by Bruce | July 12, 2015 | Articles, Leadership, Strategy, Technology strategy
Last week here in New York we had the opportunity to invite a couple of dozen law firms to “An Introduction to IBM Watson” at the brand new $1-billion IBM Watson facility down on Astor Place. This is not going to be a report on that event, except insofar...
by Bruce | June 30, 2015 | Articles, Client Relationships, Cultural Considerations, Leadership, Practice Group Management
Two weeks ago we invited you to take a survey (three to five minutes of your time, tops) to try to get to the bottom of whether law firms are really "collegial and collaborative," as they are perennially asserting. If you missed your chance the first time...
by Bruce | June 22, 2015 | Articles, Business Models, Leadership, Strategy
Jimmy Lee, 62, died last week of a heart attack after working out, at his home in Darien. If that name doesn’t ring a bell, he was a vice chairman of JPMorgan Chase, where he had spent his entire 40-year career. He started right out of Williams College at...
by Bruce | June 10, 2015 | Articles, Finance, Leadership, M&A, Strategy
The industry standard in tracking law firm mergers, Altman Weil’s Mergerline, has had this to say about activity in the wake of the Global Financial Reset (emphasis mine): 2011: “There were 60 law firm mergers and acquisitions announced in the United...
by Bruce | May 4, 2015 | Articles, Leadership, Strategy
A slightly briefer version of this column appeared in Bloomberg Law’s Business of Law. I republish it here with their kind permission, and with a small amount of additional elaboration. Fact: For the first time, Latham & Watkins took the top spot for...
by Bruce | April 14, 2015 | Articles, Business Models, Finance, Leadership, Strategy
Do you ever actually look hard at your firm’s overall business structure? No, really. Let’s go a step further. Stipulating arguendo that you are one of the rare few who do every once in awhile take a hard look, what do you then actually do about it? I...