by Bruce | July 24, 2017 | Articles, Business Models, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy
This article is by Janet Stanton, Partner, Adam Smith, Esq.: “Non-lawyers.” This is the prevailing term for business professionals employed at law firms. Really? Let’s just start with the fact that it’s insulting to be defined by what you are not. (Thought experiment:...
by Bruce | April 14, 2016 | Articles, Client Relationships, Practice Group Management
A bit ago here in New York a dinner was held with the legendary Ben Heineman (GE SVP/GC from 1987 to 2003, Harvard BA and Yale JD [editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal], Rhodes scholar, Potter Stewart clerk) and 50 or so GC’s or senior inhouse counsel from...
by Bruce | March 11, 2016 | Articles, Compensation, Finance, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management
A few years back, as exceptionally studious and faithful readers might conceivably recall, I wrote two pieces on the lateral hiring frenzy, Our Arms’ Race and Our Arms’Race (2), which took an almost across-the-board stand against lateral partner hiring....
by Bruce | December 6, 2015 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Practice Group Management
A week or so ago, I happened across a training manual offering instructions on proper behavior within organizations. Here I take the liberty of quoting extensively from it. I ask one favor of you and one element of forbearance. The favor is to kindly ask yourself as...
by Bruce | October 30, 2015 | Articles, Client Relationships, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy
Altman Weil’s annual Law Firms in Transition survey, the 2015 edition, was just published, and as usual it makes for some fascinating reading—at least for me and I suspect for many of the devotees of Adam Smith, Esq. As you may know, this is the seventh year...
by Bruce | August 19, 2015 | Articles, Business Models, Client Relationships, Finance, Marketing, Practice Group Management
Today I want to discuss what, I imagine, many readers will thing is a hare-brained idea; and then I want to explain why, if you adopted this idea, your own behavior would change such that it might not end up being hare-brained in the least. Both dimensions of this...
