by Bruce | September 8, 2024 | Articles, Branding, Business Models, Cultural Considerations, Leadership, Strategy
Few brands are more prominent in our daily lives (well, at least if you’re a Western world urban dweller) than Starbucks. Its rise to prominence has become standard-issue corporate lore: From its single Seattle store founding in 1971 to Howard Schultz’s...
by Bruce | August 27, 2024 | Articles, Business Models, Cultural Considerations, Partnership Structures
This column is by Janet Stanton, Partner, Adam Smith, Esq. Let’s get something straight from the get-go: “Equity” as it is known in Law Land is a chimera. Unlike in the other 98% of the economy, equity in Law Land is an illusion. It has no intrinsic or market value...
by Bruce | August 13, 2024 | Articles, Finance
As we are all fellow members of the human race, I suspect you would join me in admitting that, yes, certain decisions and behaviors are indeed compelling (irresistible) and irrational (self-defeating from the perspective of the longer view). We may not, indeed should...
by Bruce | July 29, 2024 | About the Site, Articles, Book Reviews, Just Plain Interesting
In keeping with our tradition at Adam Smith, Esq. of publishing a summertime diversion in the form of a selective list of what we’ve been reading lately, herewith the 2024 installment. Two novels one collection of short stories, and two nonfiction volumes–one...
by Bruce | July 17, 2024 | Adam Smith Himself, Articles, Ineffable, Just Plain Interesting
Adam Smith died today, July 17, in 1790, in Edinburgh. He was 67. His gravesite is in Canongate Kirkyard on the “Royal Mile,” Edinburgh’s most famous street by far, which runs from from Edinburgh Castle. the highest point in town, down to ...
by Bruce | July 4, 2024 | Articles, Ineffable
by Bruce | June 6, 2024 | Articles, Branding, Business Models, Client Relationships, Finance, Leadership, Marketing, Strategic Client Management
This column is by Janet Stanton, Partner, Adam Smith, Esq. At far too many law firms, client or matter intake consists of a perfunctory credit and conflicts check, and you’re off to the races. This forfeits the opportunity to intentionally and purposefully manage the...
by Bruce | June 5, 2024 | Articles
Today he would be 301; born Kirkcaldy, Scotland, June 5, 1723. user:kilnburn Wikimedia Commons
by Bruce | May 27, 2024 | About the Site, Articles, Ineffable
by Bruce | May 8, 2024 | Articles, Business Models, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
Sometimes it’s the quiet, seemingly unremarkable, things that ultimately rear up and bite you. Here may, or may not, be one. Let’s start with this chart from Thomson Reuters redoubtable annual Report on the State of the US Legal Market (here, the 2024 edition...