Tales from the Client Service Front
We’ve had our corporate checking account with Bank of America for over 15 years. This is the story of why it’s no longer there. A few weeks backI got a letter in the mail from BofA and luckily did not...
View ArticleCaptive ALSP’s Are a Dead End: Discuss
This is our original unedited version of an article which our friends at Thomson Reuters’ Forum magazine were kind enough to print in the current issue. Now that they have had it exclusively for a...
View ArticleChina 101
If you’re like me, you may be troubled at the thought of all that you do not know or understand about China. And, if you realize the depth of your ignorance on something so important, you ask the...
View ArticleDo/Don’t Return to the Office??
Will we or won’t we? When do we or don’t we? Return to the office, that is. Barrels of feckless virtual ink have been spilled on this topic for nearly two years, starting, say, late the week national...
View ArticleStandout Reporting on A Systemic Problem
Every once in awhile, a piece of legal journalism–heck, we’re not grading on a curve here, folks–business and economics journalism with the legal industry as its subject–is so thorough, nuanced, and...
View ArticlePlanning for the Unknowable: Part 1
As glimmers of dawn begin to appear (shock! awe! disbelief!) at the end of our long night of Covid, it seems timely to address the question of how leaders can plan for a new period that is completely...
View ArticlePlanning for the Unknowable: Part 2
In our first installment of this two-part series, we left off by asking why the composition of the Fortune 500 across a quarter-century span, from 1995 to 2020—widely thought of as an era of widespread...
View ArticleThe Associate Comp Wars & Thick/Thin Communities
I don’t have the grey cells or, frankly, the spare time to keep track, blow by blow, of the Great Associate Comp Wars of 2022, but fortunately Above the Law does and has. From January 20th of this...
View ArticleCalling All Associates: How’s The New Normal for You?
Dear Reader-associates. With the heavy lifting done by our friends at Above the Law, we wanted to draw your attention to a brand-new survey delving into how associates have been experiencing the...
View ArticleLast Call to Associates: How’s The New Normal for You?
Dear Reader-associates. Let your voice be heard while there’s still time! With the heavy lifting done by our friends at Above the Law, we wanted to draw your attention to a brand-new survey delving...
View ArticleThe Associate Attrition/Comp Wars: The Data is Just Plain Weird
Editor’s Note: A modestly condensed version of this article was published a few weeks ago in Thomson Reuter’s Forum magazine. It was the leading story for a week after it was published. We appreciate...
View ArticleSupply Chains Aren’t Just for Manufacturers
Yes, I’m looking at you, law firm leaders. You, too, have a supply chain. It’s time to start thinking of it that way. May we take a step back for a moment? From the redoubtable St. Louis Fed comes a...
View Article“I Was Wrong”
Recently The New York Times devoted its Sunday “Opinion” section to the theme, “I was wrong,” and several of its leading columnists each penned an essay “I was wrong about….” This set us thinking. And...
View ArticleTwo Nasty Trends About to Collide?
We distributed this column several weeks ago to our “friends and family” opt-in email list (which has a handsome level of subscribers and is free–what’s taking you so long? [sign up at the foot of our...
View ArticleLaw Firms Fail in the Oddest Way (All of Them)
Recently across my desk came a copy of a thoughtful and comprehensive article on why law firms collapse. Or rather, I should say, a pair of articles on that topic, both by John Morley, Yale law...
View ArticleYour Comp Plan Motivates All the Right Behaviors (You Sure About That?)
We’ve worked with a lot of law firms over the years and an evergreen topic of discussion is their partner compensation plan–how it’s structured overall, if it’s aligned to the firm’s strategy, and then...
View ArticleThe Ballad of Kanye and Kyrie
Memory does not recall these pages ever featuring or even mentioning a rap star or a basketball star, but we are confident that our readers have wide-ranging and catholic tastes so we are sailing forth...
View ArticleWhat Do Associates Want? Read this report to find out (the results may...
This article is by Janet Stanton, Partner, Adam Smith, Esq. Recently, we had the good fortune to work with our great friends at Above the Law on a project to delve into the current associate mindset....
View ArticleLetter from London
Remember these? We made it customary here at Adam Smith, Esq. to publish a “Letter from….” after our return from any meaningful business trip to noteworthy cities. And, thankfully, here we are. When...
View ArticleWhat’s So Great About Pay Transparency?
“Transparency!” is a far more clarion call to arms than “Opacity.” And as a securities lawyer, I was trained–and didn’t take much convincing, truth be told–that full disclosure was a not so minor...
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