by Bruce | August 6, 2007 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Strategy
"Is this any way to recruit associates?" asks a lead story in this month’s American Lawyer. What is "this way?" We all know the drill, most of us from both sides of the table: Top law schools orchestrate dances of...
by Bruce | August 1, 2007 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Practice Group Management, Strategy
Strategic planning is hard to argue with. Unless your practices and your operations are absolutely positively optimal across the board (in which case you need to divulge to me the source of your pixie dust), strategic planning is the generally accepted tool for...
by Bruce | July 27, 2007 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Innovative Managing Partners, Leadership, Strategy
I’m pleased to announce that I’m now the US director of the Strategy Panel of the UK-based Managing Partners’ Forum. My co-directors are Andrew Hedley of Hedley Consulting (London) and Rob Millard of Edge International (Bahamas). What...
by Bruce | July 20, 2007 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy, Technology strategy
We conclude our three-part history of Allen & Overy with the years 1998—2007, the decade surrounding the turn of our current century. These years are, for my money, primarily the story of A&O’s investments in internationalization bearing...
by Bruce | July 18, 2007 | Articles, Finance, Globalization, Just Plain Interesting, Partnership Structures, Strategy, Technology strategy
My friend Professor William Henderson at Indiana University School of Law—Bloomington just sent word of a new initiative the law school is launching in conjunction with the American Bar Foundation. Called the "Law Firms Working Group," the...
by Bruce | July 17, 2007 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
When we left Allen & Overy in June 1971, Jim Thomson had just died. "He, more than any one other single individual, represented Allen & Overy; in the minds of many people in the City, clients and competitors alike, Jim Thomson was Allen &...