by Bruce | July 16, 2023 | Articles, Branding, Business Models, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategic Client Management, Strategy
It has been four years since we initially published our series laying out a law firm market segmentation model we called the “Maroons & The Grays,”[1] and four years on is none too soon for an update. No model is, or should be, static, and as we have worked with...
by Bruce | July 3, 2023 | Articles, Ineffable, Just Plain Interesting
America! America! God mend thine every flaw, confirm they soul in self-control, thy liberty in law. O Beautiful for Spacious Skies, Materna, composed by Katharine Lee Bates, 1893 (second verse, third and fourth stanzas)
by Bruce | June 20, 2023 | Articles, Branding, Business Models, Client Relationships, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Recruiting, Strategic Client Management, Strategy
Something that feels structurally different seems to have developed in the lateral market. The ambition of this essay is to describe what we think it is, why it has developed, and what it portends for the future of BigLaw. Plus, with any luck, some ideas or at least...
by Bruce | June 5, 2023 | About the Site, Adam Smith Himself, Articles, Just Plain Interesting
June 5, 1723. What would he have to say to us today?
by Bruce | May 23, 2023 | Articles, Business Models, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Practice Group Management, Recruiting, Strategic Client Management, Strategy
The first truly evil character to appear in Scripture is of course the Snake in the Garden of Good and Evil. Not a nice guy, not someone you’d want to emulate, not a role model: The Snake of all Snakes at the coulda-been Eternal Garden Party, harbinger of bad...
by Bruce | April 25, 2023 | Articles, Client Relationships, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Ineffable, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Recruiting, Strategic Client Management, Strategy
Ever since “RTO” became a real possibility, I have been firmly and decisively on the fence about the best policy for firms to follow. A free-for-all come and go (or don’t come) as you wish? Sure, why not? We’re all adults here, right? Now my...
by Bruce | April 13, 2023 | Articles, Business Models, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Just Plain Interesting, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy, Technology strategy
Jamie Dimon’s annual letter to shareholders, which comes out as part of the JP Morgan Chase annual report, was published about two weeks ago. At 42 pages, it takes more than a passing skim-over to digest, but. It is almost universally read among business leaders, and...
by Bruce | March 20, 2023 | Articles, Compensation, Globalization, Leadership, Strategy
Capitalism without failure is like religion without hell. –Charlie Munger of Berkshire Hathaway and to our readership famously of Munger Tolles as well (noted in The Wall Street Journal.) By the time you read this, all of these visuals will be...
by Bruce | March 8, 2023 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Leadership, Practice Group Management, Recruiting, Strategic Client Management, Strategy, Technology strategy
Covid-19 may be behind us as a daily personal preoccupation, but one major repercussion of its shockingly extended and global impact is still with us: Do we or do we not go back to the office? May we review the bidding? Totally remote/zero days-week in the office is...
by Bruce | February 8, 2023 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Innovative Managing Partners, Leadership, Practice Group Management
The following column is by Dario Ramon Buschor, PhD and incorporates original research of his. He describes himself thus: “I prefer to work with lawyers instead of working as a lawyer. That’s why I, a Swiss lawyer by training became a researcher, lecturer...
