by Bruce | December 9, 2024 | Articles, Business Models, Finance, Globalization, M&A, Strategy
‘We want to use this combination to forge a new global elite,’ Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) CEO Justin D’Agostino tells Legal Business as he discusses the firm’s ambitious merger plans with New York’s Kramer Levin. So opens LegalBusiness’ main article[1] late last...
by Bruce | October 15, 2024 | Articles, Business Models, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management
Comes word that Cleary Gottlieb is abandoning its increasingly rarefied “single tier” status and will begin naming Non Equity Partners “with immediate effect.” The intrepid Roy Strom of Bloomberg Law has the story: Cleary recognizes the “innovation and adaptation”...
by Bruce | September 17, 2024 | Articles, Business Models, Finance, Strategy, Technology strategy
A few weeks ago, we raised the topic with our friends at Thomson Reuters Legal Practice Management about what the consequences of a widespread deployment of Generative AI might portend for–you guessed it–the business of law firms, and in short order the...
by Bruce | August 13, 2024 | Articles, Finance
As we are all fellow members of the human race, I suspect you would join me in admitting that, yes, certain decisions and behaviors are indeed compelling (irresistible) and irrational (self-defeating from the perspective of the longer view). We may not, indeed should...
by Bruce | June 6, 2024 | Articles, Branding, Business Models, Client Relationships, Finance, Leadership, Marketing, Strategic Client Management
This column is by Janet Stanton, Partner, Adam Smith, Esq. At far too many law firms, client or matter intake consists of a perfunctory credit and conflicts check, and you’re off to the races. This forfeits the opportunity to intentionally and purposefully manage the...
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...