The money part is simple. But how do firms win on culture? The above 2×2 matrix provides a window on the war for associate-level law firm talent in the London-UK market.  The firms in the top-right quadrant are winning.  This is true for two reasons.  First, they’re paying salaries at or near the top of the market.  Second, they’re earning high marks for their culture–what I called a culture of “high performance.” As a result,…

As editor of Legal Evolution, I am pleased to announce that Evan Parker is joining Legal Evolution as a regular contributor. Many readers likely remember Evan’s guest post from the fall, where he presented compelling data showing that, controlling for a wide range of factors, law firms with a higher percentage of diverse attorneys are significantly more profitable.  See Parker, “Missing in Action: Data-Driven Approaches to Improve Diversity (074),” Legal Evolution, Nov. 25,…

Why do we attend legal industry events?  What makes them worth our time? Valuable blue sky remains. Earlier this month I participated in the Inspire.legal conference in New York City.  Because Inspire.legal was sufficiently different than any other legal industry event I have attended, I began ruminating on the question “why?” The matrix above, which reflects industry events I have attended over the the last 15+ years, and thus excludes those I have no firsthand…

For many of us, the most credible and reliable data comes from getting our ass kicked In his 2006 novel, Utterly Monkey, the lawyer-turned-writer Nick Laird tells the story of Danny Williams, a young man from Ireland who overcomes his working class roots to land a job at a Magic Circle law firm. Although the high pay enables Danny to rent a posh London flat, he’s rarely there. Further, Danny worries that the long…

“If you set out to be an innovative company but don’t have or can’t create an A+ team of people, you’re just fantasizing. You really need great people.” — Prof. Gary Pisano, Harvard Business School…

How do we become lawyers who can see, understand and solve the biggest picture issues? One lawyer’s mid-career reflection. I came to law from engineering. My previous training and trade create an outsider’s inside perspective on how we solve problems with the practice of law. As lawyers, we often lay bricks to address the instant problem instead of looking at the bigger picture, spotting patterns, and architecting solutions that efficiently create more value. An experience from the second month of my practice as a corporate associate at a big law firm exemplifies the pattern that I…

Legal Evolution is proud to welcome contributor Jason Barnwell.  Regular readers are likely to remember Jason from the detailed write-ups of Microsoft’s Trusted Advisor Forum on Innovation, see Post 068 (by me); Post 069 (epic post by Jae Um), as Jason was the person who was charged with creating and implementing this very important strategic initiative. There were two reasons why I asked Jason to consider contributing to Legal Evolution.  First, I was impressed with…