Build Back Better: Whither the Office? (Part 1)
The world is well into the greatest “natural experiment” in WFH ever seen. No one glided into this; it came as abruptly as an on-off switch. I’m sure the experience at Adam Smith, Esq. was fairly...
View ArticleBuild Back Better: Whither the Office? (Part 2)
Perhaps I should have said upfront in Part 1, but it’s never too late: In this series I’m discussing the office after humanity has re-emerged from the global isolation ward this dratted pox has...
View ArticleBuild Back Better: For or Against Cities?
The world’s leading business media have written at length—in pieces both speculative and just-the-facts—about scenarios for global metropolitan areas post-Coronatide, and in our humble microdot of the...
View ArticleWhat is Strategic Client Management? And Why Should You Care?
The following article is by Janet Stanton, Partner, Adam Smith, Esq. Note: This article was recently sent to our subscriber list. (See what you’re missing??) Now that we are squarely in an era of new...
View ArticleQuestion of the Month: November 2020–Whither the Office?
You know what to do! Check this space for final results. Polls will remain open until the Board of Elections (yours truly) says they’re closed. No recounts.
View ArticleMore News from the Leopard Index: Diversity is Now Reflected in the Ratings
This column is by Janet Stanton, Partner, Adam Smith, Esq. Yes, we’re pretty much mercilessly flogging the Leopard Law Firm Index. Why? Because in the information-desert that is Law Land, the Leopard...
View ArticleResilience and the Post-Covid World (Build Back Better)
With vaccines no longer a distant deus ex machina but here today in the cargo holds of aircraft at 35,000 feet, on FedEx and UPS trucks nationwide, and soon at a friendly neighborhood pharmacy near...
View ArticleLaw Really Is a Client Service Business–So What Are the Implications?...
The following column is by Janet Stanton, Partner, Adam Smith, Esq. This may come as news, and, perhaps unwelcome news, at that, to many lawyers. That said, again and again and in study after study...
View ArticleResilience & The Post-Covid World (Build Back Better): Part 3
When we ended Part 2 of this series, we had discussed the data showing (1) that the conventional wisdom about the AmLaw firms growing relentlessly to the sky was, uh, Fake News (h/t to Jae Um), (2)...
View ArticleEasing Out Under-Performers–Gracefully (Build Back Better)
The following column is by Janet Stanton, Partner, Adam Smith, Esq. One of the most vexing issues for law firms is that of under-performing lawyers. And, let’s be clear from the get-go, we’re talking...
View ArticleBack to the Office! (What’s the Rush?)
We have a theory. Abandoning the office—as one Managing Partner put it, “like the fire alarm went off, everybody out now”—was the easy part. Going back will pose one of the most complex management...
View ArticleThe Problem with Partnerships
THERE was never any thing by the wit of man so well devised, or so surely established, which (in continuance of time) hath not been corrupted: as (emong other thinges) it may plainly appere by the...
View ArticleBook Review: “BigLaw: Money & Meaning in the Modern Law Firm”
Across my desk a few weeks ago came BigLaw: Money & Meaning in the Modern Law Firm by Mitt Regan and Lisa Rohrer (U. Chicago Press: 2021). (I have known Mitt, a law Professor at Georgetown, for...
View ArticleLegal Services “Intensity” Around the Globe
We find ourselves from time to time wondering about many things: Will Moore’s Law ever hit a wall? When will the last print edition of The New York Times be published? Could Lord General Cornwallis...
View ArticleThe US is a Net (Im/Ex?)Porter of Law?
For the armchair economists in the crowd, the geopolitically curious, or faithful leaders of law firms wondering whether they should plant a, or more, flags abroad, how would you instinctively answer...
View Article“We’re Insanely Busy” (Update), Plus: Who’s Getting the Work
Scorching new data out on the volume of deal-making over the last 12 months or so, from Refinitiv courtesy of The Wall Street Journal (“Cash-laden companies are on an M&A Spree”). Ready for some...
View ArticleBack to the Office! (Say What?)
We’ve written that leaving the office was trivial, at least in retrospect–“fire alarm’s going off, everyone leave the building”–but that returning is going to pose one of the most complex...
View Article“Golden handcuffs: dealmaking lawyers weigh up their own Faustian bargains:”...
In today’s FT, Andrew Hill, their gifted and prolific management essayist, published a column of that name (link works only for FT subscribers) discussing the unheard-of pressures on corporate deal...
View ArticleQuestion of the Month: Your “Back to the Office” Policy?
It’s been awhile since we’ve offered you all up a “Question of the Month,” but we never promised our readers consistency. We hope you have come to appreciate variety, however, so in that spirit, you...
View ArticleLawLand’s Newspeak, or, Our Perversion of English
Pop quiz: What language has no words for “democracy,” “science,” or “religion?” While you’re mulling that one over, with apologies to one of the great English language rhetoricians and bromide-busters...
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