by Bruce | April 14, 2015 | Articles, Business Models, Finance, Leadership, Strategy
Do you ever actually look hard at your firm’s overall business structure? No, really. Let’s go a step further. Stipulating arguendo that you are one of the rare few who do every once in awhile take a hard look, what do you then actually do about it? I...
by Bruce | April 1, 2015 | Articles, Globalization, Leadership
Just back from a week of meetings with law firms in Sao Paulo, and a few impressions are worth reporting. First of all, everyone—no surprise—has the political situation in Brazil on their minds front and center. President Dilma Rousseff’s approval ratings are...
by Bruce | March 19, 2015 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Marketing, Practice Group Management, Strategy
The growth of professionals in Law Land with the word “pricing” in their title has been explosive over the past couple of years. It’s a trend we applaud loudly and fervently, so perhaps it’s worth a primer on how it’s done in the major...
by Bruce | February 27, 2015 | Articles, Business Models, Finance, Globalization, Strategy
Hallelujah! A profession just lost a very big round at the Supreme Court. I refer of course to the Court’s 6-3 ruling in North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners v. FTC, finding that the dental examiners’ board attempting to prohibit nondentists from...
by Bruce | February 25, 2015 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Strategy, Technology strategy
“Innovation” seems to be on everyone’s lips these days. Among other things, the problems are: Many people, lawyers in particular, are stumped when it comes to describing what “innovation” actually is; Business history proves to a...
by Bruce | February 23, 2015 | Articles, Just Plain Interesting, Marketing, Technology strategy
If you haven’t yet heard about Above the Law’s “Converge” conference coming up here in NYC on Wednesday, March 18th, you’re about to. It’s a full-day conference at the marvelous University Club (Fifth @ 54th, McKim, Mead and White,...
by Bruce | February 16, 2015 | Articles, Ineffable
Here at Adam Smith, Esq., we cover the array of law firm management issues from strategy and finance to compensation and cultural issues—”an inquiry into the economics of law firms,” to coin a phrase. But there’s much more to life. Specifically,...
by Bruce | February 9, 2015 | Articles, Ineffable
Hardly ever does a breaking story in the news serve as the peg for a column here on Adam Smith, Esq., but we reserve the right to make exceptions to all customs, so today a briefish note on the still-unfolding slow-motion descent of Brian Williams, the NBC Nightly...
by Bruce | February 9, 2015 | About the Site, Articles, Just Plain Interesting
Dear Reader: From my long-time friend Stephen Denyer in London (Head of City and International at The Law Society) comes this: Dear Bruce: Might I take a moment to emphasise how welcome all Adam Smith followers worldwide will be at the Global Law Summit taking place...
by Bruce | January 30, 2015 | Articles, Globalization, Strategy
I wasn’t going to write about Dacheng/Dentons until I was. When I first heard about the mega tie-up creating the largest law firm in the world—records are made to be broken, as any number of athletes will happily confide in you—I had only two thoughts: First,...
