by Bruce | February 7, 2006 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Strategy
Over in the UK, they’re one step closer to the inevitable: Whole or partial public ownership of a law firm. (An investment bank is talking with "some of the largest firms" about IPO-ing them.) Regular readers know that I’ve been...
by Bruce | February 2, 2006 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, M&A, Marketing, Strategy
Global Expansion Junkies: I have bad news. Far too many law firms seem to enjoy expanding for its own sake, in an intellectual vacuum devoid of strategic analysis or rigorous consideration of the implications of growth in both headcount and geographic...
by Bruce | January 30, 2006 | Articles, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Practice Group Management, Strategy
If that call came in to your firm tomorrow morning, where would it go? If the answer is, "anyone’s guess," and if you consider your firm "a player," you have some work to do. Consider that at last week’s Davos meeting of the "World...
by Bruce | January 27, 2006 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy
David Maister confesses: "I have spent twenty years trying to say all professions look similar and can learn from each other, but I’m finally prepared to concede that lawyers are different – and it has nothing to do with economics." In a piece...
by Bruce | January 27, 2006 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, M&A, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy
Questions for your managing partner, executive committee, and executive director: Is your firm as profitable as it could be? How does it measure up vis-a-vis its peer group? And what defines that "peer group," precisely? Do you...
by Bruce | January 23, 2006 | Articles, Finance, Knowledge Management, Practice Group Management, Strategy, Technology strategy
Have no fear that "Adam Smith, Esq." is going to morph into a boot-licking, reverential conduit for re-distributing the year-end natterings of those ink-stained scribes from the MSM and the high-profile consultancies hoping to goose their annual bonus by...