The BusinessPundit raises the interesting question, “Do lawyers make good CEOs?”
It’s a good topic for debate, but it’s also a question for which I have some rooting interest. I worked with Andy Puzder, the CEO of CKE Restaurants, Inc. and Hardee’s Food Systems, Inc., on quite a few projects when we were both at The Stolar Partnership in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
I’ll also remember when Andy told me that the work I was doing on a particular high-profile project was the type of opportunity that would make me a partner in short order. He was right and I enjoyed working with him. As a lawyer, he had both a great attention to detail and an ability to see the bigger business issues. I also suspect that his cross-examination skills have been put to good use in getting answers to tough questions.
I see a little bit of Andy in Hardee’s commercials and the Six Dollar Burger especially. I even got a little chuckle when I saw a commercial featuring Andy – “hey, I know that guy!”
Now, I definitely do not think that most lawyers will make good CEOs, but I’ve worked with and met a good number of lawyers who certainly would.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 28th, 2004 at 9:18 pm and is filed under Legal Profession. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.