Tag: lawyers
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The writing on the wall #7 – location, location, location
Let’s for a moment put aside the discussion as to whether an investment by a law firm into premium real estate makes sense. Let’s assume that clients don’t object to funding acres of marble and an atrium full of lush vegetation. This question is about where your firm’s offices are, not what they are. The…
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The writing on the wall #5 management complexity
Firms are getting bigger. Mergers and International expansion may be the main culprits in recent years, bit add the economy slowly returns to growth, plenty of other law firms face the challenges associated with getting bigger. Some, like the competition for talent are frequently mentioned, but there is another that is less talked about and…
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The writing on the wall #4 – the commodity game
It seems that whatever the practice area, lawyers talk in hushed tones about their work becoming a commodity. Corporate law, employment law, technology law are among the areas where there is much gnashing of teeth and squeezing of margins. Much of the debate focuses on whether to do the commoditized elements and if so…
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The writing’s on the wall #2 – scale back your offices?
Given property is often the second biggest cost of a law firm behind head count, I wonder what the impact would be of scaling back prestigious offices and reinvesting some of the capital in technology that would make a real difference for clients.
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How to find an extra 1,000 hours a year
I have a confession to make. I’m an information junkie. All my life I’ve been a voracious consumer of books, magazines and newspapers. From burying my nose in novels as a child, through reading 3-4 books a week when commuting as a lawyer, to teaching myself to speed-read early in my legal career to keep…
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The epic failure of the world’s best presenter
Over the past few weeks I’ve been out and about in the legal community and seen a number of presentations from eminent QCs. Now for those of you outside the UK, Queen’s Counsel (QCs) are the creme de la creme of that part of our legal profession that performs in court. As a result, they need…
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The Balanced Law Firm
Living in the corporate world, it’s easy to take scorecards, dashboards and metrics for granted. For those that recoil at management speak, they can become a one way ticket to snoozeville. For those who like to get down and dirty with data, browsing a realtime display of information can be the highlight of their week.…
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What lawyers can learn from the U.S. Navy SEALs
The politics, morality and socio-economic consequences of Osama Bin Laden’s death will undoubtedly be discussed for years to come, and this blog is certainly not the place for that debate. I would however like to stake my claim to being the first commentator to raise the issue of what lawyers can learn from the incident,…
Intelligent Challenge 