One person we draw inspiration from is jazz great Wynton Marsalis. After his dad had died of covid, he appeared on 60 Minutes to talk about the principles of improvisation. He said that in times of chaos, we need to be more deliberate. In other words, we earn the right to be agile through our preparation.

It’s been the best of times and worst of times for mergers and acquisitions. As volume and valuations rose in Q4 of 2024, it was expected that the New Year would bring a resurgent M&A market.

The wildfires that devastated Southern California in January exposed a larger gap in our economy--shifting fundamentals in the broader insurance market.

The forecast for Q1 is dropping like a rock, raising eyebrows about the possibility of an economic downturn. But before we all start panic-buying gold bars and canned beans, let’s remember—one negative month does not make a recession.

Donald Trump has acted swiftly to execute his agenda. He’s used executive orders as a wrecking ball to demolish essential government functions, often without concrete alternative measures.

Markets moved violently on January 27th following the news that China upstart DeepSeek, a large language model, was “trained” for only $6 million. Sure, and the Dodgers aren’t signing free agents.

We are based in a sprawling master planned community north of Los Angeles. It’s a place where roads are wide and traffic flows. The school district is one of the best in the state. Paseos, parks and walking trails abound.

As we head into 2025, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) face a clear choice: embrace AI or compete with it. While large-tech dominates the news, executives and knowledge workers grapple with an overwhelming array of AI-enabled tools. But 2025 isn’t merely about keeping up—it’s about reimagining business models to harness AI’s potential and gain a competitive advantage.

Our practice is based in Los Angeles. We have many friends and colleagues impacted by the historic devastation here. There were shocking visuals of human despair and heroism.