A Tale of Two Sales
The merger and acquisition market of law firms in Australia appears to have gathered pace this calendar year. Already I have undertaken 11 valuations – with five of these being…
Continue readingBuying, Selling or Merging With Other law Firms in 2021
View full article here – Buying, selling or merging with other law firms in 2021. By Jerome Doraisamy for Lawyers Weekly together with Sue-Ella Prodonovich of Prodonovich Advisory, Riana Steyn of Bartier Perry…
Continue readingAre SMEs well placed to scoop senior talent right now?
View full article here – Are SMEs well placed to scoop senior talent right now? By Jerome Doraisamy for Lawyers Weekly together with Sue-Ella Prodonovich of Prodonovich Advisory, Mary Digiglio of Swaab…
Continue readingFirm Mergers in the Midst of a Global Pandemic
Listen to the full episode with Sam Coupland for Lawyers Weekly Oversupply of lawyers means firm mergers will continue amid COVID-19 There was a “huge appetite” for mergers pre-pandemic, and the age of…
Continue readingSetting, Measuring and Coaching High Performance
Anecdotally, 2019 was a solid year for most practices throughout Australia and New Zealand. It has been a long time since I have heard a partner tell me they don’t…
Continue readingProfit-Sharing in Smaller Partnerships
In my most recent article, I looked at some alternative options for profit-sharing among law-firm partners. All of the options I described can be found in mid-sized and large firms….
Continue readingA Merger of Unequals
As the merger activity in Australia and New Zealand continues to gather pace we are seeing a variety of deals being struck in order to get a result. Before any…
Continue readingSplitting the Pie: Some Thoughts on Profit Sharing Among Partners
According to the great David Maister, “Profit-sharing arrangements between partners are among the most difficult set of issues in professional service firm management”. The way partners share profit goes right to…
Continue readingSharing Profit and Millennial Partners
The millennial generation, born from 1981 to 1996 (or thereabouts), now 23 to 38 years of age (or thereabouts), are THE succession plan for most law firm partnerships. I wonder…
Continue readingEquity: From Goodwill to no Goodwill
In recent years I have been engaged by a number of firms to change their equity arrangements and transition from a ‘goodwill firm’ to a ‘no goodwill firm.’ The push…
Continue readingPlanning for the New Year: An Approach for Small Firms
This is an article that contains a methodology that I first published in 2000. Nineteen years on, during a time of change, we often forget the basics, those things that…
Continue readingLaw Firm Mergers: Why and How?
In March this year, I wrote an article citing the large number of mergers in the Australian and New Zealand market. Some of these mergers were quite public but most flew…
Continue readingCharacteristics of Winning Small Firms
It was my recent pleasure to attend the annual conference of a group of affiliated small firms that I have known for about 25 years. Every now and then they…
Continue readingDo Financial Incentives Work in Law Firms?
Incentives are complex and, according to Wikipedia, omnipotent: ”The study of incentive structures is central to the study of all economic activities (both in terms of individual decision making and in…
Continue readingChallenges in Selling a Legal Practice
Generational change in the legal profession of Australia and New Zealand has led to discussion around the value of a legal practice – is there any, or is it just…
Continue readingMerger Fever in the Air
2018 is shaping up as the year of the merger. Somewhat understandably, the legal media only report the larger mergers and there have been three of them – one concluded…
Continue readingIn Defence of Holidays
I’m on holiday. On vacation (Verb and Noun; fixed period of cessation from work), not doing work stuff, painting the deck, swimming, walking, surfing, flagrantly abusing new year’s resolutions to…
Continue readingStrategy on the Back of an Envelope
I’ve just participated in a two-week charity fundraising event, driving 40-year-old cars 5000 kilometres through the Australian outback to raise money for disadvantaged kids. The fleet consisted of 95 pre-1976…
Continue readingThe Importance of Deciding to do it
Two consulting engagements in the past couple of months illustrate why some firms fly and some firms flounder, particularly in the smaller end of the market. There were a lot…
Continue readingSome Thoughts on Cost of Production
Not that long ago, law firms were price setters. We decided what profit we wanted, tallied up the expenses, set a chargeable hours budget, and hey presto: we had an…
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