As noted at the outset of this year, Sterling Strategies has partnered with the Managing Partner Forum and TheRemsenGroup for a series of monthly mini-surveys of managing partners on topics of strategic importance to law firms and their leaders. It…
Most law firms are deeply in (or about to enter) budget season. We surveyed law firm leaders last year regarding best practices around budget development. As a seasonal follow-up to that survey, we offer the following five tips to improve…
Steven Harper wrote a terrific piece on law firm culture in response to the latest Citi Private Bank/Hildebrandt update on the legal market. Harper is incredulous of Citi/Hildebrandt’s warning that “Law firms discount or ignore firm culture at their peril.” …
Throughout the course of 2012, Sterling Strategies conducted monthly mini-surveys, each focused on a single strategy topic. The intent was to develop some empirical data on what works and what does not work relative to a variety of strategic management…
Our strategy topic for the November 2012 focused on where the future leaders of law firms will be coming from. There is a simple industry wide issue relative to generational demographics. A very large cohort of baby boomer partners…
Our September Law Firm Strategy Question of the Month focused on the budget process. Specifically, this month’s quick survey identified the budgeting practices that are most useful in real world settings in law firms. As in past months, we also…
The budget process is right around the corner – at least for the vast majority of firms that are on a calendar year cycle. These quick monthly surveys are primarily intended to build a foundation of useful information and benchmarks…
The August 2012 law firm strategy question of the month focused on managing under productive partners – what approaches firms take to the issue; what works and what does not; and how the process plays out over time. In a…
Last month’s law firm strategy question of the month asked law firm leaders to create a ‘model partner’ (i.e., a partner with the optimal balance of positive characteristics). The ‘model partner’ results can be found in the July 2012 archives…
Our July law firm strategy question of the month focused on the characteristics that comprise a “model partner.” While crafting the balance of behaviors and traits of an ideal partner is a bit more fun (and bit less strategic) than…
This month’s strategy question is designed to be a bit of fun – but, in the service of a serious strategic issue. As law firm leaders are well aware, lateral movement by partners has increased dramatically over the past decade-plus.…
STRATEGY QUESTION OF THE MONTH Our first ever strategy question of the month seeks to highlight what characteristics of partner satisfaction systems are most closely associated with overall satisfaction with the system. We asked three related questions: What are the…
Welcome to the first of our “question of the month” feature. This month we are exploring satisfaction with partner compensation systems to determine if particular system characteristics correlate with overall satisfaction. Survey questions are just below the signatures and tags…