Moving from one law firm to another is the most significant career decision an attorney can make. In this book seasoned legal recruiter Adam Weiss guides law firm partners—and aspiring partners—through the recruiting process. Using example situations and the experience gained from two decades as a lawyer and legal recruiter, the author explains how you can receive the best lateral offers by creating the perfect market: one where firms compete for your practice.
A Washington Post Bestseller Not all collaboration is smart. Make sure you do it right. Professional service firms face a serious challenge. Their clients increasingly need them to solve complex problems—everything from regulatory compliance to cybersecurity, the kinds of problems that only teams of multidisciplinary experts can tackle. Yet most firms have carved up their highly specialized, professional experts into narrowly defined practice areas, and collaborating across these silos is often messy, risky, and expensive. Unless you know why you’re collaborating and how to do it effectively, it may not be smart at all. That’s especially true for partners who have built their reputations and client rosters independently, not by working with peers. In Smart Collaboration, Heidi K. Gardner shows that firms earn higher margins, inspire greater client loyalty, attract and retain the best talent, and gain a competitive edge when specialists collaborate across functional boundaries. Gardner, a former McKinsey consultant and Harvard Business School professor now lecturing at Harvard Law School, has spent over a decade conducting in-depth studies of numerous global professional service firms. Her research with clients and the empirical results of her studies demonstrate clearly and convincingly that collaboration pays, for both professionals and their firms. But Gardner also offers powerful prescriptions for how leaders can foster collaboration, move to higher-margin work, increase client satisfaction, improve lateral hiring, decrease enterprise risk, engage workers to contribute their utmost, break down silos, and boost their bottom line. With case studies and real-world insights, Smart Collaboration delivers an authoritative case for the value of collaboration to today’s professionals, their firms, and their clients and shows you exactly how to achieve it.
A noble profession is facing its defining moment. From law schools to the prestigious firms that represent the pinnacle of a legal career, a crisis is unfolding. News headlines tell part of the story—the growing oversupply of new lawyers, widespread career dissatisfaction, and spectacular implosions of pre-eminent law firms. Yet eager hordes of bright young people continue to step over each other as they seek jobs with high rates of depression, life-consuming hours, and little assurance of financial stability. The Great Recession has only worsened these trends, but correction is possible and, now, imperative. In The Lawyer Bubble, Steven J. Harper reveals how a culture of short-term thinking has blinded some of the nation’s finest minds to the long-run implications of their actions. Law school deans have ceded independent judgment to flawed U.S. News & World Report rankings criteria in the quest to maximize immediate results. Senior partners in the nation’s large law firms have focused on current profits to enhance American Lawyer rankings and individual wealth at great cost to their institutions. Yet, wiser decisions—being honest about the legal job market, revisiting the financial incentives currently driving bad behavior, eliminating the billable hour model, and more—can take the profession to a better place. A devastating indictment of the greed, shortsightedness, and dishonesty that now permeate the legal profession, this insider account is essential reading for anyone who wants to know how things went so wrong and how the profession can right itself once again.
Discover how artificial intelligence can improve how your organization practices law with this compelling resource from the creators of one of the world’s leading legal AI platforms. AI for Lawyers: How Artificial Intelligence is Adding Value, Amplifying Expertise, and Transforming Careers explains how artificial intelligence can be used to revolutionize your organization’s operations. Noah Waisberg and Dr. Alexander Hudek, a lawyer and a computer science Ph.D. who lead prominent legal AI business Kira Systems, have written an approachable and insightful book that will help you transform how your firm functions. AI for Lawyers explains how artificial intelligence can help your law firm: Win more business and find more clients Better meet and exceed client expectations Find hidden efficiencies Better manage and eliminate risk Increase associate and partner engagement Whether focusing on small or big law, AI for Lawyers is perfect for any lawyer who either feels uneasy about how AI might change law or is looking to capitalize on the evolving practice. With contributions from experts in the fields of e-Discovery, legal research, expert systems, and litigation analytics, it also belongs on the bookshelf of anyone who’s interested in the intersection of law and technology.
Tournament of Lawyers traces in detail the rise of one hundred of the nation's top firms in order to diagnose the health of the business of American law. Galanter and Palay demonstrate that much of the large firm's organizational success stems from its ability to blend the talents of experienced partners with those of energetic junior lawyers driven by a powerful incentive—the race to win "the promotion-to-partner tournament." This calmly reasoned study reveals, however, that the very causes of the spiraling growth of the large law firm may lead to its undoing. "Galanter and Palay pose questions and offer some answers which are certain to change the way big firm practice is regarded. To describe their work as challenging is something of an understatement: they at times delight, stimulate, frustrate and even depress the reader, but they never disappoint. Tournament of Lawyers is essential to the understanding of the business of the big law firms."—Jean and Colin Fergus, New York Law Journal
An “engaging and suspenseful” novel of a first-generation Chinese American having second thoughts about her elite Manhattan law firm (The Wall Street Journal). Ingrid Yung’s life is full of firsts. A first-generation Chinese American, the first lawyer in her family, she’s about to collect the holy grail of firsts and become the first minority woman to make partner at the venerable old Wall Street law firm Parsons Valentine & Hunt. Ingrid has perfected the art of “passing” and seamlessly blends into the old-boy corporate culture. She gamely banters in the cafeteria, plays in the firm softball league, and earnestly racks up her billable hours. But when an offensive incident at the summer outing threatens the firm’s reputation, Ingrid’s outsider status is suddenly thrown into sharp relief. Scrambling to do damage control, Parsons Valentine announces a new diversity and inclusion initiative, commanding Ingrid to spearhead the effort—just as she’s about to close an enormous transaction that was to be her final step in securing partnership. For the first time, Ingrid begins to question her place in the firm. Pitted against her colleagues, including her golden-boy boyfriend, Ingrid wonders whether the prestige of partnership is worth breaching her ethics. But can she risk throwing away the American dream that’s finally within her reach? “Thought-provoking . . . [a] compelling tale.” —Booklist “Funny, fragile, sometimes bold, often unsure, Ingrid Yung is one of those unforgettable heroines that you actually miss, like a dear friend, when the story’s over.’“—Ann Leary, New York Times–bestselling author of The Foundling “Intriguing and entertaining.” —Library Journal
As lawyers move from one firm to another or from private practice into another sphere -- and as firms restructure to meet increasing economic demands -- numerous ethical, practical, and financial questions arise. Hillman on Lawyer Mobility is your definitive guide to this fast developing area of law.Hillman analyzes and clarifies all the urgent legal and ethical ramifications in such areas as: The downsizing of law firmsDisputes over the existence of a partnershipRestrictive covenantsDisincentives to competitionOne-sided fee-sharing agreementsNotice of withdrawalSection 42 elections for withdrawing partnersFiles as property of clientsRetaining liensEnforcement of ethics standards through arbitrationCollateral c
Best Practices in Law Firm Business Development and Marketing is a unique resource for law firm leaders, practicing attorneys, legal marketers, consultants, and educators who want to uncover the best marketing practices in the legal profession. Find out how the most successful law firm leaders are creating and developing firm cultures to encourage business development, and how smaller firms and single practitioners are executing on marketing plans to make an impact.This book uncovers the best practices in the wide arena of legal marketing and covers topics including: the most successful ways to create long-term relationships with clientshow personalities, leadership, and collaboration contribute to a firm's culture and brandwhat characteristics management should look for when hiring a CMOhow compensation, firm culture, training, and coaching can support and incentivize business developmentsteps to take to build an individual reputation and brand, including the use of press, speaking engagements, and social mediathe essential approach to support women lawyers with business development -- including ideas on networking, mentorship versus sponsorship, and authenticity in marketing how new technologies are being applied to deliver better service, attract clients, and generate businessthe important role of legal operations, the procurement professional, and legal process outsourcingpractical methods for evaluating AI solutions to business needs such as billing, e-discovery, and technology-assisted reviewCulled from scores of interviews with law firm leaders, chief marketing officers, and legal innovation visionaries, Best Practices provides actionable advice and real-world thinking. Each chapter is filled with information that can be scaled to apply to a single-person law practice as well as a large international law firm. In addition, the book features special "Think Pieces" from some of the nation's leading experts in legal marketing.
Guidebook for attorneys regarding selecting and working with legal recruiters. The book is targeted towards experienced attorneys in the United States, with an emphasis on major legal markets. Addresses both law firm and in-house searches.
