Featured Article
Is the American Legal Profession a Guild?
This is one in our occasional series of excerpts from my yet-to-be-published new book, treating, among other things, the historic roots of our profession tracing back to medieval guilds. I hope you enjoy, and, more importantly, that you provide any feedback,... read more +The US/UK Divide Narrows
From the wires, and I quote: "Altman Weil is pleased to announce a strategic alliance with London-based Jomati Limited. Like Altman Weil, Jomati is an independently owned global management consultancy advising law firms and corporate law departments. It is led by...
Who Will Be Your Successor?
Succession planning is part of the Management 101 toolkit that law firms ignore at their peril. Too many firm leaders are reluctant to attend to it, either intentionally ("it will all work out") or simply through preferring not to take up a potentially...
Sidley-Austin, the EEOC, and Unintended Consequences
Even the reader acquainted only at the most cursory level with my perspective on the increasingly professionalized management of law firms would know I endorse that trend wholeheartedly. The question du jour is whether I endorse it without reservation. Prompting...
The Power of One
Roughly speaking, there are two theories of history: That people shape events, or that events shape people. As a confirmed subscriber to the former theory, this American Lawyer profile of Bingham-McCutchen's chair, Jay Zimmerman, tells the tale to me of what a...
Law Firm Management, 1984–2004
One of the most promising and optimistic pieces I've read in awhile comes courtesy of John Smock, co-founder of Smock Sterling Strategic Management Consultants outside Chicago. Essentially a look-back at his twenty years of experience being a strategic...
