by Bruce | September 27, 2005 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Marketing, Partnership Structures, Strategy
Actually, this post is less about hockey players and associates than it is about how the top firms are all able to mysteriously agree on the "going rate" ($125,000 for first year’s) without colluding, and on the dynamics behind the scenes when that...
by Bruce | September 25, 2005 | Articles, Globalization, Leadership, Marketing, Strategy
Our text this morning is the two-part cover story of this weekend’s Barron’s, on the creation, rise, and dominance of Lexus in the luxury auto market. And I select it not because Lexus ownership surely over-indexes among readers of "Adam Smith,...
by Bruce | September 22, 2005 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
A radical repudiation of a time-tested model or a long overdue dose of sanity? One imagines those are the reactions to Allen & Overy’s revealing that it’s considering a third career path for associates, neither "up" nor "out," but...
by Bruce | September 17, 2005 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
The Lawyer (UK) is one of those publications you ignore to your impoverishment: Somewhat like the role the Financial Times has vis-a-vis The Wall Street Journal, or The Economist vis-a-vis Business Week, The Lawyer provides a refreshing, candid, often cheeky,...
by Bruce | September 15, 2005 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Knowledge Management, Strategy, Technology strategy
Over at Exari, it’s a different Adam Smith. OK, I couldn’t resist, but this gives me an opportunity to briefly flag the importance of automating routine tasks which corporate counsel will increasingly resist paying for. Document assembly,...
by Bruce | September 13, 2005 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Strategy
With all the attention we pay to strategy, globalization, M&A and consolidation, practice group and knowledge management, and other issues in firm management on the more or less empyrean plane, it’s time for a word about associates. For starters, associates...