by Bruce | August 28, 2009 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management
Pop quiz: Which of these would be worse: Learning that, based on economic performance, lawyers in your practice group (including yourself) would be getting year-end raises smaller than average across the firm; or Feeling that you, individually, are being...
by Bruce | August 24, 2009 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Law Schools, Practice Group Management, Strategy
When on the same day both the WSJ and Corporate Counsel publish feature articles heralding that the time has come for alternatives to the billable hour, it’s time to step back and ask if they might actually be right this time around. (It doesn’t hurt...
by Bruce | August 19, 2009 | Articles, Leadership, Strategy
Trying times call for a dose of perspective, and in “Leadership Lessons for Hard Times” McKinsey tries to provide just that. As they say in the preface, their goal is not to excavate the mistakes that led us to this crisis–quite enough ink has...
by Bruce | August 13, 2009 | Articles, Law Schools, Leadership
We have a dust-up between Fordham Law School, instigated or certainly escalated by its Dean, William Michael Treanor, and Reed Smith, which, a few days ago, canceled on-campus interviews scheduled for this week and next at Fordham. Unfortunately, students who had...
by Bruce | August 13, 2009 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Practice Group Management
Among the phrases, and phenomena, that now seem so hopelessly “last August” is that of the fabled Work-Life Balance. (“So last August” has been a phrase around town for several months now, referring especially to examples of wretched...
by Bruce | August 6, 2009 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Leadership, Strategy
Have you ever asked yourself why management education exists? Presumably, we know why law school exists (even the most curmudgeonly among us would admit the first year, and perhaps a fair portion of the second year, are an experience unlike any other, which, if...