by Bruce | September 8, 2024 | Articles, Branding, Business Models, Cultural Considerations, Leadership, Strategy
Few brands are more prominent in our daily lives (well, at least if you’re a Western world urban dweller) than Starbucks. Its rise to prominence has become standard-issue corporate lore: From its single Seattle store founding in 1971 to Howard Schultz’s...
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...
by Bruce | February 1, 2024 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy, Technology strategy
When it comes to partner pay, the first thing everyone salaciously wants to know is “how high is up?” And second by a nose is probably “Who’s on top and by how much, especially compared to me?” Please, people, we can do better than this. (You have to admit it sounds...
by Bruce | December 18, 2023 | About the Site, Articles, Business Models, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Recruiting
“Cravath To A Million Squillion!” Sorry, but we’ve seen this dance so many times before that, you have to admit, we all know the script by heart. Cravath (or other blue chip firm [insert here]) bumps up associates’ salaries across the board by an average of...
by Bruce | November 16, 2023 | About the Site, Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, NewLaw, Practice Group Management, Strategy
Irish BIshop George Berkeley (1685–1753) famously asked, “if a tree falls in the forest and no one is present to hear it, would there be a sound?” His notion is neither as cutesy nor as vexed as it might strike you, but a snappy and memorable...
