by Bruce | August 14, 2014 | Articles, Business Models, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
A famous former (and now late) leader of the US House of Representatives, the classic Boston pol Tip O’Neill, supposedly remarked that “all politics is local.” To that I would add MacEwen’s corollary, that “all rivalries are...
by Bruce | July 18, 2014 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Strategy
We’re just back from a week in London—coincidentally smack in the middle of the UK firms’ earnings-release season—and for reasons far more profound than that annual roll call of bragging rights, the level of preoccupation with the future in the great City...
by Bruce | June 27, 2014 | Articles, Finance
Today, a column from Janet Stanton, inviting us (with her) to take a fresh view of Law Land with a brain uncorrupted by having lived her entire life in Our World: A challenge to our readers: Just how profitable are law firms? Having spent most of my professional...
by Bruce | June 24, 2014 | Articles, Finance, M&A, Strategy
Law firm merger talk seems more in the air than ever, with deals and rumors of deals abounding and redoubtable resources such as Altman Weil’s MergerLine reporting record levels of activity. We would like to believe we’re relatively impervious to being...
by Bruce | June 13, 2014 | Articles, Branding, Client Relationships, Finance, Leadership, Strategy
I call it the Hollow Middle, but Knowledge@Wharton prefers “Disappearing Middle.” Here’s what, writing in their pages, the CEO of the Cambridge Group, identified as “a growth strategy consulting firm that is part of Nielsen,” has to say...
by Bruce | June 3, 2014 | Articles, Business Models, Finance, Leadership, Strategy
Brief thoughts prompted by the release a few days ago of the AmLaw Second Hundred. These are firms ##101—200 in the AmLaw ranking, and by and large they’re regional shops based in secondary metropolitan areas, or small shops in primary cities, or specialists....