Looking Tall by Standing Next to Short People
With wit, wisdom and a knack for cutting through the nonsense, Ed Wesemann’s latest book, Looking Tall by Standing Next to Short People again addresses the most perplexing issues facing law firms today. Hoping that you “disagree with large portions” of his take on the minefield of legal management, Ed’s purpose in offering his extensive insights is to ignite the exchange of ideas, creative dialogue, enthusiasm and – most importantly – action. Ed tackles legal management’s hot button issues by delving into six general topics: The role of partners ~ Massive non-equity partnership ranks results in a large group of lawyers who don’t meet any “full partner” criteria but are too senior to be associates. What happens when there are no “up or out” reviews in place to prevent partners from sapping up the work that should be going to associates? The operation of partnerships ~ We used to talk about managing law firms – now we govern them. Mergers ~ It’s been a sleepy couple of years where merger activity has largely been less than expected. But the natural maturation of the legal industry won’t let the lull last for long. Business development ~ Business development is the same as it has been since the founders of our most venerable law firms hung out their shingles. Everything else is details. Strategy ~ Figuring out what has to be done to be more profitable is easy. The issue is what to do to make those things actually occur – that’s strategy.