Big companies like the Kirov Opera can at least count on sponsorship from well-established firms, Russian and Western, that hope to profit from an association with a widely recognized artistic brand name.

It is a trend that troubles many independent, well-established minority-owned firms.

He contacted several law firms and ultimately joined forces with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, a well-established firm that specializes in mergers and acquisitions and has a large pro bono practice.

In 1812 he entered into partnership in a well-established firm of silk, cotton, and linen manufacturers, which still, though no longer under his name, continues to prosper.

In their early years the Barings profited largely from joint ventures that they were able to get into with the well-established Dutch firm of Hope & Company.

McDonald's' is typical of an old well-established firm which has been absorbed into a larger manufacturing group and modernized.

Invariably in well-established firms the work continues to flow from long tapped sources, but in the aggressive business climate facing the profession today it can no longer be assumed that this will continue.

Experts said the alliance was the first long-term commitment between a large, well-established firm and one owned by blacks.

Mr. LeHane says well-established firms are also opening offices in smaller cities, where they compete with local firms.

They were represented by the Carlton Carriage Co; and well-established firms included light car specialists Mebes & Mebes, founded in 1893 amongst numerous others.