MoneyBall and Law Firms Counts for Beans

This last Friday, I went to go see "MoneyBall". For the uninitiated, this is a baseball movie that reveals the secret behind the Oakland A's incredible 20-game winning streak with what was perceived to be a less than attractive stable of players. As the character Peter Brand says they are "like an island of misfit toys." I couldn't help but think of Big Law. I know, I think too much about work. But bear with me here. So basically, the movie is about how Peter Brand, this economics genius, figures out the way to win against the big moneyed teams, like Yankees and the Red Sox, was not by buying multi-million dollar players. Instead, you buy wins. Cue up the montage where Brand teaches Billy Beane–by the way, don't you love these names?–how to count RBIs, home run stats, walks, and all of the stats that are in baseball to figure out who the under-valued players are that score the highest points. This way, Billy Beane is able to scoop up good, over-looked players on the cheap. Remind you of anything? Yeah, I got your attention, now, don't I? Toby, Greg and me and others have been talking about this for a long time. It is the business of law. Don't look at the players. Look at the wins. Don't look at war stories. Look at the economics. Don't look at laurels and law schools. Look at the bottom line. So who among us is the Billy Beane of the legal world? By the way, at the end, he turned down a $2.5 million contract from the Red Sox to stay with the Oakland A's and be closer to his daughter. That reminds me of someone I know …

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