As 2011 continued, Davis and DiCarmine continued to convey optimism. In a memo to partners in December, DiCarmine said that Dewey had several major bills to collect by year-end, “and if we get them in, we can have a pretty great year,” as one partner put it. But by January, this partner says, DiCarmine “was crestfallen. He said, ‘We didn’t get it.’”
In some cases, compensation guarantees had backfired: Some rainmakers sent bills late or were not persistent in collecting them. “Davis was never good at taking his star business-generators to the woodshed,” says one partner. “He did not say no to them.” And clients had continued to hold back on legal spending. Insurers, in particular, demanded additional discounts on rates that had already been frozen at prerecession levels.
