by Bruce | July 10, 2011 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Recruiting, Strategy
In “Idea or Product?” I wrote about the difference between organizations that basically view themselves as creating products vs. organizations that see themselves as loyal to an idea. I’m happy to report that the piece generated more than its share...
by Bruce | June 22, 2011 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Partnership Structures, Strategy
A few days ago The New York Times published an op-ed by Mark Everson, who was commissioner of the IRS from 2003–2007. His thrust was that lawyers and accountants had stopped being watchdogs against business misconduct and instead have become enablers...
by Bruce | May 18, 2011 | Articles, Business Models, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
Alex Novarese, Editor in Chief of LegalWeek, has a smart column this week called “Rugged Individualism–a year of firm-specific achievement in the US.” Here are the highlights: Average revenue growth of the AmLaw 100 for 2010, as we’ve seen...
by Bruce | May 8, 2011 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Leadership, Partnership Structures
Normally I don’t refer to events stemming from my own experience in commenting on our industry-indeed, this is something of a first in the 8-year history of Adam Smith, Esq.-but what I want to talk about today is not self-referential and not even, really, about...
by Bruce | May 1, 2011 | Articles, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
A loyal and exceptionally thoughtful reader, and reasonably regular correspondent (also with a strong academic background in economics), writes: Bruce: I enjoyed your 9 February think piece. I would be interested in your views as to why law firms seem to be...
by Bruce | February 18, 2011 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy
A-ha! That, at least, was my reaction when reading the research report published this week in The Lawyer. Here are the top-line results, and then I’ll give you my reaction: The Lawyer hired a research firm called Motive to analyze lateral...
