Practice Management

The People Factor Critical to Reinvention

Posted on November 16, 2009
One of the important implications of Muir's article "What the New Law Firm Looks Like: The Reinvention of a Reluctant Industry" is that going forward firms will require the close involvement of sophisticated management professionals who are not necessarily or even preferably lawyers to help design and manage change...

EMail Notifications Are Again Operational

Posted on November 12, 2009
Our host's email notification server has been down for several days and is only now operational, so you have not received notices of blog entries posted during that time.  Rather than flood your inbox with notications, please browse the blog at your leisure to catch up on the latest entries--The Importance of Glue, Throwing out Consultants' Reports, and The People Factor Inherent in the Coming Reinvention.

The Importance of Glue

Posted on November 06, 2009
Muir points out in her article What the New Law Firm Looks Like that building bigger firms does not necessarily produce better bottom lines.  Of course for many firms long-term client development or other factors beside profitability fuel growth...

Throw Out Those Consultants' Reports

Posted on November 06, 2009
We spend our days advising law firms and law departments about the changing landscape for their professional services.  But just as the legal industry is in a state of transition, so is the industry that consults with the legal industry.  We at Robin Rolfe Resources are retuning our services in order to offer you cost-effective updates on the fast-paced corrections and counter-corrections occurring daily in the legal world...

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What the New Law Firm Looks Like: The Necessary Reinvention of a Reluctant Industry

Posted on October 21, 2009
Yes, Virginia, there is a future for law firms, but it is a strikingly different one from the law firm of the past.  Not Your Grandfather's Firm What would have been bombshells ten years ago, and maybe even five years ago, continue to drop from the legal firmament: Double digit reductions in revenues and profits; big shops--Bingham McCutchen, Howrey, Orrick, DLA Piper, Morgan Lewis--shelve or reduce their reliance on lock-step promotions; many firms cut back or eliminate summer programs; salaries are frozen or reduced; behavioral interviewing becomes the newest buzzword in recruitment at Vinson & Elkins and elsewhere; old-line English firms Slaughters, Linklaters and Clifford Chance all acknowledge engaging outsourcers for their clients' low-level legal work, in some cases after years of deriding the practice; and English firms Addleshaws and Linklaters take steps to convert to all equity partnerships, while a number of American firms secretly consider it...

Looking at the Crystal Ball

Posted on October 07, 2009
If you haven't already seen this interview of Professor Richard Susskind, the author of The End of Lawyers?, by Barclay Bank's General Counsel Mark Harding, you should do so.  Harding puts Susskind through his paces on what the practice of law is likely to look like over the next 20 years...

Muir Leads APLF Roundtable on Leadership

Posted on September 21, 2009
Muir led an inter-active limited-attendance roundtable on Law Practice Management for Current and Prospective Law Firm Leaders at the 12th Annual Meeting of the Association of Patent Law Firms (APLF) in Chicago, Illinois on Thursday, September 17, 2009...

Convergence and Profitability, or Bigger is Only Bigger

Posted on September 21, 2009
One of the more interesting developments in the law industry over the last couple of decades is the emergence of the mega-firm.  Or what might be called the strange case of the temporary triumph of the delusion of efficiency. "Convergence," the short-hand name of the corporate model for managing outside legal fees by reducing the number of preferred firms, was developed originally in the early 1990s by DuPont and then trumpeted by interested advocates--primarily consultants--who benefited from advising both sides of the aisle...

Muir Leading APLF Leadership Roundtable

Posted on September 14, 2009
Muir is leading an inter-active limited-attendance roundtable on Law Practice Management for Current and Prospective Law Firm Leaders at the 12th Annual Meeting of the Association of Patent Law Firms (APLF) in Chicago, Illinois on Thursday, September 17, 2009...

LSATs and Premier Law Schools as Recruiting Guides?

Posted on September 14, 2009
Here's some more data that puts into question our reliance on high scores and law school credentials in determining which lawyers we want to populate our firms with. LSAT Scores According to a chart prepared by the Tax Prof Blog, math or physics majors are likely to score the highest on their LSATs, theoretically making them the best candidates for law school and the best lawyers...

Random Acts of Generosity?

Posted on August 25, 2009
An article this summer in the New York Times Magazine describes the launch by Hyatt Hotels of a customer relations program that CEO Mark Hoplamazian describes as "random acts of generosity."  Prompted by years of behavioral science research and months of consumer research, the program charges Hyatt employees with occasionally picking up bar tabs and other obligations of customers free of charge...

The Emerging Stakeholders in the Legal Business

Posted on August 05, 2009
In David Maister's article "Are Law Firms Manageable?" on the seemingly intractable challenges to law firm management, he points out only half facetiously that firms may get away with perpetuating these inefficiencies because there is no competitive fallout:  "The greatest advantage that lawyers have is that they compete only with other lawyers...

The 7 Cs of Success

Posted on July 29, 2009
What are the critical personal attributes for achieving success?  Shalom Saar, with an M. A. and Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and Administration from Harvard University, has the answer.  Saar is currently teaching leadership and management at MIT and serves as a visiting professor at the China Europe International Business School...

It's Crunch Time: Do You Know Where Your Clients Are?

Posted on July 22, 2009
Now is the time to really get to know your clients. What are their budgetary constrictions?  What are their priorities for the next two years?   What do they want more of and less of from their outside counsel?  What keeps them awake at night?  Do you not only know the answers to all of these and other questions but are also proactively doing something about each of them? In a recent article in The Legal Intelligencer entitled "Firms, GCs Starting to Talk the Talk," Gina Passarella reports on the growing awareness of law firms of the necessity to dialogue with their clients about their delivery of legal services...

Sotomayor and Predicting Who Rises to the Top of the Lawyering Heap

Posted on July 17, 2009
The recent 5-4 Supreme Court ruling on the New Haven Fire Department vocational advancement exam in Ricci v. DeStefano once again stirs the waters on the question of how to choose the best from among a crowd. (See our entry "The Outliers of Law--Embracing Heresy"...

MBTI: All Because of A Lawyer, or Those Mothers-in-Law!

Posted on July 13, 2009
Not only do lawyers score very differently from the rest of the population on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) (see Muir's article "The Unique Psychological World of Lawyers"), but it appears that a lawyer was responsible for the development of the assessment in the first place...

Who is the Best and Brightest?

Posted on July 08, 2009
The Grant Study is an extraordinary longitudinal study undertaken in the late 1930s to shed light on "the urgent question of how to live well."  As participants, a group of 268 (male) Harvard College sophomores, including John F...

Spotting and Repairing Critical Talent Breakdowns

Posted on July 01, 2009
In the current stressful marketplace, the rate of lawyers' incidence of impairment has been ratcheting up from high (see, for example, our September 5, 2008 entry "The Depression Demon Coming Out of the Legal Closet") to even higher.  Firms suffer losses in productivity, morale and recruitment because of impaired lawyers, and also risk client desertions, losses to their reputations and malpractice liability...

The Outliers of Law--Embracing Heresy

Posted on June 26, 2009
Malcolm Gladwell's latest book Outliers, the Story of Success argues that what accounts for success is often not what we expect.  High IQs or a prodigious ability in computers or exceptional musical talent is not sufficient to explain Nobel Prize winners and Bill Gates and the Beatles...

Sotomayor's Qualifications

Posted on June 19, 2009
Regardless of what you think of Sonia Sotomayor's politics, President Obama has touted his Supreme Court nominee as having two distinct qualities that he implies our judges don't always have:  practicality and empathy.  What is the likelihood that any such description of her is correct?  And on what basis can we make such judgments? A look at what we know about lawyers' personal styles as shown on various assessments indicates that, indeed, lawyers are most likely to be "high concept" thinkers, or "Intuitors" according to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)...

Muir a Panelist at ALAS General Meeting

Posted on June 05, 2009
Ronda Muir will be a featured panelist at the annual general meeting of the Attorneys' Liability Assurance Society (ALAS) in Quebec City, Quebec to be held June 25-26.   ALAS is the premier provider of professional liability insurance for large law firms in the United States, currently insuring 237 firms...

Muir's Article on Lawyer Impairment Republished

Posted on June 04, 2009
Muir's September 5, 2008 entry on "The Depression Demon Coming Out of the Legal Closet" has been published in the Spring2009 newsletter of Virginia's Lawyers Helping Lawyers, a 20-year old non-stock corporation endorsed by the Virginia State Bar, The Virginia Bar Association, the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association and the Virginia Board of Bar Examiners.

What We Can Learn from the HOGS

Posted on May 21, 2009
"In times of drastic change, it is the learners who will inherit the earth.  The learned will be perfectly positioned for a world that no longer exists."  Swarthmore College's 2009 Lax Conference's keynote speaker Richard Teerlink started his presentation with this quote from Eric Hoffer...

Muir Participating in CCM Audio Conference on Associate Compensation

Posted on May 18, 2009
Ronda Muir is participating in an audio conference on Thursday, June 11, at 2pm presented by CCM on the topic of Retooling Associate Pay: Key Strategies to Adapt to the New Economy.  To register, go to http://www.c4cm.com/lawfirm/associatecompensation...

Seafaring through the Recession of 2009

Posted on May 14, 2009
In the April 20, 2009 issue of The New Yorker, James Surowiecki recalls that during the Depression (the one in the 1930s) Kellogg and Post, but primarily Post, dominated the cereal market. In response to uncertainty, Post reined in expenses and cut back on advertising...

Three Degrees of Influence

Posted on May 07, 2009
How far does your influence reach?  The February 2009 Harvard Business Review reported research by Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler indicating that while all kinds of behavior and attitudes spread through social engagement, with each additional degree of separation a person's influence progressively diminishes...

Building Teams that Work

Posted on May 01, 2009
Collaboration in the form of teamwork may be the 21st Century's technology, in that it promises strides in greater productivity--but only when done well.  It can also veer from chaos to constipation. David Maister's famous article Are Law Firms Manageable? questions whether lawyers can make the transition from "a managerial approach based on partner autonomy to new approaches that can create a well-coordinated set of team players...

Running From the Law

Posted on April 27, 2009
In the final tranche of a triad of bad news over the last few weeks, two recent reports--one about associates and another about partners--point out how, despite the current abysmal employment market, there are still lawyers of various stripes who, given the chance, would choose to jump overboard rather than hang on to their position...

Life Without Lawyers: Taking It on the Chin

Posted on April 20, 2009
A well-known investment banker confided recently that lawyers are partly to blame for the financial meltdown.  Why, apart from wanting to deflect the responsibility to someone other than bankers?  The reasoning was that, particularly with the advent of Sarbanes-Oxley, lawyers have become such an integral part of the business process that their bias toward risk-aversion has seeped into the bones of corporate decision-making, making those decisions technically compliant but shortsighted from a policy and business standpoint...

Are You Kind or Competent?

Posted on April 15, 2009
An article by psychologist Amy J.C.Cuddy in the February 2009 issue of the Harvard Business Review reports that we make fast assessments of people on two bases:  their intentions and their competence.  And more importantly, we assume one is related to the other...

We're Not Getting Smarter Either?

Posted on April 03, 2009
In another blow to our already wilting sense of competence, the UK reports that according to research from the Centre for Market and Public Organisation, lawyers surveyed there who were born in 1970 (now climbing the legal ranks) have lower IQs than lawyers assessed in 1958 (and now either in very senior management or already out the door)...

Muir to Participate in Swarthmore Lax Conference on Entrepreneurship

Posted on March 26, 2009
Ronda Muir will participate as a panelist and breakout leader in the Jonathan R. Lax Conference on Entrepreneurship on Sunday, March 29, 2009 at Swarthmore College in Philadelphia.  The topic of the conference is "Building a Strong Enterprise: Critical Skills for Successful Entrepreneurs...

Muir to Lead Audio Conference on Leadership for the Downturn

Posted on March 13, 2009
On Thursday, March 26, at 2:00 pm EST, Ronda Muir will lead an audio conference sponsored by the Center for Competitive Management entitled "Turning Lawyers Into Leaders: How to Survive the Economic Slide."  The discussion will cover who leaders are, what skills and attributes they should have in this economic climate and how to develop them...

Law Schools, Applicants and Graduates on the Move: Grades, Money and Fire

Posted on March 12, 2009
In a review of law school news, applications are holding steady but expected to go up, tuition is up, letter grades are being changed to pass/fail, big law firms continued through 2008 to hire apace, law schools are having it out with the ABA over accreditation, and then there is the case of the graduate who burned his Harvard Law School diploma...

Muir Discusses Downturn Management with Patent Law Firms

Posted on March 08, 2009
On Wednesday, March 25, at 12:30 pm EST, Ronda Muir and Robin Rolfe will lead a roundtable discussion of  "How Progressively Managed and Adaptive IP Firms Can Gain an Advantage in a Down Economy."  Offered at no charge to APLF members only, additional information on this program can be obtained by contacting admin@plf...

Innovation during the Downturn

Posted on March 06, 2009

February is the Cruelest Month: Tracking Layoffs

Posted on March 02, 2009

Five Great Things About the 2009 Depression

Posted on February 20, 2009
OK, the news has been relentlessly bleak these past few weeks-- Black Thursday followed by just as black Monday through Friday.  To keep things in perspective, here are five great things about the 2009 depression: 1. You don't have to worry about keeping up with the Joneses or the Cravaths...

Women of 2008: Their Accomplishments and Their Discontents

Posted on February 17, 2009
How did women in the spotlight fare in 2008? Here's a sweeping and eclectic review of women in business, politics and law--Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Governor Sarah Palin, Caroline Kennedy and Michelle Obama, among others--before the year is too far behind us...

Mistresses of the Universe

Posted on February 13, 2009
In a February 8, 2009 New York Times op ed column entitled "Mistresses of the Universe," Nicholas Kristof notes that senior staff meetings of Wall Street types resemble “a urologist’s waiting room” and suggests that "Wall Street could use an infusion of women as well as cash...

Fearing Fear

Posted on February 09, 2009
What happens to our ability to make good decisions going forward when we and all the world are gripped in fear of what we might lose (or already have lost)? Gregory Berns, director of the Center for Neuropolicy at Emory University, makes a good case in a recent New York Times article for the profound impact fear has on our decision-making...

Muir Lectures on Improving Management Decision-Making

Posted on February 06, 2009
On February 18, 2009 Muir will lecture students at Northwestern University's Business Institutions Program on how to improve management decision-making. Based in part on the article "Promoting an Effective Board or Management Group," the discussion will explore, among other subjects, optimal personality traits for good decision-making, constructing effective teams and avoiding extreme decisions.

More Diversity for the Diverse

Posted on February 06, 2009
A 2008 ABA Journal survey, with reponses from more than 1400 women lawyers, produced some interesting results as to who they prefer to work with.  Of the 42% of women who expressed a preference in the gender of colleagues, that preference was different depending on the age of the respondent...

Contemplating Radical Steps

Posted on January 31, 2009
The news is out:  "Law is becoming more of a business."  That was the headlights line by David Lat, founding editor of AboveTheLaw.com, in a January 25, 2009 New York Times article about the salary freezes, layoffs and dropping profits in the legal marketplace...

Psyching Out the New First Lawyers

Posted on January 23, 2009
What does behavioral science and our expertise about lawyers tell us about President and Mrs. Obama, who are both Harvard-educated lawyers? Assessments.   A number of assessment tools give us a profile of what a typical lawyer's attributes are...

High Performance Coaching for Low Performing Times

Posted on January 13, 2009
This is the time of year when many of us take stock of our direction and goals and make plans to step up our effectiveness.  This particular year, 2009, many lawyers are facing an extremely difficult once-in-a-century marketplace for which no one has been truly prepared...

Coping With More Bad News

Posted on December 30, 2008
Results from two surveys show growth at the country’s largest law firms to be down significantly in 2008 although employment is generally still on the rise. The National Law Journal’s 31st annual survey of the NLJ 250 reports that those firms added 4...

Bringing Behavioral Science to Economics

Posted on December 26, 2008
David Brooks' editorial in the October 28, 2008 New York Times predicted that the current financial crisis would "amount to a coming-out party for behavioral economists and others who are bringing sophisticated psychology to the realm of public policy...

Bringing Behavioral Science to Economics

Posted on December 22, 2008
pDavid Brooks' editorial in the October 28, 2008 emNew York Times/em predicted that the currentnbsp;financial crisis would quot;amount to a coming-out party for behavioral economists and others who are bringing sophisticated psychology to the realm of public policy...

Narcissists Abound--And Need A Coach

Posted on December 19, 2008
pWhat do you know?nbsp;Narcissists--big personalities with big egos who like to exert control and reject collaborative decision-making--are the ones leading many law firms through these perilous times.nbsp;/p pquot;Narcissistic leaders are distinguished by their big ideas...

Repairing Broken Windows

Posted on December 15, 2008
pAccording to the ldquo;broken windowsrdquo; theory of social science, addressing small concerns (like broken windows) that matter to individuals eventually produces major improvements in the overall sense of community and belonging, which in turn fuels a more committed, dedicated group...

Emotions of the Times

Posted on November 27, 2008
At a time of roiling emotions in the legal and financial sectors, successfully charting a path to the future may be impacted by how we perceive and respond to those emotions in our organizations.  A recent article entitled "Associates Should Keep Their Emotions in Check" advocates guarding the emotions associates experience in the law practice setting...

Friends, Tweets and Yammers

Posted on November 17, 2008
There is no denying that Gen X and Y are most comfortable interacting via technology--IMing, texting, emailing--possibly to the detriment of their face-to-face skills, as some contend.  Employees in large corporations have come to use this technology, particularly on line social sites, as a way to form community and communicate within vast, impersonal organizations...

The LIfe Cycle of Teams

Posted on November 13, 2008
Teamwork may be the 21st Century's technology, in that it promises greater productivity--but only when used well.  After seeing double digit increases in firms that have implemented team systems--management, marketing,  industry and client teams--an initial question many interested law firms have is how to go about achieving teamwork...

The Future of Law Practice, Heller Ehrman Style

Posted on October 27, 2008
In an article entitled "Welcome to the Future: Heller Shock?", Paul Lippe, founder and CEO of Legal OnRamp, a private interactive legal services site, makes the case that, in the future now dawning on the legal services industry, the inevitable downsizing will not only be a matter of laying off lawyers, but, as with the case of Heller Ehrman, the failure of large, global firms...

Muir Participates in CCM's Audio Conference on Profitability

Posted on October 22, 2008
Ronda Muir is participating  as a panelist in CMM's audio conference on "Revenue Per Lawyers: Increase Profitability not Billable Hours" being held at 2pm on Wednesday, October 29, 2008.  To register, please go to www.c4cm.com/lawfirm/lawyerrev...

Muir Presented ABA's Edge Award for Article on Emotional Intelligence

Posted on October 17, 2008
At the meeting of the American Bar Association's Law Practice Management section today in Tucson, Arizona, Muir was presented with the 2007-2008 Law Practice Magazine Edge Award for Bronze Feature Article for her article in the July/August 2007 issue of the magazine entitled "The Importance of Emotional Intelligence in Law Firm Partners...

The Brave New World of Testing for Hiring

Posted on October 08, 2008
Norton Rose, a 200 year old UK firm with over 1000 lawyers in 20 offices around the world, is considering scrapping its academic requirements for new hires in order to increase diversity.  How then to decide who to bring on board?  Like a number of leading UK law firms, it will rely on aptitude and psychometric testing instead...

Bad Financial News Before It Got Worse

Posted on September 29, 2008
Citibank's Law Firm Group has recently issued its mid-year financial assessment of the legal industry and it is not a pretty sight.  But that bad news is based on results as of June 30, 2008, well before the takeover of Freddie and Fannie, the bailout of AIG, the disappearance of WaMu and Wachovia and Merrill, and the bankruptcy of Lehman, not to mention the failure of the Congressional rescue plan, all of which portends even worse carnage to come...

The Depression Demon Coming Out of the Legal Closet

Posted on September 05, 2008
The depression demon attacks lawyers with particular vengeance, and denial and secrecy have long been the response. The recent loss to suicide of prominent lawyers from across the country, and the near loss of others, has inspired the courageous to speak out, a first step toward turning the professional spotlight on a condition that is rampant, but also treatable...

Girl Power at Work

Posted on September 02, 2008
In a recent article in The New York Times entitled “Girl Power at School, But Not at the Office,” Hannah Seligson gives some good advice to all working women, even those of the “post women’s right movement” generation in which she grew up...

Working Toward Happiness

Posted on August 09, 2008
Sonja Lyubomirsky, Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Riverside, admits being surprised by the results of the research she conducted on how to permanently increase happiness, funded by a 5-year million-dollar grant from the National Institute of Mental Health...

Blackberry Withdrawal

Posted on July 29, 2008
Linklaters is reported having decreed, in a fit of concern for work/life balance, that lawyers leave their Blackberrys at home while on holiday (vacation to us).The order is designed to insulate associates, in particular, from the relentless rat race for a few sweet weeks a year, according to management...

The End of Lawyers?

Posted on July 20, 2008
It isn't a tardy response to Dick the Butcher's rallying call in Shakespeare's King Henry VI to "kill all the lawyers" that may end it for us, according to the forthcoming book The End of Lawyers? Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services...

Muir Recognized for Emotional Intelligence Article

Posted on July 18, 2008
The American Bar Association has announced that Ronda Muir's cover article in the July/August 2007 issue of Law Practice magazine, entitled "The Importance of Emotional Intelligence in Law Firm Partners,"  has been awarded the 2007-2008 Law Practice Magazine Edge Award for Bronze Feature Article...

Developments in Associate Compensation

Posted on July 14, 2008
Muir will be participating in an IOMA audio conference presentation entitled "Associate Compensation: New Alternatives for a Difficult Economy" on July 22, 2-3:30 pm EST.  For more information or to register, go to www.ioma.com/audioconferences/1053...

The Ultimate in Telecommuting

Posted on July 14, 2008
Is a four-foot tall robotic standin the next step in telecommuting?  And what use would such a fellow be in a law firm or law department?  Currently telecommuting is often an adjunct to an employee's presence in the home office-- three days in, two days telecommuting, or three weeks in, one week telecommuting--and poses its own challenges:  how to condense complicated discussions into an email, how to make sure everyone gets enough face-time...

The Key to Commitment

Posted on July 03, 2008
The keynote speaker at the opening of the 2008 International Conference on Emotional Intelligence this week was Jim Kouzes, coauthor of the award-winning best-seller The Leadership Challenge, executive fellow at the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University, and, according to The Wall Street Journal, one of the twelve best executive educators in the U...

Working with Introversion

Posted on June 21, 2008
Lawyers are introverts, big time.  According to Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) results, almost 3/4th of lawyers, compared to only 1/4th of the general public, are introverts.  That means they go inward to charge their batteries-- preferring internal introspection to external interaction...

Historic Hillary--and Hesitation

Posted on June 09, 2008
Regardless of your politics, the last year has been a fabulous display of woman-power in the political arena. For the first time in American history, a woman was a major contender for her party's presidential nomination, and came damned closed to winning it...

The Evolving GC and Other Developments in Law Firm Management

Posted on May 28, 2008
The role of the full-time general counsel at law firms is evidently becoming entrenched, and also valued enough for firms to devote significant funds to the role.  So why does a big-law firm swim against that tide?Results from Altman Weil's 2008 survey of the Am Law 200, released at the end of April, found that, compared to the last survey conducted in 2006, the number of firms with full-time GCs remained stable at 85%, 83% percent of whom are litigation partners...

Coda: Happiness Hits the Bottom Line

Posted on May 10, 2008
In April, Shearman & Sterling's entire Mannheim office packed up and reverted back to its original form, Schilling Zutt & Anschutz.  What prompted the schism?"There are some great lawyers at Shearman & Sterling," one former partner is reported to have said...

The Pro Bono Angle

Posted on May 10, 2008
At a time of some idling in the legal industry, a good use of lawyer time may be to spiff up the old pro bono program.  Davis Polk & Wardwell recently announced the addition of Ronnie Abrams, former Manhattan US Attorney's Office prosecutor and daughter of renowned First Amendment litigator Floyd Abrams, as its first Special Counsel for Pro Bono...

"Gross National Happiness"

Posted on April 21, 2008
Shedding additional light on earlier explorations in this forum of the subject of happiness is a new book written by Arthur Brooks that distills mountains of data on the subject.  For one thing, politics and happiness turn out to be clearly correlated...

Testing for Law

Posted on April 05, 2008
The use of assessments worldwide is rapidly expanding and lawyers are still lagging at the back of the pack--way back.  An article by Lisa Belkin in yesterday's New York Times notes that there are 2,500 "profiling instruments" that companies rely on more every year when deciding whom to hire or promote...

Testing for Law

Posted on April 04, 2008
The use of assessments worldwide is rapidly expanding and lawyers are still lagging at the back of the pack--way back.  An article by Lisa Belkin in yesterday's New York Times notes that there are 2,500 "profiling instruments" that companies rely on more every year when deciding whom to hire or promote...

Making Law School Practical

Posted on March 20, 2008
Washington and Lee University School of Law has announced a plan to replace all third-year academic classes with hands-on "experiential" learning.  Recently approved unanimously by faculty, the new curriculum will be phased in over 3-4 years and teach practical skills by using simulations and real-client interactions...

The Secret Life of Success: Spitzer and Other Masters of the Universe

Posted on March 14, 2008
Of the gallons of ink dedicated to analyzing the eye-popping follies of Eliot Spitzer, by far the most trenchant view is contained in the March 14 New York Times OpEd piece by David Brooks. Permit me to quote whole sections of his article...

Joining the British in the Hunt for an Identity

Posted on March 05, 2008
Now that the British are doing it, maybe even law firms should consider giving it a try.  Articulating an identity, that is.  According to an article in the New York Times last month, Prime Minister Gordon Brown's new government has announced an effort to formulate a British "statement of values" defining what it mean to be British, much as the Declaration of Independence sets out what Americans stand for...

Muir Conducts Associate Compensation Videoconference

Posted on February 29, 2008
On Thursday, March 12, 2-3:15 pm EST, Muir will be conducting a audioconference for the Center for Competitive Management on Associate Compensation: Remain Competitive Without Breaking the Bank.  Included in the discussion will be a review of current trends and out-of-the-box ideas for dealing with the impact of escalating associate compensation, how to find the best strategy for your own law firm and overcoming the problems and pitfalls in making that strategy work...

Muir Conducts Associate Compensation Audioconference

Posted on February 29, 2008
On Wednesday, March 12, 2-3:15 pm EST, Muir will be conducting an audioconference for the Center for Competitive Management on Associate Compensation: Remain Competitive Without Breaking the Bank.  Included in the discussion will be a review of current trends and out-of-the-box ideas for dealing with the impact of escalating associate compensation, how to find the best strategy for your own law firm and overcoming the problems and pitfalls in making that strategy work...

Decorum, Virtue and Other Values in the Age of the Internet

Posted on February 26, 2008
Law firms are often bedeviled by the on-line shenanigans of their young (and sometimes not so young), who can carelessly leave a footprint permanently in cyberspace.  While these irritations don't often rise to the level in titillation value or PR devastation as some of the old-tech crimes perpetuated by errant employees/partners, like the Cravath tax lawyer who solicited children for sexual favors, those types of cases are (thankfully) fairly rare and have a limited media shelf life...

The Mathematical Proof for Diversity

Posted on February 08, 2008
What's the route to higher efficacy and productivity?  Might that be by staffing with "messy" groups?  So suggests a recent book entitled The Difference:  How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools and Societies by Scott E...

Muir Lectures on Group Decision-Making

Posted on February 08, 2008
On February 12, 2008 Muir is scheduled to discuss with students at Northwestern University's Business Institutions Program how to improve decision-making.  Based in large part on the information contained in "Promoting an Effective Board or Management Group," the discussion will explore, among other subjects, optimal personality traits for good decision-making and how to avoid extreme decisions.

Muir Participating in BigLaw Business Development Program

Posted on February 06, 2008
Muir is participating in a business development program for new partners of a global law firm.  The program involves small group training and individual coaching to produce individual business development plans that can help put new partners' careers on a productive course...

Look Who's Changing Now!

Posted on February 04, 2008
Lawyers have been making it into the big-time news lately.  That is, not just into the AmLaw publications, where spots about closely-argued decisions vie for those on the merger of the month, but onto the front page of  the New York Times SundayStyles section in early January  ("The Falling Down Professions") and more recently the front page of the NYT ThursdayStyles section ("Who's Cuddly Now?")...

Will You Ever Get Rid of Those Baby Boomers?

Posted on January 28, 2008
Baby-boomers are making their mark on the demographic frontier again--this time valiantly fending off the mandatory retirement that generations of law firm partners before them submitted to.  The Sidley Austin age-discrimination case, which arose when 32 partners lost their full partner status, ended last fall after two-and-a-half years and seven court decisions (all lost by Sidley Austin) without a decision on the merits...

Make Way for the Global Chief People Officer

Posted on January 21, 2008
In the era of the global law firm comes (wisely, in our view) the introduction of the position of Global Chief People Officer into law firm senior management .  Reed Smith announced last week that its creation of  the position underscores the increasing importance the firm places on running itself as a business...

Taking "Bah Humbug" out of Success in the New Year

Posted on December 31, 2007
Is living a life filled with distrust and deception the price of achieving professional success?  As we head into another year, it is a query worth pursuing.Steve Katz, adjunct professor at Northwestern University's Business Institutions Program, points out a bestseller published in 1998 that purportedly draws from centuries of powerful leaders (on the order of Machiavelli, Talleyrand, Bismarck, Catherine the Great, Mao, Kissinger, Haile Selassie, etc...

Is the Party Over?

Posted on December 26, 2007
For the first time in six years, law firm expenses in the US and the UK are growing faster than revenues, according to a recent article in The American Lawyer.  For the first six months of 2007, gross revenue grew at a strong 13.1%, well above the compound annual growth rate of 10...

The Fracturing World of Lock-Step Compensation: The Beginning of the End of Big-Firm Glory?

Posted on December 12, 2007
It is a scenario we in the legal field have come to expect--announcements of associate compensation increases are responded to in waves. First the largest firms rush to match them, then the mid-size firms determine how much they are going to raise compensation, often not in a dollar-for-dollar match, and then there is the soul-seeking by the smaller firms...

Women Board Members Are Where The Money Is

Posted on December 04, 2007
In a report released October 1st, Catalyst, a New York consultancy, found that Fortune 500 companies with at least three women on their boards strongly outperformed those companies with fewer or no women. Based on a study of four years of corporate results, the correlation was found to be so direct that the more women who serve on a board, the better the bottom line...

Professional Development Makes the Diversity Associate Happy

Posted on November 30, 2007
As many of the biggest law firms are concluding, “professional development” has become the preferred vehicle for addressing diversity attrition. Professional development encompasses enhanced orientation, mentoring, assignment and delegation processes, leadership training, career planning, diversity training, management skills, feedback training, business-development training, affinity groups and other tactics aimed at recruiting and keeping a diverse associate group...

Growing Leaders at Harvard and Other Business Schools

Posted on November 16, 2007
Growing future leaders at our best business schools increasingly involves teaching "softer" skills, and often using personal style assessments. One of the more rigorous and long-standing low-residence courses at Harvard Business School is the nine-week Owner President Management Course (OPM), which spans three years...

Lucky Is As Lucky Does: The Muscle Behind Happiness

Posted on November 13, 2007
A recent article in the New York Times on young 20-something Internet mega-millionaires quoted one as saying “You ask yourself, ‘Why am I not happier given how lucky I’ve been?’”While we as lawyers, being supremely circumspect, would rarely verbalize this sort of “squishy” sentiment out in the open, given the levels of unhappiness in our profession, it is a question we should be asking ourselves...

The Critical Ability of Emotionally Intelligent Legal Managers

Posted on November 06, 2007
What is the most important attribute to be looking for as you groom your young lawyers for management? A 2006 study reviewed in the Leadership and Organization Development Journal assessed the relationship between emotional intelligence and managerial effectiveness, confirming what you might expect...

Assessing Courage and Courageously Assessing

Posted on October 17, 2007
"We evaluate 'courage' as a behavioral characteristic of our lawyers, and we link this evaluation to compensation," says John P. Donahue, Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Rhodia Inc., in the July 2007 issue of InsideCounsel...

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Posted on October 11, 2007
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Interview with Steve Davis, Chairman of Dewey & LeBoeuf: It's All in the Feeling

Posted on October 03, 2007
According to Steve Davis, it all went pretty smoothly and quickly: negotiations in July and August, a preliminary agreement the last week of August, votes last Wednesday, September 26, and on Monday of this week, he became chairman of Dewey & LeBoeuf, the newest megafirm in the global law firm firmament, with 1300 lawyers, 26 offices in 12 countries, and a billion dollars in revenue...

Web Technology Makes Face Time Virtual

Posted on October 01, 2007
There is no substitute for face time, as people in my business are wont to insist. But maybe there is. During an interview with Mark Chandler, General Counsel of Cisco, to discuss the evolving legal marketplace, see Leaving Behind the Medieval Model, he demonstrated for me Cisco's newest entry (competing with Hewlett-Packard, Polycom and Tandberg, among others) into the web conference market— a small meeting room that boasts an IP (Internet Protocol) phone, three broadcast-quality cameras, three ultra-sensitive mikes, three 60-inch plasma screens, a crescent-shaped table that seats six and soft back-lighting...

Sullivan & Cromwell Proves Mom Right?

Posted on September 26, 2007
A grand old firm has gone through a rough patch recently—one of its associates not only sued for sexual orientation harassment and discrimination, but also proceeded to file partnership documents and communications that S&C certainly would prefer to not have circulating publicly...

Muir to Lead IOMA Audio Conference on Associate Compensation: Where Do We Go From Here?

Posted on September 12, 2007
On Thursday, September 21, at 2:00 pm EST, Ronda Muir will lead an audio conference on Associate Compensation: Where Do We Go From Here?  Included in the discussion will be a review of current trends and out-of-the-box ideas for dealing with the impact of escalating associate compensation, how to find the best strategy for your own law firm and overcoming the problems and pitfalls in making that strategy work...

Building an Ethical Culture

Posted on September 04, 2007
One of the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley rules for publicly traded companies is that they demonstrate that they are promoting an "ethical culture" in the workplace.  What does that mean?"The Manager's Book of Decencies:  How Small Gestures Build Great Companies" by Steve Harrison, chairman of Woodcliff Lake, N...

Article on Succession Planning Quotes Ronda Muir

Posted on August 30, 2007
"Think of a succession plan as life insurance for a law firm."  An article in the August 24-30 issue of the Puget Sound Business Journal entitled "Firms Make Plans to Carry on When Leaders Go" quotes Ronda Muir on the subject of succession planning and describes the services that she and Robin Rolfe Resources performed for a Seattle law firm...

Brilliant Women

Posted on August 27, 2007
As a woman, a lawyer and a consultant who specializes in emotional intelligence among arguably one of the most challenged professions of our species-- lawyers-- I cringe every time I see articles such as "Brilliant Women Last in Love," published August 18, 2007 in Australia's Herald Sun...

The Superman General Counsel

Posted on August 15, 2007
Behavioral science is not often invoked in the halls of law departments, but maybe it should be.  Two recent articles highlight the importance to a GC's success of understanding why people think and act as they do.General counsel are in the position of having to reconcile two jobs: being both a business partner in the management of the company's business and the guardian of the company's integrity...

Article on "The Looming Associate Crisis"

Posted on August 10, 2007
Ronda Muir's article "The Looming Associate Crisis" leads the July 2007 ALM Law Firm Partnership & Benefits Report, Volume 13, Number 6.   After reviewing statistics that show an ever-tightening supply, and potentially less qualified pool, of associates who are paid more yet leaving earlier than in years past, Muir recounts some of the tried (and perhaps less currently true) strategies for coping, and also identifies some more radical solutions that innovative, forward-looking firms can benefit from.

Banking Our Image

Posted on July 31, 2007
Burnishing an image that is bankable is what every professional tries to do--both for him/herself individually and for the profession as well.  Doctors take bed-side manners lessons, the NYPD are being instructed on common courtesies.  What about lawyers?  What do they do to bring out the gold?From the looks of things, not much...