Tepid Can Kill You
You deem the following quote: Surprising, because your partners are totally game for whatever changes the rapidly evolving world is throwing at your firm; Utterly familiar—depressingly so; The ace you...
View ArticleWho’s Your CISO?
Q: What could put your firm at severe peril of failure that has nothing to do with clients, markets, bank debt, partner flight, infighting at the top, or any of the other usual suspects? A: A...
View ArticleThe Original Firm Culture
What do you think this describes? “a set of basic tacit assumptions about how the world is and ought to be that is shared by a set of people and determines their perceptions, thoughts, feelings and, to...
View ArticleLa Republica Interviews Adam Smith, Esq. in Bogota
Recently we had the pleasure to announce the arrival of Antonio Leal Holguin as a Director of Adam Smith, Esq., based primarily in Bogota, Colombia. La Republica published an interview with Antonio...
View ArticleShow Me the Money (??)
One of the things we do a lot of here—and seemingly more of in the past 24 months or so—is helping firms sort out, reform, amend, optimize, throw-away-and-start-fresh, their partnership compensation...
View Article“Disagree and Commit”
Are you, like me, beginning to feel sorry for the traditional retail industry? Lately, the litany of bad-news stories has become relentless. (Yes, I just wrote about this from a different angle; today...
View Article“ILSF 2017″ in Prague
We’re in Prague for most of this week meeting with some firms and delivering the keynote at Ecoomia.cz’s annual Innovative Legal Services Forum. Thanks to our lead host, Jaroslav Kramer. The leading...
View ArticleNews From All Over
Belatedly, a quick look at an article published last week in the equivlent of the Czech “Financial Times,” which occupied the entire back page of the issue. Hospodarske Noviny is a five day/week...
View ArticleLetter from Prague
Returning from nearly a full week in Prague–delivering the keynote at the second annual 2017 Innovation Legal Services Forum and meeting with firms there–a few reflections. A very few cities in the...
View ArticleThe Harder Competence
Much chatter lately has been devoted to, “Whither Uber?” Is its famous unicorn valuation justified and defensible? If it can’t, or shouldn’t, continue to give its middle finger to regulatory...
View ArticleSuccession Planning 101
Coming to the fore more prominently these days across a large portion of firms we work with and the industry overall is the issue of succession planning. It comes up in one or both of two contexts, (a)...
View ArticleCommencement Speech by John Roberts
Unknown to me was that Chief Justice John Roberts’ son has been attending, and just graduated (9th grade) from Cardigan Mountain School in New Hampshire. Dad delivered the commencement address. An...
View ArticleBeleaguered Business Professionals–Why You Should Fix This (Hint: It will...
This article is by Janet Stanton, Partner, Adam Smith, Esq.: “Non-lawyers.” This is the prevailing term for business professionals employed at law firms. Really? Let’s just start with the fact that...
View ArticleQuestion of the Month #2: Report & Commentary
This column is by Janet Stanton, Partner, Adam Smith, Esq. The second Question of the Month was: “Does the partnership form remain the optimal structure for law firms?” This resulted from our musing a...
View ArticleA Parable of Client Service: Coda
A few weeks ago I related the tale of our abortive foray into changing wireless service providers from AT&T to Verizon, which provided rich material for reflections on client service. If you...
View ArticleLetter from Toronto
Most readers are familiar with our habit of writing a “letter from…” when we have spent some time in a particular market. We spent last week in Toronto among other things delivering the keynote and...
View ArticleQuestion of the Month #5: De-equitizing Partners?
We intend October’s “Question of the Month” to squarely address an issue laden with financial and emotional repercussions. But we have surpassing confidence that Adam Smith, Esq.’s intrepid readers...
View ArticleDo Open Legal Markets Spur Innovation?
The following article is reprinted by kind permission of Thomson Reuters, where it first appeared in their Forum magazine. It was written by Antonio Leal Holguin, Director, Adam Smith, Esq. The...
View ArticleTenerife
Forty years ago last March what remains the greatest disaster in aviation history occurred at Tenerife in the Canary Islands. Human error was the primary cause. 583 people were killed (61 survived, or...
View ArticleMy Podcast with ABA’s “Legal Rebels”
This was recorded somewhat earlier this year. It’s always nerve-wracking to wonder how one is going to sound, but my opinion is not the one that matters. Yours is.
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