by Bruce | September 24, 2007 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, M&A, Marketing, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy
The annual "Adam Smith, Esq." Reader Survey is actively in progress, and I sincerely urge those of you who haven’t taken the two to three minutes it takes to complete it to do so right now. The point of the survey? Two-fold: I want to...
by Bruce | September 22, 2007 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization
Yesterday I was privileged to be able to speak to students at Harvard Law School in a talk I titled "Law Firm Finances (and Other Realities): Explained." My invitation came from the office of career services, and I accepted with gratitude and...
by Bruce | August 22, 2007 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Innovative Managing Partners, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Profiles of Individuals
A few days ago after reading about Working Mother magazine’s recognition of programs in diversity and work/life balance, I had a chance to catch up with the Managing Partner of Dorsey & Whitney, Marianne Short. Now, the list of "Best Law Firms for...
by Bruce | August 17, 2007 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Innovative Managing Partners, Leadership, M&A, Partnership Structures, Strategy
I’ve written previously about "The World’s First Publicly Traded Law Firm"—Slater & Gordon of Australia—and also about "Seven Perspectives on Law Firms’ Going Public". For those in the audience who are...
by Bruce | August 6, 2007 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Strategy
"Is this any way to recruit associates?" asks a lead story in this month’s American Lawyer. What is "this way?" We all know the drill, most of us from both sides of the table: Top law schools orchestrate dances of...
by Bruce | August 1, 2007 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Practice Group Management, Strategy
Strategic planning is hard to argue with. Unless your practices and your operations are absolutely positively optimal across the board (in which case you need to divulge to me the source of your pixie dust), strategic planning is the generally accepted tool for...