I highly recommend the MPF Leadership Conference. I’ve participated many times, as have several of my partners. We leave with new ideas and fresh perspectives every time.
Thank you for allowing me to participate. Your team is masterful at making all feel valued at your event and I dare say helping attendees see the value in attending.
Thank you for the invite to speak on the Managing Partner panel. Even though I have now attended 7 MPFs, I always bring back substantive and helpful information for my partners.
From my perspective, the conference went extremely well. Thank you for inviting me to participate; I was proud to be part of a very talented faculty. Congratulations to all!
Thanks for partnering with us from the ABA Law Practice Division. Very well organized. Your team knows precisely what they are doing and we appreciate you.
It was indeed a very well run and informative conference. I especially enjoyed meeting the participants and other faculty and learning from them. Thank you, John, for giving me the opportunity to participate.
Our new managing partner, Wynn Shuford, attended your conference last month and has raved about it ever since. Thanks for your continued great work in the area of law firm leadership.
The conference was tremendous and I've already made tentative plans to attend next year's event. I've also reached out to other firm leaders I know to let them know the advantages of the Managing Partner Forum. Thank you.
I've attended two events through John's Managing Partner Forum. They are always of high quality, and provide invaluable information that is useful to our firm.
Thank you for what you do for our industry. I go to a lot of conferences, and your event is the one I look forward to and gain the most from each year.
I found this conference to be extremely valuable. We all face very similar challenges, and it’s comforting to know that others share the same questions and concerns.
The MPIE sessions are always very helpful. We implemented several successful programs after the last Forum and I expect we'll do so again after what I learned today.
The group dynamics in the MPIE sessions are a great value. I liked Susan Hackett (General Counsel of the Association for Corporate Counsel) on Skype, too.
The MPF brings together the leaders of Florida's top firms, together with experienced consultants, for a great exchange of ideas and information. It's an excellent resource.
Since the majority of our firm’s business is referred by other law firms, The Forum is a great place to catch up with our clients while also learning from my peers. It’s a terrific program.
I attended The Managing Partner Forum and thought it was outstanding. The program provided an excellent opportunity to benchmark my firm’s performance with our peer group.
The MPF provides much-needed interaction for those of us in the 'isolated' role of managing partner of a mid-sized firm. I liked the professionalism of the attendees.
I truly appreciated the opportunity to interact with other managing partners throughout the region. Well done!
The successful managing partner develops a clear sense of strategic direction, so that on most days most partners are marching in the same direction. How one does this is what the Forum is all about.
The MPF provides a rare opportunity for managing partners to gather and share insights and perspectives on ways to be more effective law firm leaders.
There is a difference between leadership and management. Law firms need both. The managing partner must be the keeper of the vision and its continuous champion.
The Managing Partner Forum provides a unique venue to network with other managing partners so I can learn new ways to be more successful in today’s climate.
The Managing Partner Forum offers an invaluable opportunity to learn about the latest trends in the legal industry and to compare notes with other law firm leaders.
The exchange of practical ideas and hearing success stories from other managing partners is what I liked best. This program could have easily lasted two days.
The discussions were surprisingly open and productive. I came away with much information on where we are doing well, ideas for improvement and strategies for capitalizing on opportunities.
The Managing Partner Idea Exchanges were the best part of the day. I very much appreciate the opportunity to participate and will be here again in the future.
The Keynote Presentation was concise, to the point and had great written materials and presentation slides. It certainly measured up to its advertising and then some!
This short article (about 1,200 words) sets out what I’ve learned over the years about what law firms must do to attract and retain younger lawyers. Like it or not, today’s younger lawyers tend to...
Diversity is on the minds of most managing partners and it’s definitely important to your clients and prospective recruits. This article touches on the economics associated with creating a "family-friendly" workplace.
How do you communicate with the younger professionals in your firm without sounding like an adult in a PEANUTS cartoon? “Wa-wah, wa-wah.” Haserot specializes in helping firms get things done by understanding the different communications...
In far too many law firms, the path to partnership is unclear and unspoken. For many, it’s a matter of time served, coupled with the fact that the would-be partner has done a reasonably good...
We’ve all read about the disappointing results many firms have had with lateral hiring, with failure rates as high as 60-70% according to some reports. The cost and distraction associated with a bad deal can...
Attracting and retaining young lawyers is a vexing issue for leaders of smaller and mid-size law firms. Let’s face it. Today’s young lawyers are quite different than their counterparts from 30 and 40 years ago....
Be very strategic and deliberate if your firm plans to grow through lateral hiring at the partner level, because you can’t afford to make mistakes! Consider these findings: 75% of managing partners expect lateral hiring...
While the vast majority of managing partners of smaller and mid-size firms say their firms want to maintain independent, it’s interesting to note that merger activity among US law firms is at all-time high according...
We met Bob Denney almost 30 years ago at a conference in Minneapolis, and we've been good friends ever since. He is a pioneer in law firm management and marketing. In his July 2015 Legal...
The law firm merger market is starting to reawaken according to separate reports published by Hildebrandt International and Altman Weil. Although both reports show that firms aren’t ready to resume the highly aggressive growth strategies contemplated...
After months of meetings and due diligence, your firm has just landed a five-star recruit – a young hot-shot lateral hire with an oh-so-attracive book of business. Now what? Too often, we find that firms...
This article from ALA’s Legal Management magazine provides numerous practical, common-sense ways a law firm can improve its profitability. Among its suggestions: Stay current on collections and invest in technology to improve efficiency.
This thought-provoking article was featured in Law Practice Today, the ABA’s monthly online magazine. In it, William Blackburn reports on a growing number of law firms that have adopted new models of governance to help them survive, even thrive, in both...
This article contends that companies that are good at growing leaders do so in the trenches at the “line manager” level, not through their HR departments. That would equate to a department head and practice...
Millennials have now surpassed GenXers as the largest generation in the US workforce and will soon constitute the highest percentage of lawyers in private practice. Yet, many law firm leaders and their firms remain vexed...
No doubt, the legal profession has experienced tumultuous change over the past 20 years. Accelerated by the Great Recession, many of these developments are permanent and will forever change the business of law, the experts...
According to research by Cushman & Wakefield and published in its annual report called Bright Insight, these are the top six factors today’s young lawyers look for in a law firm: Work/Life Balance Collegial Workplace...
In July 2012, Sterling Strategies conducted some interesting research attempting to identify the characteristics of the “model partner” in a law firm. According to John’s research, the characteristics, in order of importance, are: Book of Business, Working...
BigLaw, with their highly paid recruiting and professional development staffs, is doing a pretty fair job articulating and enforcing the criteria to become an equity partner. Unfortunately, this is not the case for many smaller...
We've worked with numerous firms over the past several years on this question, and our advice is often the same: Bigger is not always better. The combination should be thoughtful and strategic. The sum of...
Compensation is a hot-button topic for almost every managing partner. It is also a critical driver behind the lateral movement of equity partners. This article by placement specialist Jane Sender provides an overview of recent trends in law...
We like two-tiered partnership structures and, for most law firms, they make a lot of sense for a lot of reasons. Simply stated, owners of law firms should act and contribute like owners, not employees....
Despite BigLaw’s obsession with growth and firm size over the past ten years, many of the largest US firms are taking more measured and strategic approaches to growth, according to the 2016 NLJ 500 Survey...
At no other time in our nation’s history have we had this many different generations – Baby Boomers, Gen Xers and Millenials – working side-by-side. See if you can identify with any of the characteristics...
Good news for smaller and mid-sized firms, according to this article which appears in the current issue of Inside Counsel magazine. According to a recent survey of over 550 in-house counsel, 65% say they have...
Research firm Catalyst conducted a survey of minority female lawyers and offers these insights into why most of these women are leaving law firms within the first five years.
Law firms often struggle with how to get associates and younger professionals involved in business development early in their careers. In this article, Maister offers the best piece of advice – they should start by...
This article starts off by asking "Are you going to follow the lemmings or set your own course?" The lemmings that Cobb refers to are firms that make merger and acquisition decisions based on practice...
For many years, our colleagues at Altman Weil have been tracking merger and acquisition activity among US law firms. In 2017, they track 102 such combinations. The average size of the acquired firm is 27...
Consolation is a clear and ongoing trend in the US legal market, and Altman Weil has been tracking law firm merger activity since 2006. After a post-recession dip in the number of law firm combinations,...
Forum Faculty member John Smock and his partners recently wrote this assessment of how law firms are performing in the midst of the current economic downturn. And it’s not as bad as you might think for the...
Generations at Work ($27, AMACOM) is an invaluable resource to help firm leaders understand and appreciate the differences of these four generations within the firm, and provides workable solutions to bridge the gaps among them. It comes highly recommended by our friends at the Association of...
The Complete Guide to Understanding, Controlling and Stopping Bullies and Bullying at Work ($21.95, Atlantic Publishing) offers guidance in identifying and defining workplace bullying, including how to identify characteristics of a bullied employee, pathological characteristics of workplace...
If we could only recommend one book to a lawyer in private practice, it would be True Professionalism ($26, Simon & Schuster)! Maister's lesson is clear: believe passionately in what you do and never compromise your standards and values....
Even today, 60% of mid-size commercial law firms do not have a written strategic plan. Among those that do, 90% report that it has led to improved firm profitability and performance. Why, then, do most...
Founded in 1971, the Association of Legal Administrators (ALA) has grown to more than 10,000 members in 30 countries. If your firm is looking for a new administrator, its Career Center has a number of...
On occasion, we kick off the MPF Leadership Conference with a keynote presentation to set the stage for the Conference. In 2018, we invited Patrick Fuller to present an overview of the legal industry based...