Stepping Out

"Adam Smith, Esq." is branching out.

Through a happy confluence of inspiration and opportunity, Bruce and the "Adam Smith, Esq." brand are stepping out from behind your screen into the off-line world:

First, I am pleased to announce the kick-off of what I hope will be an on-going series of high-end workshops for senior law firm management.  Working with Rich Gary, former chair of Thelen-Reid, these will feature a small group of attendees delving into strategic business issues that managing partners and their colleagues are wrestling with.   We will hold these workshops in major cities in the US, and they will typically take place over two days, starting with a cocktail reception and dinner on a Wednesday evening and adjourning after lunch Friday.  The workshops will include:

• Three focused modules dealing with important challenges to executives at the top of large and sophisticated law firms, such as "consolidation and globalization," "competitive and business intelligence," "leading change," and "creating a credible, powerful, and distinctive 21st-Century firm."
• The format will include presenting novel and substantial content; engaging the attendees in round-table discussions; "what-if" scenarios and thought experiments, both in break-out groups and as a whole; and learning from and interacting with some of the legal profession's  most prominent thought leaders, who will attend as our guests.

We hope the combination of a small group (no more than 15 attendees) in intimate surroundings, together with challenging thinking and interaction with some of the thinkers at the cutting edge of our profession, will make these workshops distinctive.

For more information, see the link in the left sidebar to "Workshops," or click here.

Second, I am offering "Law Firm Finance 101," 1/2-day seminars that I will conduct at your firm's offices, targeted at small groups of associates (partners invited as well!).  These were partly prompted by the overwhelming reaction to an entry from last September, "Name the Missing Law School Course." 

“Law Firm Finance 101” will enable associates to:

• approach their careers with more awareness of what’s expected of them;
• make a connection between their daily work and the firm’s strategic goals;
• appreciate the firm’s business decisions;
• understand what drives the metrics by which they’ll be evaluated, and
• be more realistic about attorney-client and partner-associate relationships,

all with the goal of making them more valuable to the firm more rapidly.

For more information, see the link in the left sidebar to "Workshops," or click here.

Third, my business manager and I are establishing an on-line research panel and inviting our loyal readers to join.  To ensure objectivity of the research results the panel will generate, we have teamed up with a leading independent, third-party on-line research company, "Affluent-Dynamics."   Fundamentally, the goal of the panel is simple:  To give readers who join the opportunity to have a voice which will be heard and listened to by companies developing products and services you use. 

If you're interested in "having your opinions count" on a variety of business and marketing issues, or if you're merely curious, click on the Affluent Dynamics box.   Membership is free, absolutely confidential, and every time members complete a survey, they receive a minimum of 3,000 frequent flier miles. And by the way, membership is not limited to the U.S.; indeed, non-Americans are more than welcome (the only requirement is English fluency.)

I'll keep a separate link up to the Affluent-Dynamics panel for the next week.

Finally, "Adam Smith, Esq." is accepting advertisements and sponsorships from a select few high-end marketers with products or services presumably of interest to "Adam Smith, Esq." readers.  One example is the ad for Sivin-Tobin Associates, LLC, legal recruiters headquartered here in New York.

The purpose of this program is to help strengthen the long-term viability of "Adam Smith, Esq.," and, I hope, to enable me to invest in developing additional, original content through on-site reporting and research.

That said:  Our marketing and advertising partners will never have the remotest influence on what you read here—and any with the poor judgment to seek it will be summarily, and publicly, dismissed with all the opprobrium the blogosphere can muster.

Anyone interested in discussing the wide array of customized programs—encompassing both online and off-line elements—which my business partner has developed, or who has suggestions or questions, should email Janet Stanton.   Janet is a true pro at what she does, with over 25 years experience in advertising and marketing, working with such household names (and sophisticated marketers) as Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, Nortel, Pfizer, Johnson + Johnson, and the US Department of Defense; she has worked at prominent NYC ad agencies including Bates Worldwide, Benton & Bowles, and Grey, as well as being President of a mid-sized agency outside Philadelphia.  If you talk to her, you'll be in good hands.

And editorial questions/suggestions/inquries should, as always, come to me.

I hope you appreciate the reasons behind my expanding what "Adam Smith, Esq." stands for and what it delivers, and I hope you share a small bit of my excitement at these new developments.