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Janet on Bloomberg Law re the Non-Equity Tier

by Bruce | November 6, 2025 | About the Site, Branding, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Leadership, Partnership Structures

Recently Janet was invited to participate in a Bloomberg Law podcast on the topic of Ropes & Gray remaining a single-tier partnership despite the industry’s overwhelming movement towards the two-tier (equity and non-equity) partnership model.  Her fellow...

The Diabolical Collective Action Problem

by Bruce | November 4, 2025 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy

Back in March we first wrote about the theretofore-inconceivable systematic attack on BigLaw by our current Administration in Washington, DC.  The “program of revenge,” as we described it, calculatedly targeted law firms representing clients and interests...

Bloomberg Law Interview on the Non-Equity Tier

by Bruce | February 26, 2025 | About the Site, Business Models, Cultural Considerations, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy

With yours truly live on camera. Thanks to our “BLaw” friends for making this possible. Feel free to...

Single Tier is Dead: Long Live Single Tier

by Bruce | October 15, 2024 | Articles, Business Models, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management

Comes word that Cleary Gottlieb is abandoning its increasingly rarefied “single tier” status and will begin naming Non Equity Partners “with  immediate effect.”  The intrepid Roy Strom of Bloomberg Law has the story: Cleary recognizes the “innovation and adaptation”...

The Myth of the “Equity” Partner

by Bruce | August 27, 2024 | Articles, Business Models, Cultural Considerations, Partnership Structures

This column is by Janet Stanton, Partner, Adam Smith, Esq. Let’s get something straight from the get-go: “Equity” as it is known in Law Land is a chimera.  Unlike in the other 98% of the economy, equity in Law Land is an illusion.  It has no intrinsic or market value...

If Supply Grows Faster Than Demand,…

by Bruce | May 8, 2024 | Articles, Business Models, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy

Sometimes it’s the quiet, seemingly unremarkable, things that  ultimately rear up and bite you.   Here may, or may not, be one. Let’s start with this chart from Thomson Reuters redoubtable annual Report on the State of the US Legal Market (here, the 2024 edition...
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