Recipe for disaster: secrecy, unfair competition, deteriorating culture and even a partnership agreement that did not foresee that it was too generous to departing partners if more than a handful left at a time…

Joanna Pachner of Canada’s highly respected publication,  Financial Post Business, writes in detail today about how and why the highly respected and profitable Canadian law firm of Goodman & Carr met its demise.

Punchline:  If you are on the senior management team of your law firm, this may be a beacon of what to avoid in your own firm’s future.  And, integrity drives me to day this, based on my own experience working with law firms globally, many firms have some of these destructive elements already in place.  Perhaps the question is: when the tipping point is reached (that leads to a firm’s ultimate demise).  If you care about your own firm, read this article: Driven to [Self-] Destruction Financial Post Business, October 2, 2007.