After finishing a full day workshop yesterday with some major law firms, accounting firms and some other professional service firms at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) of the University or Pretoria (Johannesburg, South Africa Campus), I was reminded yet again that professionals face the same fundamental challenges regardless of geographical location.
Clifford Chance: Going the Extra Mile
Client service reaches new heights at Clifford Chance, which has obtained a 24-hour alcohol licence. According to its spokes-woman, clients can get a refreshment (code for an “alcoholic beverage”?) at any time of the day or night. 
Now in fairness, there are big deals that close in the wee hours and you would not want
“money-grubbing leeches touting for business ”
You may never see the day when Shearman & Sterling or White & Case would call their fellow lawyers “money-grubbing leeches touting for business ” but their names appear among advertisers at a site that did just that today. I do not like lawyer jokes and I tire of lawyers being maligned it seems
Legal Processes Destroy Leaders – Maybe That is Why It Is So Hard to Lead a Law Firm
The techniques managers use to get through a tough agenda in a business context are completely useless in a deposition. To survive the deposition, managers are trained to avoid the tactics they would have used in a business situation. Those who lead law firms are often experiencing more of a deposition environment than a business
Ingenious Alliance to Create and Market Diversity
Bravo to Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice and Molden Holley Fergusson Thompson & Heard for their ingenious alliance to create and market diversity.
Molden Holley is a small and new African-American firm comprised of partners who came from major firms. In what appears to be a brilliant win-win alliance, this new firm will continue to
Guru Richard Susskind Speaks – We Should Listen
Richard Susskind is not short on credentials. Richard has a first class honours degree in law from the University of Glasgow and a doctorate in law and computers from Balliol College, Oxford. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and of the British Computer Society, and was awarded an OBE in the
Allen & Overy (London) lawyers will practice on dead bodies
This shocking story is absolutely true. If you are curious about how one of the world’s great law firms is going to end up on a medieval burial chamber, read all about it at a fabulous web site called “Roll on Friday” which typically contains four or five cool stories about London firms each week
Law Firms as “Exclusive Clubs for White Men”
Is Diversity on your management agenda? Has it ever been?
This is a serious wake up call to every single member of your law firm’s management team.
Diversity is not some do-good-philanthropic-topic for a tea party of the rich and bored. Diversity is serious business: serious to business; serious for business not to mention that
Orrick Herrington & Sutcliff will sell to your law firm
Orrick Herrington & Sutcliff is a magnificent firm that had the courage to be innovative and create a Virginia based service center for itself. 
and now, according to an article in The Lawyer.com:
Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe is planning a new outsourcing services company for other law firms.
“The truth is that the global 100
Is Palo Alto back on the law firm map?
According to this article, Wilmer Cutler law firm joins race for valley tech business, the answer is YES. William Cutler snagged Curtis Mo from Weil Gotshal & Manges to be in charge of the Palo Alto office. According to the article, William Cutler boasts clients like:
Intel Corp.
Cisco Systems Inc. and
Oracle Corp.