About Us

What we do...

Adam Smith, Esq., LLC provides high-end consulting services to the legal profession, focusing on law firms, legal professionals and legal vendors globally.

Specific consulting services provided include..

·         Strategic assessments - firm-wide, practice areas, geography

·         Leadership and leadership development

·         Finance and financial management

·         Mergers and acquisitions - pre-merger due diligence, post-merger integration

·         Compensation - alignment with firm-wide strategy

·         IT and Knowledge management - strategic considerations and applications

·         Marketing and branding

·         Client relationship programs - planning, implementation, evaluation

·         Professional development

·         Recruiting and retention strategies

We also provide insights on emerging trends and implications of external factors, best practices and the impact of cultural considerations.  In addition to classic consulting, we also speak at legal conferences and law firm partner retreats and other meetings.

Adam Smith, Esq., LLC is a strategic alliance partner with Altman Weil and Jomati Consulting- further extending our reach and capabilities.

We welcome the opportunity to discuss how we may benefit you and your organization.

 Bruce MacEwen

A lawyer and consultant to law firms on strategic and economic issues, I founded and publish "Adam Smith, Esq." (AdamSmithEsq.com), which generates 400,000 page views per month, providing insights on the business of large, sophisticated law firms. Since the site's launch in late 2003, I have published over 1,000 articles on "Adam Smith, Esq." on the economics of law firms, covering such topics as strategy, leadership, globalization, M&A, finance, compensation, cultural considerations, and partnership structures.

My consulting practice focuses on US, UK, and Canadian firms. Recent engagements have included developing strategic plans for departments, practice groups, and firms as a whole; pre-merger due diligence and post-merger integration; strategies for re-conceiving associate career paths; alternative and strategic billing; analyzing the ROI of technology initiatives, and advising on the consequences of increasing segmentation among Global 100 firms.

In early 2008 Altman-Weil, Inc., London-based Jomati Consultants LLP, and Adam Smith, Esq., LLC entered into a strategic alliance designed to enhance what we can offer our clients in terms of depth and breadth at a time when the international legal marketplace is undergoing a period of rapid change.

I was the moving force behind a conference held at Georgetown Law School in Spring 2008 titled "The Future of the Global Law Firm," which was the first of its kind in the US exploring potential sea changes in law firm ownership--including permitting public ownership and investment in law firms, and diversified multidisciplinary firms. These changes are already underway in Australia and the UK. The conference attracted senior partners from leading law firms as well as prominent academics and other experts. 

At Harvard Law School in the fall of 2007, I delivered a first of its kind lecture on the economics and other realities of 21st-Century law firms to students and faculty, and I offered a similar lecture in late 2008. I have also presented at Chicago, Georgetown, Indiana, Northwestern, NYU, and Stanford law schools. 

I have written for or been quoted in: Fortune; The Wall Street Journal; The New York Times; Bloomberg News/Radio/TV; Business 2.0; The International Herald Tribune; The National Law Journal; The ABA Journal; The Lawyer; and other publications too numerous to mention, and I frequently appear as a speaker at law firm retreats and legal industry conferences domestically and abroad, covering strategy, finance, and IT.

·         I'm a Fellow in the College of Law Practice Management, "formed to honor and recognize distinguished law practice management professionals [and to] inspire excellence and innovation by honoring extraordinary achievement."

·         Managing Partners Forum, a global organization of managing partners and CEO's of law and other professional service, recruited me to serve as its New York regional director.

·         At SUNY/Stony Brook's Graduate College of Business, I served as an adjunct professor, teaching the core course "Strategic Technology & Innovation" in the MBA program exclusively for law firm leaders.

Previously, I: 

·         Was CEO of a dot-com;

·         Practiced securities law in-house for nearly ten years at Morgan Stanley/Dean Witter; and

·         Practiced litigation and corporate law with Shea & Gould and with Breed, Abbott & Morgan in New York.

I was educated at Princeton University (BA magna cum laude in economics), at Stanford Law School (JD), and at NYU's Stern School of Business (MBA candidate in finance). 

A native Manhattanite, I live on New York's Upper West Side with my wife and dog.

bruce@adamsmithesq.com

direct: 212.866.4800

mobile: 212.866.2630

Janet Stanton

Janet Stanton is a partner at "Adam Smith, Esq.," LLC which provides high-end consulting services on the strategic and business issues facing large, sophisticated law firms and legal vendors. "Adam Smith, Esq." is a strategic alliance partner with Altman Weil and Jomati Consulting.

Most recently, Janet was Director, Client Relationship Program at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, which she joined as they expanded and re-worked their CR pilot initiative into a firm-wide priority to strengthen and deepen client relationships.  This is a multi-dimensional program including client outreach, insight mining, internal training, resource development and communications.

Janet's consulting work covers the gamut of Client Relationship planning, implementation and evaluation.  This includes audits or assessments for anticipated or ongoing CR programs, securing client feedback, program planning, research, client service plans, client service team development and training, internal communications efforts, resource recommendations and strategic fee arrangements, among other elements.  She recently co-founded the Client Relationship Roundtable, an international forum for CR professionals at the largest law firms.

Previously, Janet had real-world successes with a demonstrable client focus.  As Executive Vice President at the global communications agency, Bates Worldwide, she led several large and global client relationships, for organizations such as Pfizer and the US Department of Defense, where she successfully established and nurtured long-term, profitable client relationships.  She was lauded as an "excellent agency partner" by the division president at Pfizer and was personally awarded a Certificate of Appreciation by the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Janet managed the largest business unit at Bates, which generated $25-million in annual revenue.  Under her, profits from the unit doubled in three years.  At Bates, she also directed the firm's global client feedback initiative and negotiated complex, global fee arrangements.  Following Bates, she was President of a mid-sized full-service agency in Pennsylvania.

Janet is a graduate of Vassar College, which she attended as a Regents Scholar.  For the 2005--2008 term, she served on the Law Practice Management Section of the New York State Bar Association.  Janet is currently Vice President of the Ray of Light Foundation, a non-profit arts program benefiting at-risk youth.  She is based in New York City.

janet@adamsmithesq.com

direct: 212.866.4270

mobile: 917.692.3927

Don't Just Take Our Word for It

A sample of the many endorsements from the legal profession's foremost authorities and practitioners...

• "I just don't know what the profession would do without you."
   --Chairman, AmLaw 25 firm

• "'Adam Smith, Esq.' is, and will remain, the definitive voice on law firm strategy."
  --Global Head of Know-How, Magic Circle firm
  
  
• "I read three things: The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and 'Adam Smith, Esq.' - - and I tell my partners to do the same."
  --Managing Partner, AmLaw 50 firm
  
  
• "You're the brand name in law firm economics.  No one writes about this subject better, or thinks about it more creatively, than you.  There is no one out there--repeat, no one--who covers this business as well as you.   I tell people this guy is really, really good." 
  --Managing Partner, AmLaw 50 firm
  
  
• "To me, 'Adam Smith, Esq.' is far more valuable than The American Lawyer; not only do you talk about the issues that really matter, but you publish a couple of dozen times a month instead of just once."
  --Managing Partner, AmLaw 50 firm
  
  
• "You have a very interesting site; I recommend it."
  --Prof. Michael Roberto, Harvard Business School
  
  

• "There are several required reading stops I make on the internet each morning as I begin my work day.  One of them--Bruce MacEwen's "Adam Smith, Esq."--should be, in my humble opinion, mandatory reading for anyone tasked with monitoring the legal horizon."
  --CFO, AmLaw 50 firm