by Bruce | July 24, 2017 | Articles, Business Models, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy
This article is by Janet Stanton, Partner, Adam Smith, Esq.: “Non-lawyers.” This is the prevailing term for business professionals employed at law firms. Really? Let’s just start with the fact that it’s insulting to be defined by what you are not. (Thought experiment:...
by Bruce | July 10, 2017 | Articles, Business Models, Partnership Structures, Question of the Month, Strategy
Over the past few decades, every other sizable sector of the professional services industry has switched wholesale from being organized as partnerships to being organized as corporations. This includes: Management consultants, such as McKinsey, BCG, and Bain;...
by Bruce | June 29, 2017 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
Coming to the fore more prominently these days across a large portion of firms we work with and the industry overall is the issue of succession planning. It comes up in one or both of two contexts, (a) transitioning key client relationships from incumbent partners to...
by Bruce | March 28, 2017 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures
One of the things we do a lot of here—and seemingly more of in the past 24 months or so—is helping firms sort out, reform, amend, optimize, throw-away-and-start-fresh, their partnership compensation systems. And in every engagement of that sort, we try to keep two...
by Bruce | March 17, 2017 | Articles, Business Models, Compensation, Finance, Partnership Structures
This is a guest column by a very good friend of Adam Smith, Esq., Richard Rapp, who was President and CEO of NERA Economic Consulting for 18 years (1988-2005), during which time the firm grew to global scale. Richard now co-heads Veltro Advisors, a law firm...
by Bruce | August 30, 2016 | Articles, Compensation, Finance, Leadership, M&A, Partnership Structures, Strategy
As we enter strategy, planning, and retreat season in advance of 2017, a quick recap of some of the ways we help our clients that they consistently find most valuable. Strategy In today’s unforgiving marketplace, growing evidence points to the reality that firms...
