Looking in the Mirror
Are law firm leaders unknowingly steering their firms based on misconceptions? A candid, data-driven review of clients, work, and partner roles can reveal hidden strengths and prevent costly missteps in strategic decision-making.
ProfitMotive®
A mini case study about positive change… Many of our clients strive to build on current achievements. To that end, when planning retreats and workshops, managing partners often ask me to suggest a structured list of objectives — and to reflect on what the discussion topics ought to be. It was just this kind of […]
Forget About Revenue
Profits are a better way to measure a law firm’s financial health. This article explores why so many firms are preoccupied with revenues instead of profit and what you can do about it.
Choosing Industry Leaders
Choosing and supporting an industry group leader requires care and attention.
Winning through Practice Excellence
The attaining of best practice can lead to an advantage in which true excellence becomes a winning competitive formula.
The Value of Partnership
Law firms often overlook the real value they give away when making associates equity partners without requiring a meaningful buy-in. Beyond tangible assets, a firm’s true worth includes intellectual, human, relationship, reputational, and economic capital — totaling well over $500,000 per partner. As the legal profession evolves, it’s worth reconsidering whether granting ownership so freely is sound business. If partners viewed each new equity member as a significant investment, they’d likely approach the decision with greater care — especially when the stakes are high.
Retreats – The Edge Approach
In every endeavor, there is an optimum way of doing things. The art of sculpting a retreat is no exception. So the content for your retreat should not be prescribed externally. Beware the consultant with a hammer to whom all the world is a nail. No matter how tempting it is to pull a previous […]
Planning a Law Firm Retreat: Part I
The rapid growth of law firms in the past decade has created some new and unique management difficulties. With firms’ size, and the complexity of global legal practices, coordinating the availability of partners to perform any management function beyond routine meeting attendance is increasingly difficult. The problem of finding partners to assume leadership roles is […]
Planning a Law Firm Retreat: Part II
Expanded Annual Meeting Many firm’s partnership agreements require an annual meeting for the election of member of management, selection of new partners, approval of compensation and other similar issues. These are important issues, not only because they concern day-to-day operating concerns but because they go to the fabric of what it means to be a […]
Mount Everest Syndrome
End the cycle of making big plans for non-billable project…and accomplishing nothing. Here we offer practical suggestions for breaking that cycle… Most professionals in good law firms tend to think big. If someone in the firm decides it might be a good idea to take up mountain climbing, it will not be more than a […]