fees, based on a soon-to-be published book surveying the AmLaw 100.  Can you say "people disagree"?
Quotes of the Month	Milton Friedman
Profile of an Individual	The unfairly obscure British economist A. C. Pigou, who analyzed when government intervention in markets to correct "externalities" was and was not justified.

 

I would like to believe the content of the newsletter has demonstrated its value to you and your colleagues over the two and a half years we've been publishing it, and I strongly urge you to keep your subscription coming by signing up now.

Please let me know if you have any comments, observations, or questions.

We very much look forward to welcoming you--make that, continuing to welcome you--to the Adam Smith, Esq. newsletter.

Final reminder!  This will be the last week you can take our Reader's Survey.

Why should you take it?

• You can enter for a chance to win a $200 gift card.
• It takes less than 3 minutes--if you dawdle.
• You can provide us with indispensable insight into what you want to hear more about, what's on your minds, what the most pressing strategic issues are confronting your firm.
• Besides, voting is your civic duty.

Again, it takes very little time and you'll have the chance at the end not only to enter the random drawing for the $200 gift card, but to subscribe to our monthly e-newsletter.

Preparing for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on the Upper West Side.

Time is running out to take our Adam Smth, Esq. Readers' Survey.

Why should you take it?

• You can enter for a chance to win a $200 VISA gift card.
• It takes less than 3 minutes--if you take your time.
• You can provide us with indispensable insight into what you want to hear more about, what's on your minds, what the most pressing strategic issues are confronting your firm.
• Besides, voting is your civic duty.

Again, it takes very little time and you'll have the chance at the end not only to enter the random drawing for the $200 gift card, but to subscribe to our monthly e-newsletter.

Take the Survey!

Thanks.

Very quick interim "flash" report on the Reader Survey.

To begin with, in the very few days since we launched it, well over 100 of you have taken the time to respond.  Nice going, readers!  We thank you very much for this clear demonstration of how engaged you are with Adam Smith, Esq.  I have had a chance to skim some of the open-ended comments very quickly and they are without exception thoughtful, nuanced, well informed, and exceedingly helpful.

I wanted to provide just two quick snapshots of who you are telling us you are, if for no other reason than I find it fascinating and I hope you might find it of at least passing interest as well.

First, in terms of your positions, here's the breakdown:

In case this is hard to read (it is), the chart reads clockwise starting from about 4:00 o'clock with the "Managing Partner/Firm Chair/CEO" slice (light orange, between the grey above and the blue below).  The large purple slice running from about 4pm to 7pm is "partner" (20%) and the still larger orange slice from about 7pm to about 10 pm is "associate" (29%).  Other notable constituencies include executives and staff at law firms (13% total, the bright green and dull gold slices from 10 pm to 12) and in-house counsel (the baby blue slice at high noon, 6%).

Next is what type of firm you are in.  Here's the chart, then the recap:

The largest slice, orange, running from 4pm to nearly 9pm, is "AmLaw 50" (39%).  Second most popular (dark blue, from 9pm to 10 pm) is AmLaw 51--100 (13%), and then AmLaw 101--200 (purple, from 10pm to 11pm, 9%).  The other two substantial cohorts are "One Office," gold, from 1pm to 2pm (17%) and "Non-US" (bright blue, from 2pm to 4pm, 13%).

Again, thanks to all of you who have already participated;  For those of you who have not, click here to take the Survey! 

And remember you have the option at the end of signing up to be entered in the random drawing for a $200 VISA gift card.  Don't say Adam Smith, Esq. never did anything for you....

It's that time of year again.

Yes, faithful readers will recall that periodically (OK, so it's not exactly annual, but it's pretty regular, and it's always in the fall) we ask you to participate in a very brief (<3 minutes) Reader Survey.  

Why do we do this and what's in it for you?

A few reasons:

• Those who complete the survey may (optionally--your choice) sign up to be entered in a random drawing for a $200 VISA gift card.
• We at Adam Smith, Esq., are always inveterately curious about you, our readers, and this gives you the opportunity to tell us a bit about yourselves--what your role in your firm is, what type of firm it is (AmLaw 50, non-US, etc.), and most importantly:
• You can tell us:
  • What you view as the most pressing/frustrating strategic, financial, or business issue facing you and/or your firm;
  • What you would like us to write more about, or (it's only fair) less about; and
  • Anything else you'd like to throw our way over the transom.

So without further ado, please click here to take the survey.

Again, it will only take a few minutes, even if you dawdle; you get to enter the $200 VISA gift card lottery (winner to be announced when the survey closes in a few weeks); you can give us a piece of your mind; and all personal information will be held in strictest confidence.  We do not sell, rent, barter, give away, or share that information with anyone under any circumstances, not for love and not for money.

Take the survey!

Over the course of the next few days, "Adam Smith, Esq." will be on the virtual move, to a new hosting service.

The only reason I mention this--it should be invisible to readers--is in case it's not.  All of your links, etc., should work precisely as they always have, assuming the tech gods smile on us.  But since they are jealous gods, I just wanted to give you all a heads-up in case they turn out to be in an ornery mood during this transition.

If you experience any problems or glitches in accessing the site, getting to archives, searching, etc. please send us an email and we'll try to trouble-shoot it right away.

Everything should settle down pretty quickly, however, and we hope the new hosting service will actually improve your experience of visiting the site in terms of speed, responsiveness, and reliability.

See you "there"!

I'm at USC Law School speaking in a course entitled The Evolution of Large Law Firms: Effects of the Storm, taught by Adjunct Professor Bry Danner, former partner at Latham & Watkins and General Counsel at Edison International. I've known Bry for a few years.

Here's what the course is about:

Will firms actually create a new business model, or simply revert to their former ways once the downturn changes direction? To answer these questions, Danner provided students with some background in  economics and the recent history of law firm strategies during the first installment of the series, "Framing the Questions," on Sept. 21. In the second installment, "Search for Answers (part one)," held Sept. 30, Danner welcomed Michael Roster, former General Counsel at Golden West Financial and Stanford University and  steering committee chair of the Association of Corporate Counsel's (ACC) "Value Challenge" initiative. Roster also is a former managing partner at Morrison & Foerster in L.A

The description for "my" session of the course notes:

The third installment of the speaker series, Oct. 14, features a discussion with Bruce MacEwen, a lawyer and consultant to law firms on strategic and economic issues, and founder and editor of the "Adam Smith, Esq." website. Included in this session will be a Danner-vs.-MacEwen debate on which ultimate outcome from the current recession (a major change of direction or just a minor detour in the evolution of the law firms) would be best for today's law students.

Through a coin toss, I was chosen to argue the "major change of direction" side of the debate and while I hesitate to attribute the resulting student vote to my advocacy skills, a clear majority seemed to agree that a major change would be better for their careers than a minor detour.

I fly up to Portland, Oregon tomorrow for a mix of business and pleasure; back in New York early next week.

I'm at the University of Denver's Sturm College of Law this weekend in the Cherry Creek district of the city:

The occasion is the annual meeting of the College of Law Practice Management, which describes itself as follows:

The College of Law Practice Management was formed in 1994 to honor and recognize distinguished law practice management professionals, to set standards of achievement for others in the profession, and to fund and assist projects that enhance the highest quality of law practice management. 

The College and its Fellows inspire excellence and innovation in law practice management by:

• Honoring extraordinary achievement
• Developing, exchanging and disseminating knowledge
• Stimulating innovation in the delivery of legal services

I'm pleased to report that I'm being inducted as a Fellow. Yesterday I delivered a talk on "The Evolution of the Law Firm," but the most enjoyable part has been meeting many many old and new friends.

Back in New York Monday.

In terms of interest in superstition, astrology, etc., we're about negative 8 on a 1--10 scale, but every once in awhile an odd historic and sociocultural belief arouses our curiosity. 

Everyone who watched last year's opening ceremonies at the Beijing Summer Olympics knows that China chose the date--08/08/08--because the number 8 is deemed very fortunate in China.  Second only to 8 in terms of good favor is 9, making yesterday--09/09/09--a highly auspicious date as well.  (Now that it's over, I can't report that anything strikingly fabulous happened to me, but then again, I'm probably not a strong test case.)

It turns out China is not the only society or culture that deems 9 special.  In fact, ancient Greek had a special word for "the nine," "ennead," which meant a grouping of nine deities.  The notion of nine deities, in turn, derived from Egypt--famously polytheistic, with a large and changeable cast of divine characters--where the word for the same concept was "pesedjet."  Interestingly, "pesedjet" in Egyptian was not necessarily constrained to nine gods, but could be as few as seven or as many as ten.  Perhaps this flexibility was to accommodate the varying priorities of particular Egyptian rulers.

The Great Ennead of Helipolis, the most famous iteration on the notion of pesedjet, consisted of Ra, his children Shu and Tefnut, and their offspring Geb, Isis, Nephthys, Nut, Osiris, and Set.  Here's Ra:

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming.

Atlas, Rockefeller Center, New York

You are reading the one-thousandth column I've published on "Adam Smith, Esq." since launching the site at the very end of 2003.