by Bruce | January 3, 2006 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
Improve on your weaknesses or build on your strengths: Which one would you focus on to achieve greater success? If, like 59% of people surveyed by Marcus Buckingham, co-author of First, Break All the Rules, you chose "work on your weaknesses,"...
by Bruce | December 23, 2005 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
I have posited before that the traditional one-size-fits-all associate-to-partner model is coming under increasing stress. Evidently Allen & Overy agrees. After suffering 25% attrition in its associate ranks last year, they have announced after a lengthy...
by Bruce | December 20, 2005 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
Normally, the issue in succession planning—when a firm even goes through such planning in a sober and serious-minded fashion—is who among the next generation is best prepared and equipped, through both experience and innate constitution, to take over the...
by Bruce | December 13, 2005 | Articles, Compensation, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
According to The Recorder, "Law firm leaders throughout California identify increasing leverage as a key strategy in their business model." We are here to ask the time-honored question, "What can they be thinking?" Let’s back up. ...
by Bruce | December 8, 2005 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
Of all the "evergreen" topics we keep coming back to here at "Adam Smith, Esq." one of the ever-greenest (no pun…) is the eternal disequilibrium between lockstep and eat-what-you-kill partner compensation models. Most recently, I...
by Bruce | December 6, 2005 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
No sooner had we surveyed the prospects for a talent war for associates among the AmLaw 200 than along comes the Financial Times reporting on the release in the UK of PwC’s annual survey of law firm finances. (I’ve requested a full copy by email to...
