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Single Tier is Dead: Long Live Single Tier

by Bruce | October 15, 2024 | Articles, Business Models, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management

Comes word that Cleary Gottlieb is abandoning its increasingly rarefied “single tier” status and will begin naming Non Equity Partners “with  immediate effect.”  The intrepid Roy Strom of Bloomberg Law has the story: Cleary recognizes the “innovation and adaptation”...

The Billable Hour and [vs.?] Pricing AI-Driven Legal Services

by Bruce | September 17, 2024 | Articles, Business Models, Finance, Strategy, Technology strategy

A few weeks ago, we raised the topic with our friends at Thomson Reuters Legal Practice Management about what the consequences of a widespread deployment of Generative AI might portend for–you guessed it–the business of law firms, and in short order the...

The Fable of Starbucks

by Bruce | September 8, 2024 | Articles, Branding, Business Models, Cultural Considerations, Leadership, Strategy

Few brands are more prominent in our daily lives (well, at least if you’re a Western world urban dweller) than Starbucks.  Its rise to prominence has become standard-issue corporate lore: From its single Seattle store founding in 1971 to Howard Schultz’s...

The Myth of the “Equity” Partner

by Bruce | August 27, 2024 | Articles, Business Models, Cultural Considerations, Partnership Structures

This column is by Janet Stanton, Partner, Adam Smith, Esq. Let’s get something straight from the get-go: “Equity” as it is known in Law Land is a chimera.  Unlike in the other 98% of the economy, equity in Law Land is an illusion.  It has no intrinsic or market value...

Can Something Be Irresistible and Irrational at the Same Time?

by Bruce | August 13, 2024 | Articles, Finance

As we are all fellow members of the human race, I suspect you would join me in admitting that, yes, certain decisions and behaviors are indeed compelling (irresistible) and irrational (self-defeating from the perspective of the longer view).  We may not, indeed should...
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