by Bruce | February 20, 2006 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, M&A, Marketing, Strategy, Technology strategy
What will the structure of the global legal marketplace look like in, say, 2015? Before you exclaim either, "Who on earth knows?" or "What a silly thing to speculate about!," permit me to draw your attention to the duel, or at least face-off,...
by Bruce | February 13, 2006 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, M&A, Partnership Structures, Strategy, Technology strategy
When you see—or when I see, at any rate—sustained outperformance by a firm over a five-year span, I cannot help but ask myself: "How did they do that?" What follows has a dusting of speculation at the end, but I think it’s a path worth...
by Bruce | February 2, 2006 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, M&A, Marketing, Strategy
Global Expansion Junkies: I have bad news. Far too many law firms seem to enjoy expanding for its own sake, in an intellectual vacuum devoid of strategic analysis or rigorous consideration of the implications of growth in both headcount and geographic...
by Bruce | January 27, 2006 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, M&A, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy
Questions for your managing partner, executive committee, and executive director: Is your firm as profitable as it could be? How does it measure up vis-a-vis its peer group? And what defines that "peer group," precisely? Do you...
by Bruce | January 14, 2006 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, M&A, Partnership Structures, Strategy
Regular readers will know that I’m a firm subscriber to the Law of Unintended Consequences, which is also why I try to exercise consistency in analyzing "dynamic" and not just "static" effects of a proposal. Clarification: The...
by Bruce | January 12, 2006 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, M&A, Partnership Structures, Strategy
End of an era? Peter Cornell’s decision not to stand for re-election as global head of Clifford Chance certainly feels that way, although as we’ve argued before, his timing is impeccable. Now comes an interview with The Lawyer in which Cornell...