by Bruce | March 21, 2008 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Practice Group Management, Strategy
No question is posed to me more frequently these days than, "What does this economic environment mean for law firms?" To which the only sensible answer is, "It’s way too soon to predict anything for sure, but each firm’s own situation is...
by Bruce | March 15, 2008 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, M&A, Strategy
Just back from an abbreviated week in London (essentially Tuesday through Thursday). Herewith a report. I met with the managing partners of a good half-dozen firms, fairly representative of the marketplace, and unsurprisingly the top question on most minds is...
by Bruce | March 8, 2008 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management
A major article appears in this month’s American Lawyer, penned by Ben Heineman, most famously ex-GC of GE, and David Wilkins, Harvard Law professor. Both are now deeply involved in HLS’s Program on the Legal Profession, whose stated mission is "to...
by Bruce | February 22, 2008 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Practice Group Management
Tuesday I attended one of the regular lunch-time meetings of the ABA’s "Back to Business Law" project which describes itself as "a pilot project sponsored by the ABA Section of Business Law, [to] provide periodic continuing legal education...
by Bruce | February 12, 2008 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Leadership, M&A, Practice Group Management, Strategy
By now it’s been amply reported that 55 of Anderson Kill’s 126 lawyers are leaving for Reed Smith, effective February 1. In classically hyper-ventilating fashion, the Brits (Legal Week) reported that Reed Smith "has swooped, …taking...
by Bruce | February 8, 2008 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
"’The issue isn’t ‘integration,’ ‘ [Barton Winokur of Dechert] says. ‘I think that’s a garbage word people use." He’s talking about integration of laterals, a key issue on which The American Lawyer has just...