by Bruce | September 21, 2022 | Articles, Business Models, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Practice Group Management, Strategy
Geography–a “sense of place”–is often taken for granted as the inevitable but fundamentally random by-product of historical happenstance, and almost never appreciated for the strategic dimension it provides–like it or not. Because...
by Bruce | September 13, 2022 | Articles, Business Models, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
Recently across my desk came a copy of a thoughtful and comprehensive article on why law firms collapse. Or rather, I should say, a pair of articles on that topic, both by John Morley, Yale law professor {his name was not familiar to me). The pair of articles consists...
by Bruce | August 28, 2022 | About the Site, Adam Smith Himself, Articles, Just Plain Interesting
And now for something rather different. Not infrequently we’re asked how, or why we named our firm Adam Smith, Esq. The short and true somewhat beside-the-point answer is that it’s a bit of wordplay on the intersection of economics (Adam Smith) and law...
by Bruce | August 21, 2022 | Articles, Business Models, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Strategy, Technology strategy
We distributed this column several weeks ago to our “friends and family” opt-in email list (which has a handsome level of subscribers and is free–what’s taking you so long? [sign up at the foot of our homepage]) but herewith on our public site....
by Bruce | August 7, 2022 | Articles, Book Reviews, Just Plain Interesting
This column is becoming something of a tradition, and traditions must be maintained. Sitting on various handy tables and shelves around the office and the den at home are, among many other things, the following books taking front and center pride of place during the...
by Bruce | July 28, 2022 | About the Site, Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, NewLaw, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy
Recently The New York Times devoted its Sunday “Opinion” section to the theme, “I was wrong,” and several of its leading columnists each penned an essay “I was wrong about….” This set us thinking. And with hardly any...
by Bruce | July 17, 2022 | About the Site, Adam Smith Himself, Articles
July 17, 1790, Edinburgh. He is buried in Canongate Kirkyard on the Royal Mile.
by Bruce | July 5, 2022 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Practice Group Management, Recruiting, Strategy
Yes, I’m looking at you, law firm leaders. You, too, have a supply chain. It’s time to start thinking of it that way. May we take a step back for a moment? From the redoubtable St. Louis Fed comes a study Supply Chain Disruptions and Inflation During...
by Bruce | June 23, 2022 | Articles, Business Models, Finance, Leadership, Practice Group Management, Strategy, Technology strategy
Two plus years after the simultaneous worldwide Office Exodus (“Everybody out of the building!”) at the onset of this pandemic, we are at last beginning to emerge from the by-guess-and-by-golly finger-in-the-air period of figuring out what WFH (thank you,...
by Bruce | June 19, 2022 | Articles, Ineffable