Partnership Structures | Adam Smith, Esq.

But What About the “Black Box” Compensation System?

by Bruce | June 2, 2006 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy

A regular reader (partner at an AmLaw 25 firm and, coincidentally, a fellow Princetonian) writes: "You write about lockstep and eat-what-you-kill, but you don’t say a word about “completely black box” compensation. There are some firms in which...

Thirty Years of Legal Recruiting

by Bruce | June 2, 2006 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, M&A, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management

Early last week I interviewed Eric Sivin, a founder and principal of Sivin Tobin Associates, a legal search and recruiting firm based here in New York. (And yes, that is their ad that has been running in the right-hand column of my site for a couple of months...

But We Just Reviewed Our Lockstep Six Months Ago!?

by Bruce | May 30, 2006 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy

An "evergreen" topic here at "Adam Smith, Esq.," because one despairs to find a durable equilibrium solution for it, is the perennial debate over "eat what you kill" (EWYK) vs. lockstep compensation systems. Each has its place in the...

Can We See the Log In Our Own Eye?

by Bruce | May 28, 2006 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Globalization, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management

Usually we draw lessons from other law firms, or (even more usually) from the massive managerial literature of corporate America, which, as regular readers know, I have always believed offers us a relatively untapped stock of wisdom (and cant, to be sure) on managing...

Would You Rather Be Jewish, or Female?

by Bruce | May 20, 2006 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy

When I began practicing in New York in the early 1980’s there were still vestiges of the "white shoe"/Jewish law firm divide; indeed, Breed, Abbott & Morgan, where I started, and Shea & Gould, where I also worked, were almost caricatures of...

Is Your Firm an “Exemplar,” Or Do You Bill by the Hour Instead?

by Bruce | May 19, 2006 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy

I recently had the chance to interview Chris Marston, founder and CEO of Exemplar Law Partners, LLC, based in Boston, which has been open for business for all of about 90 days. To say that Chris is embarked on an ambitious attempt to rethink the practice of law,...