by Bruce | August 1, 2017 | Articles, Finance, Practice Group Management, Question of the Month
Steven Brill’s audacious decision to publish AmLaw profits per partner figures starting over three decades ago was without question the single most brilliant journalistic stroke Law Land trade media has ever experienced, creating an enduring franchise to this day....
by Bruce | July 24, 2017 | Articles, Business Models, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy
This article is by Janet Stanton, Partner, Adam Smith, Esq.: “Non-lawyers.” This is the prevailing term for business professionals employed at law firms. Really? Let’s just start with the fact that it’s insulting to be defined by what you are not. (Thought experiment:...
by Bruce | March 28, 2017 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures
One of the things we do a lot of here—and seemingly more of in the past 24 months or so—is helping firms sort out, reform, amend, optimize, throw-away-and-start-fresh, their partnership compensation systems. And in every engagement of that sort, we try to keep two...
by Bruce | March 17, 2017 | Articles, Business Models, Compensation, Finance, Partnership Structures
This is a guest column by a very good friend of Adam Smith, Esq., Richard Rapp, who was President and CEO of NERA Economic Consulting for 18 years (1988-2005), during which time the firm grew to global scale. Richard now co-heads Veltro Advisors, a law firm...
by Bruce | January 18, 2017 | Articles, Business Models, Finance, Leadership, Strategy
From the foregoing analyses, it is apparent that the financial performance of law firms over the past 10 years has been driven by only one factor: rate increases. As we have seen, demand gowth for law firm services has been essentially flat, productivity has been...
by Bruce | October 28, 2016 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership
As regular readers know is my custom, when I return from a trip to London I typically endeavo(u)r to distill my reactions in a brief report. As my trip this week was especially brief (shy of 72 hours), this report will be too. By way of background, I had 10 meetings...
