Published Insights
The articles below are just a few examples of our perspectives on
important issues impacting the legal profession. They reflect our consulting style of focusing on human behavior and real results, not just academic theories or superficial trends.
MesaFive Client Briefing - October 2020
Law firms are increasingly concerned about unintended bias issues in their partner compensation decisions. For most firms this is a complex and intimidating topic, without a lot of guidance available about how to assess the issue. In this client briefing we draw on our experience and address some of the most common questions we receive from law firm leaders on bias testing of partner compensation.
MesaFive Client Briefing - June 2020
MesaFive Client Briefing - December 2020
Recently we were asked by a client to share our observations at year end about some of the most important trends in the profession and the paths that law departments and law firms may follow in the new year.
While many law firms are having a much better year than was anticipated at the outset of the pandemic, the disparities in partner performance are larger and more troubling than ever before. In addition, many leaders are concerned about managing partner expectations in these unsettled times. There are important steps leaders can take now to make their compensation process easier and make partners much happier.
Corporate Counsel
While report cards from in-house counsel have become popular and proven helpful, we still hear from many General Counsel that they are frustrated with the lack of response or change they generate from law firms. There is a better grading system, backed by science and experience, that promotes understandable feedback and real change.
The American Lawyer
It is estimated that 70% or more of corporate mergers fail to achieve their goals. It isn't surprising to learn that law firm mergers have a similarly low success rate. This article, published in the American Lawyer, discusses some of the common, but not commonly understood, challenges in negotiating a successful law firm merger, and how to address them.
Is Origination Credit Hurting Rather Than Helping Your Law Firm?
The American Lawyer
There is nothing wrong with rewarding those who develop and bond clients to a law firm. Indeed, without doing so most firms won’t survive. And there is nothing wrong with measuring those skills. The challenge for law firms is that in their attempt to measure it, client interests, firm profits and effective teamwork sometimes take a backseat to the pressures a partner feels in trying to prove his/her worth to the firm.
The American Lawyer
Transparency is a common refrain in both business and society today, and with good reason. Clarity about what is happening and why instills a sense of confidence in leaders and creates a sense of honesty. And yet, transparency in partner compensation seems to repeatedly create unhappiness and dissension. The real secret is not transparency, but predictability.
MesaFive Client Briefing
Nine Elements of a Successful Client Pitch
MesaFive Client Briefing
The American Lawyer
The American Lawyer
As many experienced leaders know, setting partner compensation in a great year is often tougher and can cause more internal dissension than in a bad year. The key is in managing expectations.
Partner compensation isn’t typically taught in law schools, so it isn’t surprising that firms struggle with the issue. Law firm leaders constantly invent new analytics, adopt compensation models from other firms, or even occasionally just throw up their hands under the rationalization that “there is no perfect system." But before you redesign your system, consider these facts about partner compensation that are not widely understood, but which are well proven by research and experience.
Why do some firms that use traditional structures enjoy extraordinary morale and engagement, low turnover, and financial success?
American Bar Association
October 2019