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Shout Out to Kirkland
This column is by Janet Stanton, Partner, Adam Smith, Esq. We generally eschew commenting on daily comings-and-goings in Law Land. We make an exception here, because this is actually huge news. I’m speaking about Kirkland’s decision to stop disclosing financial info... read more +Are We “Corporate” Yet?
Just how "corporate" is the management model at sophisticated firms? While there may be superficial similarities of structure in an increasing number of firms, Legal Week posits that if lawyers simply mimic a corporate form of management without...
Will the Real Adam Smith Please Stand Up?
Adam Smith's thought (the real Adam Smith, that is) has been famously characterized by the economist George Stigler as a "stupendous palace erected upon the granite of self-interest." I have long labeled this a "mischaracterization," and I am...
Where’s the Dial That Controls Profitability?
Perhaps the single most challenging question to answer cogently—from both the economic and intellectual perspectives—is what can law firm managers actually do to increase profitability? You imagine rightly, dear reader, that I have sacrificed...
Piper Rudnick/DLA Round 2
More on the Piper Rudnick/DLA deal again courtesy of The Financial Times. Nigel Knowles, managing partner of DLA, tosses out the unnecessary comment that "Piper Rudnick's reasons [for the deal] may be slightly more defensive, while ours may be slightly more...
A Sensible Merger: Say What?!
So it's official: DLA is merging with Piper Rudnick (which has already, more or less, merged with Gray-Cary). The resulting firm, whose name will not long remain "DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary," will be the second largest globally by revenue, and...