by Bruce | April 29, 2006 | Articles, Compensation, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Practice Group Management, Strategy
Here at "Adam Smith, Esq.," the release of the annual AmLaw 100 feels a bit like Super Bowl weekend; there are lots of stories to report. Fortunately, here in virtual space, we have unlimited newsprint and ink. Here are a few more ways to slice the...
by Bruce | April 26, 2006 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Marketing, Practice Group Management
One of the topics most regularly (should I say, "compulsively?") bruited about, with far and away the least actual impact on anything to show for it, is "alternative billing," also known as anything but the billable hour. I have my own theories as...
by Bruce | April 24, 2006 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Practice Group Management, Strategy
Here’s a success story by any measure: "It’s a profitable formula: [Company X’s] 387% return to shareholders over the past five years handily beats almost all other companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index, including New...
by Bruce | April 21, 2006 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management
"An associate at a major, national firm" wrote recently with this lament: "Lately, I really have been plagued by how law firms are managed: I see the inefficiencies and how employees are treated (both at my firm and at other firms), and I...
by Bruce | April 18, 2006 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Knowledge Management, Leadership, Practice Group Management, Strategy, Technology strategy
I’ve written before about the economic implications of living in a "tacit" industry (as opposed to a "transactional" or a "transformational" one—McKinsey’s coinage), but there’s more to say. A brief review of the...
by Bruce | April 13, 2006 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy
The Irish Bishop George Berkeley (1561—1626) famously asked, " “If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound?” As a metaphysical question having to do with fundamental questions of epistemology, it remains...
