With about 100 lawyers, Fischbein Badillo is considered a medium-size firm in Manhattan.

Still, for all but the most self-sufficient smaller and medium-size firms, these arrangements often prove advantageous.

But he ruled out a merger with another medium-size firm to try to enter the Big Five.

The company interviewed three potential firms: Lordi, a medium-size firm and a Big Four firm.

The charges were bolstered over the weekend by reports that in addition to Japan's largest brokerage houses, more than a dozen medium-size firms also provided improper compensation.

"We felt that longer term, it was probably going to be more and more difficult for medium-size firms like ours to compete across a broad range of services," he said.

So far, the emerging breed is found mostly at medium-size firms, in part because they can be flexible about staffing and services.

The borough has none of Manhattan's large corporate headquarters, and smaller or medium-size firms remain concerned about their bottom line and have not entered the philanthropic stream.

That will simply create new opportunities for small and medium-size firms - maybe even aggressive university presses - to move into the niche for good books.

Since the state company privatization has been going on in the last seven years, the private small and medium-size firms have been bound to absorb the social strike.