by Bruce | September 16, 2012 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
Our third installment in this series addresses partner expectations. Here’s the problem: There’s about to be a collision with reality. Let’s start with some data. In the quarter century since the The American Lawyer first published the AmLaw 100,...
by Bruce | September 10, 2012 | Articles, Business Models, Finance, Leadership, Strategy
Welcome to the second installment of “Growth is Dead:” Our topic for today is excess capacity. Let’s start with overall supply of new lawyers, which is the font of everything else. Thanks to the redoubtable Prof. Paul Campos (University of Colorado...
by Bruce | September 4, 2012 | Articles, Finance, Leadership, Strategy
If you believe the structural environment for BigLaw hasn’t fundamentally changed since 2008, the series I’m inaugurating today is not for you. (I would also have to ask, from a mystified perspective and in the kindest of ways, if you’re paying...
by Bruce | August 24, 2012 | Articles, Innovative Managing Partners, Leadership, Recruiting
Here’s a first for Adam Smith, Esq.: I’m issuing a challenge to US law firms, and to others throughout the English-speaking legal world. The challenge is to create and sustain, on our side of the pond and elsewhere, an initiative to rival what leading UK...
by Bruce | August 21, 2012 | Articles, Business Models, Leadership, Strategy
What does “The Cheesecake Factory” restaurant chain have to teach hospitals? According to Atul Gawande, writing in the current New Yorker, quite a lot. If you’re not familiar with Cheesecake Factory (I am only by reputation; I’ve never set foot...
by Bruce | August 9, 2012 | Articles, Business Models, Finance, Innovative Managing Partners, Leadership, Strategy
LegalWeek has released their annual “UK Top 50” ranking and it paints a rosy picture of strong revenue and profit growth in the teeth of global economic headwinds. Specifically: Total revenue of the Top 50 hit £12.96-billion (US$20.25-billion) This was a...