by Bruce | July 28, 2005 | Articles, Finance, Marketing, Partnership Structures, Strategy
Among the AmLaw 200, mergers are in the air. Like it or not, this seems to be the reality we are facing: Consolidation. I’ve addressed the "fact" of this trend before (I think it’s safe to say at this point that it’s a...
by Bruce | July 24, 2005 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
Why are law firms partnerships? After all, across the rest of the economy, corporations are more than dominant; they own the landscape. Ever seen a trucking company, a retail chain, or even your friendly local locksmith shop organized as a partnership? ...
by Bruce | July 20, 2005 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy
"Equilibrium" is a term that has special meaning in economics, although its definition can seem somewhat tautological: It’s the state of affairs where there is no impetus or force for change. The textbook example is where the price in a...
by Bruce | July 15, 2005 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
Aren’t you relieved that you don’t have wolfpacks of Wall Street analysts and the multimedia, 24/7 business press breathing down your neck to deliver "the numbers" every quarter? Isn’t it great living in private-firm land and having...
by Bruce | July 12, 2005 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
Dick Tyler, managing partner of CMS Cameron McKenna (with the coolest law-firm URL I’ve yet encountered), sounds a defense of the firm’s reversion from its foray into merit-based partnership compensation to its lockstep roots, combined with an all-equity...
by Bruce | July 11, 2005 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Partnership Structures
“As a profession, if we are to be taken seriously, we need to move to a sensible reporting regime that is based on real figures, and not on those stage statistics that appear.” The words of an impractical academic? A frustrated journalist...