MICHAEL BIONDI L’83 W’83 has never been attracted to the path of least resistance. In fact, he found working in M&A for First Boston Corporation, a top New York investment bank, a little ho-hum. “Most folks go to Wall Street because they’re risk-averse,” he said in his Institute for Law & Economics LAW AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP LECTURE. “They go because it’s the safest, most predictable way to make a lot of money.”

Biondi, by contrast, has frequently taken leaps off the beaten path, first leaving his law practice at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP to join First Boston, and in 1988 spinning off the start-up firm of Wasserstein Perella. “The thought that helped me go to sleep at night was this: I’m thirty years old,” said Biondi. “If I’m not going to take this opportunity to do something interesting and exciting, when am I ever going to do it?”

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