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Practice Management

Law People

Ronda Muir is a senior consultant at Robin Rolfe Resources, specializing in the area of law firm and law department organizational development and dynamics.
By Ronda Muir

Post Frequency: 1.1/day

Last Entry: March 23, 2011 at 19:58:24

Muir to Discuss Origination and Other Partnership Compensation Issues

Posted on September 22, 2010
Muir will co-present with Peter Zeughauser an audio conference hosted by Center for Competitive Management (CCM) on Thursday September 30, 2010 from 2:00 pm to 3:15 EST. "Origination Credit and Partner Compensation for the New Legal Landscape" will include discussions of what origination is and how to measure it, what role origination plays in changing compensation systems, the impact of the recession and other factors on compensation, and specific compensation challenges, including dealing with succession, laterals and motivating leadership...

The GCs Speak Out

Posted on September 17, 2010
Over the last few weeks, GCs have used the opportunity to speak out from lecterns at various events about what they expect from their outside lawyers. Here's a short collection with more to come. Diversity "No corporate law department ever hired or fired an outside firm because of their diversity despite all the noise about corporate diversity objectives...

The Lateral Lottery

Posted on August 25, 2010
Back when we were all focused on raising our retention rate of associates, I also waved the flag about the poor retention rate we have with the lateral partners we hire--a musical chair game that has been in full swing for a number of years and seems to have survived or at least is being revived after the downturn...

Judging Good Lawyering

Posted on August 16, 2010
There are only two bases on which most legal services are ultimately judged: 1) outcome and 2) interpersonal interaction. Of course, price is important but a wide range in price is tolerated as a function of 1 and 2. It can be very difficult for a client to judge outcome -- what part of the results in a particular trial or deal was achieved due to one's own lawyer's competence and what might be due to weak or strong witnesses or deal terms, the client's role, poor or great opposing counsel, a sympathetic or simply mistaken judge or just pure luck? Even, perhaps particularly, lawyer clients are not particularly good at determining the interplay of those factors...

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Decision-Making on Trial: Are We Promising More Than We Can Deliver?

Posted on August 04, 2010
A new book out this year entitled Beyond Right and Wrong: The Power of Effective Decision Making for Attorneys and Clients by Randall Kiser analyzes 11,306 attorney-client decisions in actual litigation matters and summarizes over 40 years of research regarding judge, jury, litigant and attorney decision making...

Natural Morality

Posted on July 27, 2010
David Brooks' editorial in the Friday, July 23rd New York Times was on morality, in particular the type which naturalists view as another outcome of evolution. The naturalist position is that, much as we have over time developed receptors for sweetness and saltiness, we have also developed receptors that recognize fairness and cruelty...

Does Associate Satisfaction Still Matter?

Posted on July 12, 2010
The American Lawyer recently published its A-List, AmLaw's "look beyond pure dollars to quantify the 20 most successful law firms." What it "looks" at to make that assessment is revenue per lawyer, pro bono commitment, diversity and associate satisfaction...

Will Law Schools Help Build a Healthier Profession?

Posted on June 30, 2010
According to a recent article in the ABA Journal, "Law schools need to do more than teach the legal basics--they also have a moral obligation to produce healthy and satisfied lawyers." Specifically, Michael Serota, a recent law grad, suggests in his opinion column in the New York Law Journal that law schools "help students identify their professional values and make individual career decisions that correspond to those values...

"Mindset: The New Psychology of Success"

Posted on June 18, 2010
In a recent interview about her book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Dr. Carol Dweck, the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford University, explained how a person's mindset can account for success. She identifies two major mindsets--fixed and growth...

Diversity at SCOTUS and Beyond

Posted on June 04, 2010
In addition to the factors we pointed out as relevant in evaluating the Sotomayor Supreme Court nomination, recent studies provide some additional insight into the impact of minority judges just in time for consideration of Kagan's SCOTUS nomination. The ABA Judicial Division reported this spring on two studies conducted by the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business, one of which examined 40% of reported racial harassment cases from six federal circuits from 1981 to 2003 while the other reviewed over 500 Title VII sexual harassment and sex discrimination cases...

A Short History of the Disappearing PPP

Posted on May 26, 2010
Steve Brill, the initial publisher of The American Lawyer, some 30 years ago invented the AmLaw 100 and began reporting comparative financial figures for that group of firms. Surprisingly enough, firms submitted that information for him to publish, showing definitively how much money lawyers are making on the backs of their clients...

Muir Discusses Leadership at WLA Conference

Posted on May 20, 2010
Muir participated in a panel discussion last week at the Women Lawyers Alliance first Annual Conference, held in Chicago. Muir and fellow panelists author Shaunti Feldhahn, eminent psychologist Dr. Florence Denmark and psychologist/coach Karen Kahn identified some of the challenges and facilities women have in making their mark as leaders in law firms, and also addressed specific questions on how to improve rainmaking skills, solve the perennial work/life dilemma, and give effective feedback to junior lawyers...

The School Yard Fights Over Emotional Intelligence

Posted on April 30, 2010
In case you haven't been keeping tabs on the school yard fights about emotional intelligence, you can get a quick taste by checking out the Newsweek NurtureShock Blog interview last fall (and its related predecessors and successors) of Daniel Goleman, who became the once and forever media champion of EI with the publication in 1995 of his book Emotional Intelligence; Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, followed by more articles, books and interviews than you can count...

Muir Leads Associate Seminar on Business of Law

Posted on April 22, 2010
Muir recently led an Introduction to the Business of Law seminar for junior associates at an AmLaw 100 firm. The presentation is customized to the firm and is gauged to bolster associates' engagement and loyalty and to improve their productivity...

Convergence: Good Riddance or Here to Stay?

Posted on April 22, 2010
The recent upsurge in the financial well-being of small and mid-sized firms, and their lower hourly rates, has left some wondering if the Age of Convergence is waning. The eponymous DuPont Model, developed in the 1990s, started a consultant-fed surge of mergers and consolidations of firms in pursuit of making or remaining on the preferred provider lists that major corporations were furiously winnowing...

Muir's "The Diversity Myth" Published

Posted on April 17, 2010
An article based on Muir's blog entry "What do Women Want? Challenging the Diversity Myth" has been published in the ABA's April 2010 webzine Law Practice Today. The issue focuses on effective diversity strategies in law practice management...

Trimming to the Bone

Posted on April 16, 2010
As our entry Barbarians at the Partnership Gate? on January 10 predicted, the great partner smack down is getting under way, and the first out of the box is Howrey's announcement last month that it was dismissing up to 10% of its partners...

Are Your Superstars Spoiling the Apple Cart?

Posted on April 09, 2010
Should we be identifying and spotlighting our superstar associates? Recent research may be pointing to an unexpected answer. Economic tournament theory addresses competitive situations where success is based on relative rather than absolute performance (think sports games vs...

Muir to Lead Discussion on Lateral HIring and Integration

Posted on April 02, 2010
From 2:00 pm to 3:15 EST on Thursday April 29, 2010 Muir will lead an audio conference discussion hosted by the Center for Ccompetitive Management (CCM) entitled "Lateral Partner Hires: Selecting and Integrating the Best Fit for the Firm," centering on the issues associated with hiring and integrating lateral partners...

Georgetown Law School Center for the Study of the Legal Profession's Conference -- "Law Firm Evolution: Brave New World or Business as Usual?"

Posted on March 26, 2010
It was my great pleasure--something I don't often say about a conference-- to attend this invitation-only gathering last week, March 21-23, of both august and up-and-coming law industry professionals as they prognosticated the future of our practice and what that might in fact look like up close for a broad array of providers and clients...

Muir a Panelist at Women Lawyer's Alliance's Conference

Posted on March 21, 2010
Muir will be a panelist at the Women Lawyers Alliance's (WLA) Inaugural Spring 2010 Conference: Rainmaking Equals Influence to be held May 13 and 14, 2010 at the Wyndham Hotel in Chicago, Illinois. The conference is designed to help women achieve their full potential and will focus on equipping them with the skills to help them reach their individual rainmaking goals...

Historic New Name

Posted on March 15, 2010
In a short followup to our last entry on diversity, note that Kathleen Sullivan, a woman with impeccable credentials, has taken the historic step of becoming the first female name partner at an AmLaw 100 firm: Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan...

What Do Women Want? Challenging The Diversity Myth

Posted on March 05, 2010
Monday, March 8, is International Women's Day. So how are we doing? Bain and Company recently released results of a survey, reported in the Harvard Business Review, of 1,800 business people worldwide. 80% believed that companies benefit from a gender diverse workforce; 75% reported having initiatives in their workplace to improve gender parity; but less than 25% felt those initiatives were effective...

Muir to Participate in ALAS Panel on Lateral Partners

Posted on February 28, 2010
Muir will participate in a webinar entitled 'Think Like a Lateral—How to Hire and Retain Quality Lawyers' to be presented on Tuesday, March 9 for the members of the Attorneys' Liability Assurance Society (ALAS).

The New Dominance of Change

Posted on February 12, 2010
Back in 1998 management guru Peter Drucker suggested that the capability to operate productively when change is the norm would be critical in the 21st century. Much has been said of late on this issue of managing change when change is the norm, including articles in the Harvard Business Review and from McKinsey...

Muir Lectures on Improving Management Decision-Making

Posted on February 11, 2010
On Wednesday, February 17, 2009 Muir will lecture students at Northwestern University's Business Institutions Program on improving management decision-making, using law firm management committees as a case study. 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, how to construct effective teams and the challenge of avoiding extreme decisions...

Can Introverts Lead?

Posted on February 02, 2010
Firms are placing their futures at risk if they cannot identify, develop and empower the next generation of leaders. So it is no surprise that more law firms are investing in leadership development. For example, according to PaLAW 2009's 14th annual Managing Partners Survey, cited in the November 23, 2009 issue of The Legal Intelligencer, the number of firms surveyed that provide leadership training at any level increased from 40...

Muir to Speak on Business Development as Part of Partner Compensation

Posted on February 01, 2010
Ronda Muir is participating as a panelist in CCM's audio conference on "Compensation for Client Development: Tracking, Measuring and Rewarding for New Business Origination" being held at 2pm on Thursday, February 18, 2010. To register, please go to http://www...

Barbarians at the Partnership Gate?

Posted on January 22, 2010
The partner smack down has started. Here's the most recent tally for equity partner announcements: Skadden, Arps named 8 new partners, down from 25; Debevoise & Plimpton named 2, down from 6; Weil, Gotshal promoted 3, down from 7; Cleary Gottlieb elected 4 new partners, half as many as in 2008; Ropes & Gray named one-third fewer with 8 new partners; Latham & Watkins cut promotions 25% to 23; Davis Polk & Wardwell named 4 partners compared to 6 a year earlier; Proskauer Rose named 4 to partnership, 1 less than in 2008; Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher named 11 new partners, compared to 13 in 2008; and Wachtell, Lipton, the most profitable firm in the country, named 2 new partners, down from 6 last year...

What's an Hour Worth Now?

Posted on January 13, 2010
While no one in his or her right mind yet concedes it, let's just assume that the tides have turned and the billable hour is a thing of the past. What becomes of all the firm procedures and evaluation and promotion and compensation systems triggered or run by billable hours? How do you tell your associates how much you expect them to work? What do you do about all those compensation systems--some affecting associate salaries and bonuses, but certainly many determining partner takehome--that require the input of some measure of billable hours--pro bono hours, firm management hours, marketing hours, hours of originated work, hours of work serviced, etc...

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