LETTERS.

• Position: Letter to the Editor

Banking numbers

On behalf of our members, allow me to express our appreciation for the thorough and informed coverage your publication generally provides. Within that context, it was disturbing to discover in your November issue a number of charts ranking banks and measuring their performance.

Though ranking banks from largest to smallest on a single piece of data, such as revenues or assets, is unlikely to confuse readers or unfairly represent banks, the same cannot be said about measurements of return on assets, return on equity or efficiency ratios. While you excluded banks in operation for less than one year from your comparisons, you included all others. It is totally unreasonable to expect a bank in its second, third or even fourth year of operation to reflect similar ratios to those of a mature bank, regardless of how well it is being managed, even if it is far exceeding the expectations of its business plan. If you feel compelled to provide comparisons that include banks during those formative years, it would present a fairer picture to establish groups of peers among which such comparisons would be meaningful.

Thad Woodard

President

North Carolina Bankers Association

Raleigh

This lawyer objects

When someone sits for an interview with a business publication, they expect to be dealt with fairly and honestly. I regret that your publication did not do so with me ("Case Loaded," September).

First the facts: The article states that my firm has 1,200 active cases. This reflects our auto cases only. Our total caseload is over 2,000. The article states that I personally rarely touch a case. On an almost daily basis, I am in conversation with our lawyers and staff and/or clients regarding legal issues and strategy. Regarding caseload. your writer fails to recognize the differences between our various types of lawyers. As a managed practice, we have the capability to vary caseloads depending upon the experience of the lawyer and the type of work being performed.

What your writer failed to appreciate and what most lawyers will tell you is that about 80% of what the typical lawyer does is not legal work...