by Bruce | December 16, 2015 | Articles, Business Models, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
It has become a commonplace—I have bowed to convention and endorsed the notion myself—to observe that law firms are labor-, not capital-, intensive, and that (here’s the dangerous and subtle segue) therefore there would be no benefit to them in taking on outside...
by Bruce | October 30, 2015 | Articles, Client Relationships, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy
Altman Weil’s annual Law Firms in Transition survey, the 2015 edition, was just published, and as usual it makes for some fascinating reading—at least for me and I suspect for many of the devotees of Adam Smith, Esq. As you may know, this is the seventh year...
by Bruce | October 7, 2015 | Articles, Client Relationships, Compensation, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
We recently returned from London on business, and this will be the first of a few installments presenting our thoughts given the benefit of 17 meetings in five business days. As you know, we work globally with firms of all sizes in a wide variety of markets with every...
by Bruce | August 26, 2015 | Articles, Finance, Partnership Structures, Recruiting
The AmLaw rankings have been with us for over thirty years, and despite the evergreen complaints about their design, purpose, impact, and reliability, to our knowledge no one has ever tried to systematically ask AmLaw firms themselves whether and to what extent they...
by Bruce | July 30, 2015 | Articles, Business Models, Finance, Partnership Structures, Strategy
You may have heard about the Business Leadership Summit being organized by The Lawyer, taking place in London September 22—23. (More information here; registration here.) The theme is “embracing change in the delivery of legal services,” and here are are a...
by Bruce | November 25, 2014 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
Circling in the wings around almost any discussion of management and leadership issues in law firms, sometimes touted as a virtue above all others and sometimes only alluded to with caution, as one would might a wraith, is the issue of a firm’s...
