by Bruce | November 16, 2023 | About the Site, Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, NewLaw, Practice Group Management, Strategy
Irish BIshop George Berkeley (1685–1753) famously asked, “if a tree falls in the forest and no one is present to hear it, would there be a sound?” His notion is neither as cutesy nor as vexed as it might strike you, but a snappy and memorable...
by Bruce | October 5, 2023 | Articles, Business Models, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Partnership Structures, Strategy
“Ripped from the headlines,” as the cliche-inclined might say, we have this from The American Lawyer in the past week or so: Elite Firms Revisit Comp Formulas as Star Talent Has ‘Extraordinary Leverage’ Some highlights: According to Kent Zimmerman over...
by Bruce | September 17, 2023 | About the Site, Adam Smith Himself, Articles, Branding, Ineffable, Just Plain Interesting
Over this past summer, a client, who has become a friend, asked us what the “back story” is behind the name of our firm. (Presumably he found the name ingenious or bizarre or some combination thereof.) Be that as it may, after we explained the origin he said he...
by Bruce | August 23, 2023 | Articles, Business Models, Finance, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy
The following article is by Janet Stanton, Partner, Adam Smith, Esq. LLC. Quite simply, our reason for exploring the non-equity tier is that (a) there has been explosive growth in that cohort and (b) we’ve not seen recent, comprehensive examination of this phenomenon....
by Bruce | August 7, 2023 | Articles, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Practice Group Management, Strategy
While you were out–staring at the window for the 39th time wondering how private equity seems to have taken over the world, perchance?–relatively few have noticed, until the odd recent headline here and there, about the seemingly sudden arrival on the...
by Bruce | July 30, 2023 | Adam Smith Himself, Articles, Just Plain Interesting
From the wide-ranging and customarily sane Virginia Postrel over at Reason comes a summer bijou: Gadgets and gizmos from Adam Smith’s time. Let’s start with what the self-respecting man about town might have carried with him as he set out for the day....
by Bruce | July 23, 2023 | About the Site, Articles, Book Reviews, Just Plain Interesting
In keeping with our custom 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 2023 installment: two novels and two nonfiction volumes that have had a prominent places on our...
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...
