by Bruce | February 28, 2007 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy
If your firm is in a comfort zone where doing things 5% or 10% or even 15% better next year will suffice, stop reading because I’m going to be talking about transformation. Transformations may be confused with "managing change," but I’d...
by Bruce | February 16, 2007 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy
"I’ve become accustomed in the last six years to facing the presumption that a profession cannot be a business in its true sense. It is quite a common assertion, made equally by a number from within our own profession. It is underpinned by the belief that...
by Bruce | February 14, 2007 | Articles, Finance, Globalization, Innovative Managing Partners, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Profiles of Individuals, Strategy
Last month I had a chance to sit down with Pete Kalis, Chairman and Global Managing Partner of K&L Gates, for nearly two hours—and don’t think for a moment that we even scratched the surface of all we wanted to discuss. The pretext for our meeting was...
by Bruce | February 9, 2007 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
Time to play "Name That Firm:" Here are some clues. “They are definitely the firm to watch,” said the managing partner of one leading New York firm recently overtaken by [Firm X] in the profit charts. “Even though they recognize the...
by Bruce | February 7, 2007 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
It has been amply reported that last month New York, and then all major national, firms went to $145,000/year first-year associate salaries, and that the following "Simpson Thacher bump" raised the ante to $160,000/year. Several people have asked me...
by Bruce | February 3, 2007 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Knowledge Management, Leadership, Marketing, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy, Technology strategy
Mark Chandler, a Senior Vice President and the Secretary and General Counsel of Cisco, gave a speech last week in San Diego at the Northwestern School of Law’s 34th Annual Securities Regulation Institute, which has been getting a fair amount of play online, and...