by Bruce | May 18, 2011 | Articles, Business Models, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
Alex Novarese, Editor in Chief of LegalWeek, has a smart column this week called “Rugged Individualism–a year of firm-specific achievement in the US.” Here are the highlights: Average revenue growth of the AmLaw 100 for 2010, as we’ve seen...
by Bruce | May 8, 2011 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Leadership, Partnership Structures
Normally I don’t refer to events stemming from my own experience in commenting on our industry-indeed, this is something of a first in the 8-year history of Adam Smith, Esq.-but what I want to talk about today is not self-referential and not even, really, about...
by Bruce | May 1, 2011 | Articles, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
A loyal and exceptionally thoughtful reader, and reasonably regular correspondent (also with a strong academic background in economics), writes: Bruce: I enjoyed your 9 February think piece. I would be interested in your views as to why law firms seem to be...
by Bruce | April 18, 2011 | About the Site, Articles, Law Schools
Today Adam Smith, Esq. takes great pleasure in announcing the launch of a new company dedicated to rationalizing and bringing a measure of order, efficiency, and transparency to a dysfunctional market at the heart of our industry: JD Match.The Wall Street...
by Bruce | April 4, 2011 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Practice Group Management, Strategy
Recently, I wrote about what I called the Tier 1/Tier 2/Tier 3 challenge for BigLaw. Briefly, the Tiers are: 1: What everyone aspires to. Think Wachtell, Skadden, Cravath, et al. Good luck emulating them, or convincing the market you’re their peers if...
by Bruce | March 27, 2011 | Articles, Globalization, Leadership, Strategy
Toby Brown and Ron Friedmann (both friends) have a thoughtful and well-reasoned point/counter-point going over at “3 Geeks and a Law Blog,” which they invited me to comment upon. It’s called “Bet the Farm” versus “Law...