When he left Salomon Brothers Inc. in 1981, Michael Bloomberg � then just another well-heeled Wall Streeter, cashing out of the firm with $10 million � could have retired to a spacious ranch or seaside villa. But tanning on white-sand beaches for the next 40 years didn’t suit the ambitious 39-year-old. Instead, he wanted to start his own company: a service providing real-time financial data and analysis. Bloomberg rented a three-room office on Madison Avenue, ready to put his plan into money-making action. All he needed was a lawyer.
Bloomberg approached friend and fellow Salomon partner Jon Rotenstreich for advice. Rotenstreich recommended his own personal attorney for the job, a young partner at New York’s Webster & Sheffield who had overseen the drafting of his will. Richard DeScherer, then a 37-year-old specialist in corporate and tax work, was perfect, Rotenstreich thought, not only because of his expertise, but also because of his forceful character. “I knew that Dick had the same personality that Mike had � a strong-willed personality,” Rotenstreich recalls. “Dick could listen to that and handle it.”
