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 | August 27, 2024 | Articles, Business Models, Cultural Considerations, Partnership Structures
This column is by Janet Stanton, Partner, Adam Smith, Esq. Let’s get something straight from the get-go: “Equity” as it is known in Law Land is a chimera. Unlike in the other 98% of the economy, equity in Law Land is an illusion. It has no intrinsic or market value...
by Bruce | May 8, 2024 | Articles, Business Models, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
Sometimes it’s the quiet, seemingly unremarkable, things that ultimately rear up and bite you. Here may, or may not, be one. Let’s start with this chart from Thomson Reuters redoubtable annual Report on the State of the US Legal Market (here, the 2024 edition...
by Bruce | February 22, 2024 | About the Site, Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Ineffable, Just Plain Interesting, Partnership Structures, Strategy
This is one in our occasional series of excerpts from my yet-to-be-published new book, treating, among other things, the historic roots of our profession tracing back to medieval guilds. I hope you enjoy, and, more importantly, that you provide any feedback,...
by Bruce | February 1, 2024 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy, Technology strategy
When it comes to partner pay, the first thing everyone salaciously wants to know is “how high is up?” And second by a nose is probably “Who’s on top and by how much, especially compared to me?” Please, people, we can do better than this. (You have to admit it sounds...
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...