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...
by Bruce | June 6, 2024 | Articles, Branding, Business Models, Client Relationships, Finance, Leadership, Marketing, Strategic Client Management
This column is by Janet Stanton, Partner, Adam Smith, Esq. At far too many law firms, client or matter intake consists of a perfunctory credit and conflicts check, and you’re off to the races. This forfeits the opportunity to intentionally and purposefully manage the...
by Bruce | January 17, 2024 | Articles, Branding, Client Relationships, Cultural Considerations, Marketing, Practice Group Management
The following column is by Janet Stanton, Partner, Adam Smith, Esq. For unfathomable reasons many law firms and lawyers eschew client feedback. The reason we’re baffled by this is that at its most basic, the business of law firms is to serve client’s needs. Let me...
by Bruce | September 17, 2023 | About the Site, Adam Smith Himself, Articles, Branding, Ineffable, Just Plain Interesting
Over this past summer, a client, who has become a friend, asked us what the “back story” is behind the name of our firm. (Presumably he found the name ingenious or bizarre or some combination thereof.) Be that as it may, after we explained the origin he said he...
by Bruce | July 16, 2023 | Articles, Branding, Business Models, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategic Client Management, Strategy
It has been four years since we initially published our series laying out a law firm market segmentation model we called the “Maroons & The Grays,”[1] and four years on is none too soon for an update. No model is, or should be, static, and as we have worked with...
by Bruce | June 20, 2023 | Articles, Branding, Business Models, Client Relationships, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Recruiting, Strategic Client Management, Strategy
Something that feels structurally different seems to have developed in the lateral market. The ambition of this essay is to describe what we think it is, why it has developed, and what it portends for the future of BigLaw. Plus, with any luck, some ideas or at least...