by Bruce | March 8, 2005 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Practice Group Management, Strategy
If you think practice group management is a fad that will run its course, you should read this piece by Patrick McKenna. [Patrick is a well-known expert on strategy and practice management and, among other things, co-author with David Maister of "First...
by Bruce | March 6, 2005 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy
To risk stating the obvious, a major downside of acquiring powerful lateral partners or small groups thereof is that they will not stay. Now The American Lawyer has a piece covering the story of same over the past five years or so, complete with a helpful and...
by Bruce | March 4, 2005 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, M&A, Strategy
I believe this is a first, but I’m about to quote an astute and interested UK reader’s unsolicited, over-the-transom "letter to ‘Adam Smith, Esq.’" in its entirety. At first I thought I could edit it gracefully for concision,...
by Bruce | March 2, 2005 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Practice Group Management, Strategy
Yesterday’s post about the Hildebrandt/Citigroup annual 2004 recap said nothing about a topic they dwelt on which I deemed sufficiently distinct and newsworthy in itself to merit separate commentary. Specifically, they cited four developments in firm structure...
by Bruce | March 1, 2005 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Knowledge Management, Leadership, M&A, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy, Technology strategy
Hildebrandt and The Law Firm Group of the Citigroup Private Bank, with help from Baker-Robbins, are out with their 2004 year-in-review together with some prognostications for 2005. The New York Times, in its wisdom, headlined the story, "Partnerships More...
by Bruce | February 24, 2005 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, M&A, Strategy
If you asked us to name one seminal development that "changed everything" in terms of law firm economics between the stasis model of the 1950’s and the dynamic model of the 1990’s, we’d say it was the creation of a market for lateral...