Appraisals Revisited
Published in: Professional HR, September/October 2006. This article is reprinted with kind permission from the original publishers. © 2006, Nick Jarrett-Kerr Most professional-services firms claim to have appraisal systems, but the trouble is that very few of them are effective, particularly at partner level. Implementation is the main headache; “It’s a nightmare getting the partners […]
Compensation and Remuneration Revisited
Clarifying and Defining What the Firm Expects of its Partners Before deciding the best method of compensation and profit sharing in law firms, it is important to be clear about what the firm expects of its partners and what roles and responsibilities it needs them to perform. Partners equally need to be clear how they […]
Creating and Rewarding Profitable Performance
The Links Between the Success of the Firm and Individual Partner Contribution and Reward Published in: Kerma Partners Quarterly 2007, Issue 3. This article is reprinted with kind permission from the original publishers. © 2007, Nick Jarrett-Kerr The issues of partner performance and rewards are rising on law firm agendas. Law firm leaders talk a […]
How Partner Compensation Can Support Strategic Goals and Economic Objectives
For many firms, partner compensation has long been managed in isolation from their overall business strategy, which is primarily focused on external factors, such as markets and clients. But, by aligning compensation models with strategic objectives, firms will be far better equipped to achieve their goals. The Kerma Partners’ ‘Global Survey of Large Law Firm […]
Valuing and Judging Partners – Beyond the Elephant Test!
We tend to make informal value judgements all the time about our partners and potential partners. Questions like “Do I like him?”, “Do I respect her?”, “What is she good at?” all require emotional or, at least, unstructured responses. In recent times, these somewhat informal judgements have become more formalised as they often establish the […]
Leadership Links with Partner Performance and Profit Sharing
Partners in law firms are not easy to lead. They may be content to transfer a great many management and administrative tasks to a management team, but there is a raft of sensitive subjects which remains close to their hearts. In these areas, they often consider intervention by professional managers to be unwarranted interference. Additionally, […]
Linking Partner Targets to Profit Shares
The issues of partner performance and rewards are rising on law firm agendas, especially with the impact of new age discrimination legislation. Law firm leaders talk a good game about how the firm ‘rewards what it values, and values what it rewards’ but in reality many firms give scant regard to anything except seniority and […]
Putting a new Partner Profit Sharing System in place
Very few firms are entirely happy with their partner profit sharing systems. For any firm which is considering making any changes, a good starting point is to understand the extent to which the current system is failing to meet the needs of partners or the firm and the extent to which changes may be needed. […]
International Alliances
Sheltering under the global umbrella of a leading network or alliance has long been a favoured option for independent law firms. It gives them the best of all worlds by maintaining their own autonomies, their own brands and their distinctive identities at the same time as appearing to be part of something a lot bigger.
Enter The Swiss Verein
After years of anticipation, true global consolidation on a significant scale is finally occurring in the legal industry. The driving influence appears to be the availability of a structural vehicle that helps firms deal with the legal and functional hurdles of international mergers. That vehicle is the Swiss Verein.