by Bruce | May 24, 2021 | Articles, Business Models, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Strategy
For the armchair economists in the crowd, the geopolitically curious, or faithful leaders of law firms wondering whether they should plant a, or more, flags abroad, how would you instinctively answer that question? Does the US sell more legal services abroad than it...
by Bruce | May 6, 2021 | Articles, Build Back Better, Business Models, Finance, Leadership, Strategy
Every year around this time—earnings season for law firms—we’re fond of saying, “Averages mislead.” When the trade media report that, overall the entire industry had a great year, or the AmLaw 50/100/200 had a great year, or regional middle market players (fill in the...
by Bruce | March 29, 2021 | Articles, Build Back Better, Business Models, Finance, Leadership, Strategy, Technology strategy
Universally, everyone is hearing that firms plan to make significant cuts in real estate spend starting, well, starting as soon as the next office lease comes up for renewal. How “substantial” might those cuts be? You would think a massive and sophisticated industry...
by Bruce | March 7, 2021 | Articles, Business Models, Cultural Considerations, Ineffable, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
THERE was never any thing by the wit of man so well devised, or so surely established, which (in continuance of time) hath not been corrupted: as (emong other thinges) it may plainly appere by the common prayers in the Churche, commonlye called divine service. —The...
by Bruce | February 1, 2021 | Articles, Build Back Better, Business Models, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Innovative Managing Partners, Leadership, M&A, Strategy
When we ended Part 2 of this series, we had discussed the data showing (1) that the conventional wisdom about the AmLaw firms growing relentlessly to the sky was, uh, Fake News (h/t to Jae Um), (2) that the real picture is one of increasing segmentation among law...