by Bruce | January 27, 2011 | Articles, Business Models, Finance, Innovative Managing Partners, Partnership Structures, Strategy
A few days ago I had a chance to catch up with my friend Alex Hamilton, now at radiant.law. (I knew Alex in his previous position as a Latham partner and wrote about his efforts behind Latham’s online “Capture” tool for clients.) I...
by Bruce | October 22, 2010 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Innovative Managing Partners, Leadership, Strategy
I had occasion recently to reflect on the situation facing a fair number of firms who have managing partners (or chairs, or CEO’s, whatever their titles) who have held the post for a relatively long time and where there is, to the outward eye at least, no heir...
by Bruce | September 6, 2010 | Articles, Compensation, Finance, Innovative Managing Partners, Leadership, Strategy
A couple of weeks ago the always perspicacious and often contrarian Alex Novarese of LegalWeek used the occasion of his regular column to opine “Not so demanding–clients aren’t pushing the legal industry forward.” This was swiftly followed by...
by Bruce | November 17, 2009 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Innovative Managing Partners, Leadership, Practice Group Management, Strategy
What’s going on at Reed Smith? Less than a week ago, they announced a roughly 20% cut in first-year associate salaries and hourly billing rates for the 50-odd lawyers joining the firm in January 2010. Here’s what they had to say about it (emphasis...
by Bruce | October 9, 2009 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Innovative Managing Partners, Leadership, M&A, Strategy
Hogan & Hartson/Lovells? As amply reported (Legal Week, The National Law Journal, The Lawyer), the firms are in merger talks and, since no one is remotely denying the reports, we can only assume it’s all quite for real. We’ll get to what we think it...
by Bruce | July 25, 2009 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Globalization, Innovative Managing Partners, Leadership, Strategy
By now the news is well and long since out (WSJ Law Blog, AboveTheLaw) that Howrey has decided to fundamentally change the nature of the first and second year associate experience, by focusing on training and an apprenticenship model in exchange for a substantial cut...
