Last week’s blog Law Firm Growth: Maintaining a Sensible Strategy (Part One) reviewed the uneven success from the non-organic growth tactics of lateral hiring and mergers. Also reviewed were some of the unspoken motivations behind lateral and merger growth. Despite noting these non-strategic reasons, last week’s blog concluded that these two popular means of growth
Law Firm Growth: Maintaining a Sensible Strategy (Part One)
Law firm growth over the last thirty years has been constant. Through economic ups and down law firms have pursued growth, by growing organically, hiring laterally, doing mergers. For all the effort by law firms to grow, it is surprising that the resulting law firms are not much larger today. Setting aside the franchise like
Heenan Blaikie: How to Avoid the Same Fate
History tells us that Heenan Blaikie’s failure was not an isolated event. It was preceded by more publicized failures, like Dewey, Howrey and Coudert Brothers, which failed due to a combination of their own unique reasons and maladies found in all law firms. For good reason, many in Canada and the US note
Warning: This is about Culture and the Lawyer Churn
A house divided against itself cannot stand. A. Lincoln
When you see the word “Culture” used in a discussion about today’s law firm environment, what comes to mind? A metric defying intangible that, though referenced in reverent tones in firm literature, bears little relevance to the bottom-line? Or, as a palpable reality that
Heenan Blaikie: “There but for the grace of God, go I” –John Bradford
Last week’s decision by major Canadian law firm Heenan Blaikie to dissolve received a lot of coverage in the Canadian press as well as among legal commentators. Yet discounting its demise as being peculiarly Canadian is unwise. The market and competitive dynamics that contribute to a Canadian law firm’s success or failure are very similar
Heenan Blaikie: The Latest Law Firm in Transition
The media reports about Canadian law firm Heenan Blaikie present a classic case of a law firm facing transition. The well-known and regarded Canadian law firm has seen its foundation shake as lawyers depart, reports of dropping business abound and speculation mounts about merger or dissolution. Without being on the inside it is difficult
Part 2 -The Churn – Shrinking Law Firms
For no matter what we achieve, if we don’t spend the vast majority of our time with people we love and respect, we cannot possibly have a great life. But if we spend the vast majority of our time with people we love and respect — people we really enjoy being on the bus with
The Challenged Law Firm in 2014–The Bank Workout of the Troubled Law Firm Loan (Part Three-Implementing the Strategy)
Last month, a large bankruptcy law firm in Michigan filed chapter 11, citing the fallout from the dissolution of another law firm. The irony of a bankruptcy law firm filing bankruptcy aside, its struggles show that any firm is susceptible to financial stress. In many instances, law firm stress leads to or follows a
The Churn – Shrinking Law Firms – Part 1
Recently, I was asked if I was going to fire an employee who made a mistake that cost the company $600,000. No, I replied, I just spent $600,000 training him. Why would I want somebody to hire his experience? THOMAS J. WATSON SR.
How many lawyers have you watched move from one firm
The Challenged Law Firm in 2014–The Bank Workout of the Troubled Law Firm Loan–(Part Two–Devising a Strategy)
Like a lot of things, the workout of a troubled law firm loan is neither mechanical nor predictable. Facts unique to the situation guide a bank’s approach, and finding the correct strategy is as much art as it is science. But because the problem loan is not likely to resolve itself, the smart banker seizes