"Adam Smith, Esq." is branching out.
Through a happy confluence of inspiration and opportunity, Bruce
and the "Adam Smith, Esq." brand are stepping out from behind your
screen into the off-line world:
First, I am pleased to announce the kick-off of what I hope will
be an on-going series of high-end workshops for senior law firm management. Working
with Rich Gary, former
chair of Thelen-Reid, these
will feature a small group of attendees delving into strategic business
issues that managing partners and their colleagues are wrestling
with. We will hold these workshops in major cities in
the US, and they will typically take place over two days, starting
with a cocktail reception and dinner on a Wednesday evening and adjourning
after lunch Friday. The workshops will include:
- Three focused modules dealing with important challenges to executives
at the top of large and sophisticated law firms, such as "consolidation
and globalization," "competitive and business intelligence," "leading
change," and "creating a credible, powerful, and distinctive 21st-Century
firm." - The format will include presenting novel and substantial content;
engaging the attendees in round-table discussions; "what-if" scenarios
and thought experiments, both in break-out groups and as a whole;
and learning from and interacting with some of the legal profession’s most
prominent thought leaders, who will attend as our guests.
We hope the combination of a small group (no more than 15 attendees)
in intimate surroundings, together with challenging thinking and
interaction with some of the thinkers at the cutting edge of our
profession, will make these workshops distinctive.
For more information, see the link in the left sidebar to "Workshops,"
or click here.
Second, I am offering "Law Firm Finance 101," 1/2-day
seminars that I will conduct at your firm’s offices, targeted at
small groups of associates (partners invited as well!). These
were partly prompted by the overwhelming reaction to an entry from
last September, "Name
the Missing Law School Course."
“Law Firm Finance 101” will enable
associates to:
- approach their careers with more awareness of what’s expected
of them; - make a connection between their daily work and the firm’s
strategic goals; - appreciate the firm’s business decisions;
- understand what drives the metrics by which they’ll be
evaluated, and - be more realistic about attorney-client and partner-associate
relationships,
all with the goal of making them more valuable
to the firm more rapidly.
For more information, see the link in the left sidebar to "Workshops," or
click here.
Third,
my business manager and I are establishing an on-line research panel
and inviting our loyal readers to join. To
ensure objectivity of the research results the panel will generate,
we have teamed up with a leading independent, third-party on-line
research company, "Affluent-Dynamics." Fundamentally,
the goal of the panel is simple: To give readers who join the
opportunity to have a voice which will be heard and listened to by
companies developing products and services you use.
If you’re
interested in "having your opinions count" on a variety
of business and marketing issues, or if you’re merely curious,
click on the Affluent Dynamics box. Membership is free,
absolutely confidential, and every time members complete a survey,
they receive a minimum of 3,000 frequent flier miles. And by the way, membership is not limited to the U.S.; indeed, non-Americans are more than welcome (the only requirement is English fluency.)
I’ll keep a separate link up to the Affluent-Dynamics panel for
the next week.
Finally, "Adam Smith, Esq." is accepting advertisements and
sponsorships from a select few high-end marketers with products or
services presumably of interest to "Adam Smith, Esq." readers. One
example is the ad for Sivin-Tobin Associates, LLC, legal recruiters
headquartered here in New York.
The purpose of this program is to help strengthen the long-term
viability of "Adam Smith, Esq.," and, I hope, to enable me to invest
in developing additional, original content through on-site reporting
and research.
That said: Our marketing and advertising partners
will never have the remotest influence on what you read
here—and any with the poor judgment to seek it
will be summarily, and publicly, dismissed with all the opprobrium the blogosphere can muster.
Anyone interested in discussing the wide array of customized programs—encompassing
both online and off-line elements—which my business partner
has developed, or who has suggestions or questions, should email
Janet Stanton. Janet is a true pro at what she does,
with over 25 years experience in advertising and marketing, working
with such household names (and sophisticated marketers) as Procter
& Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, Nortel, Pfizer, Johnson + Johnson,
and the US Department of Defense; she has worked at prominent NYC
ad agencies including Bates Worldwide, Benton & Bowles, and Grey,
as well as being President of a mid-sized agency outside Philadelphia. If
you talk to her, you’ll be in good hands.
And editorial questions/suggestions/inquries
should, as always, come
to me.
I hope you appreciate the reasons behind my expanding what "Adam
Smith, Esq." stands for and what it delivers, and I hope you share
a small bit of my excitement at these new developments.
