Recent Articles

Client Stages—a new way of looking at a client’s life cycle

November 11, 2008 20:59

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Heller in the Cellar

November 04, 2008 21:38

I read this article on the downfall of Heller Ehrman with great interest. What this doesn’t say is that Heller was a firm who last year had profits per partner in excess of $1,000,000, and in 2004 was ranked 2nd on the American Lawyer’s A List.  The key takeaways are that weak...

Law Firm Talent Management Doesn't Stop with Recruiting

October 30, 2008 19:57

Without question, gaining an understanding of the characteristics of successful lawyers within individual firms can help firms to make wiser recruiting investments.  The “Moneyball” project worked on by Kerma Partners and Lexis Nexis’ Redwood Think Tank focused on the...

Moneyball Indeed!

October 29, 2008 21:13

Buzz abounds concerning the recent “Moneyball” project completed by the Redwood Think Tank and Kerma Partners.   A lot of the reaction seems to focus on trying to apply the results for a specific firm to the industry as whole.  This misses the point...

Why the Year End Collection Push is Not a Best Practice

September 09, 2008 14:38

 It is that time of year again, at least for the early starters, when the legal industry begins its preparations for the year end collection push. The push has become an industry standard and buzz word over time. Each year countless hours are put into collecting massive amounts of...

Associate Salary Increases & Firm Margins

September 04, 2008 15:20

  It should come as no surprise to anyone that the most recent wave of associate salary increases have helped to erode law firm profit margins. Whether the wave begins in west coast technology firms, or east coast financial capital firms, its effects are felt beyond big law in the...

Management Report Do’s and Don’ts

September 01, 2008 15:21

I was recently asked to speak at a conference on the topic of management reports and how firms are using them to help run their businesses.  It is a topic that I have been fortunate enough to gain a lot of insight into over the years.  Often I am handed a stack of reports and [...]I was...

Management Report Do’s and Don’ts

September 01, 2008 15:15

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Managing Partner Advocate Summer Issue In The Mail

June 30, 2008 21:30

The summer issue of the Managing Partner Advocate is now in the mail.  This issue is focused on ways to combat the effects of a contracting economy.  Highlights include retaining talent, managing associates, planning for the unexpected, measuring marketing activity and measuring...

Valuing Your Firm's Inventory

June 27, 2008 15:16

Most law firms understand intuitively that the value of inventory (both WIP and A/R) degrades over time, but by how much and how quickly? The ability to understand and answer these two questions is the first step in preparing a realistic, forward looking valuation model; one that can identify...