by Bruce | December 12, 2004 | About the Site, Articles
In case you don’t see Law Technology News regularly, their year-end issue features, at pg. 24 in the "real" issue, my article on "How I Came to (Love) Blogging," thanks to the capable and gentle stewardship of that editorial ball of...
by Bruce | December 11, 2004 | Articles, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Marketing
Half full or half empty? That’s my somewhat non-plussed reaction to the National Law Journal’s release of its annual hourly billing rates update. Of the 110 firms responding to the questionaire, 88 reported increases in partners’...
by Bruce | December 10, 2004 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Strategy
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...
by Bruce | December 9, 2004 | About the Site, Adam Smith Himself, Articles, Just Plain Interesting
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,"...
by Bruce | December 8, 2004 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Practice Group Management, Strategy
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...
by Bruce | December 7, 2004 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, M&A, Strategy
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...
