Compensation
Strategy & Partner Pay
Herewith the second article by Richard Rapp. Thanks, Richard!—Bruce. Law firm managers who are planning large-scale, hubristic expansion-by-acquisition should study the Dewey LeBoeuf morality play very closely. The rest of us should not. It’s a distraction that diverts attention from what matters closer to home. Permit me to analogize: Those of us who are
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In Defense of the Billable Hour
This is the first column written by our new colleague here at Adam Smith, Esq., Richard Rapp. Trust me, it won’t be the last–Bruce. I enjoyed reading the recent exchange here (“What’s Your Client Mix,” April 9, 2013) triggered by reports of the lawsuit accusing DLA Piper of overbilling. As expected the comments included
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Richard Rapp Joins Adam Smith, Esq.
It is with great personal and professional pleasure that we announce Richard Rapp is joining Adam Smith, Esq. as Senior Advisor. Those of you who have learned even a little about the consulting side of Adam Smith, Esq. know that we have remained small by choice, reflecting our conviction that the most challenging and sophisticated
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Execution is the New Strategy
I suspected as much all along. I’m referring to the recent admirably data-intensive study of lateral partner movement in London compiled and written by Mark Brandon of Motive Legal and published in The Lawyer a few days ago. This is must reading for anyone involved in the massively escalating lateral partner hiring minuet—which seems to
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A Conversation with Herb Thomas
As most readers know, one of the irregular—but always popular—kinds of columns we publish are in the form of interviews with people who pass our rigorous 10-point test are intrinsically interesting. Recently I had the luck to get to know Herb Thomas, who immediately lured me in by saying he had once printed out much
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Casualties of Discounting
Permit me to paraphrase, and hopefully not mutilate, the lead from a recent article on strategy + business, the Booz & Co. (nee Booz Allen & Hamilton) online magazine: It’s a tough world …. New technologies … have permanently changed the [law firm selection ]experience. Meanwhile, a sluggish economy and rising competition are testing brand loyalty.
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Growth is Dead: Part 12-The S-Curve
As we come to the final installment of the Growth is Dead series, I hope the challenge I’ve laid out for us is clear. Excess capacity Stagnant demand Cut-throat or “suicidal” discounting Unprecedented pressure on prices, from all directions, including who clients will pay for, and rates and realization Exhaustion of cost-cutting as a tactic
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Growth is Dead: Part 10-Clients
In Part 8 in this series, we talked about “Now What?” in terms of three particular approaches you could take that were all, essentially, inward-focused and things you can pretty much control inside the firm’s four walls: acknowledge you have competition; hire the best professional “C-suite” staff you can find; and articulate a non-generic strategy—and
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“Suicide Pricing” on Bloomberg Law
Lee Pacchia of Bloomberg Law recently interviewed me about some of the implications of “Growth is Dead.” Here it is: It’s 12 or 13 minutes but if you don’t have time for that we’ll be trying to cut it into bite-size snippets in the future.
Articles, Compensation, Finance, Strategy
Growth is Dead: Part 3-Expectations
Our third installment in this series addresses partner expectations. Here’s the problem: There’s about to be a collision with reality. Let’s start with some data. In the quarter century since the The American Lawyer first published the AmLaw 100, growth has been impressive: Total gross revenue for the 100 firms has gone up more than
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