by Bruce | May 31, 2016 | Articles, Book Reviews, Business Models, Strategy
I recently finished reading George Beaton’s and Imme Kaschner’s Remaking Law Firms: Why & How (ABA Press: 2016) (George, who I’ve known for years and count a friend, was kind enough to have the ABA provide me a pre-publication copy) and I’d...
by Bruce | May 28, 2016 | Articles
by Bruce | May 7, 2016 | Articles, Business Models, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, M&A, Partnership Structures, Strategy
Back in New York from a solid week of meetings in London (17 in five days) and a few observations, reflections, musings, and speculations come to the fore. And no, these will pointedly not include whether the US or the UK’s version of being seized by political...
by Bruce | May 5, 2016 | Articles, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
Alex Novarese, editor-in-chief of the UK-based publication Legal Business, some time ago granted us permission to republish a few of his articles as we see fit. The following is one where we most definitely see fit. Those in the audience who are writers know the...
by Bruce | May 3, 2016 | Articles, Finance, Strategy
Compared to what we were once used to, BigLaw’s 2015 financial results can pithily be described as “crummy”—at least as reported in the just-released 2016 AmLaw 100 figures. We won’t go into the reality-TV zone of which particular firms were up and which were down...
by Bruce | April 28, 2016 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Innovative Managing Partners, Knowledge Management, Leadership, Strategy
Having spent last week in London, where every firm worthy of its PR news feed has at least mentioned “agile working,” it’s worth spending a few moments reflecting on what’s behind that shorthand. The phrase clearly embraces the notion of being able to work (well,...
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 | April 7, 2016 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Recruiting, Strategy
On a cross-country flight this week, I read most of Smarter Faster Better, by Charles Duhigg, currently on the NYT’s top 10 hardcover/nonfiction list of best-selling books. It’s fair to characterize the reviews it’s gotten as “mixed,” and...
by Bruce | March 29, 2016 | Articles, Globalization, Leadership, Strategy
Though none of us can sanely claim to know what the future holds (I leave that to the fanatics), it’s abdicating your responsibility as a leader not to think about it. How do you go about that? In the most general terms: Creatively, deeply, and with a view to...
by Bruce | March 18, 2016 | Articles, Compensation, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Recruiting, Strategy
When an especially provocative and ingenious piece is published analyzing a noteworthy aspect of the sea BigLaw swims in, one may feel an obligation to one’s readers to weigh in on the conversation. Particularly when the original piece was published under...
