A Skadden veteran's uneasy take on smarter machines

Philip Vukelich for BI

Three years out of law school, in 1990, David Goldschmidt landed the kind of assignment most young corporate lawyers only dream of: taking a company public.

When a senior partner at the venerated New York law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom told him to "run with" biotech company Regeneron's IPO, his career changed.

Goldschmidt sweated his way through writing the prospectus, translating the company's scientific ambitions into plain language for investors.