As featured in Forbes on July 13, 2020. Professional service firms generally produce a strategic plan every three to five years. And many had just completed new ones as 2019 came to a close. Who would have expected that those documents, just recently spell-checked and newly polished, would be tossed away once Covid-19 hit in the first quarter of the…
As featured in the March 17 edition of The American Lawyer. What can we as a profession do to grow or, at the very least hold onto, business during the time of COVID-19? It sounds like a riddle someone in an old movie tells a group at a cocktail party: Imagine being in a world where personal contact is forbidden,…
As featured in the November 2019 edition of the European journal, “The 500.” Deborah Brightman Farone, founder of Farone Advisors LLC and former Cravath, Swaine & Moore CMO, highlights the importance of partner collaboration in law firm business development and marketing initiatives. A law firm leader recently asked me what it is that separates successful firms from the uber-successful, superstar…
As originally featured in Forbes on July 5, 2019 A professional service firm is hired for its strategic insight on a business challenge, whether it’s a law firm being asked to guide a client on litigation or a consulting firm advising how to bring together two corporate cultures after a merger. These firms of advisors are getting hired for their…
As featured in The American Lawyer on October 23, 2018 Only when each part of a firm is working toward the same business goals can it truly flourish. When it comes to law firm performance, does alignment matter? The answer is an emphatic yes. In our collective 65 years entrenched in law firms, we’ve seen well-aligned firms soar and succeed…
As originally featured in Forbes on July 9, 2018 The constant question marketing experts hear from professionals is: “What are the steps I should take to build my practice?” Building a practice within a larger organization, or even as a solo practitioner, is not an easy feat, but it is very much like being an entrepreneur. You have to look…
As originally featured in Forbes on April 19, 2018 The concern over losing marketing staff is one of the topics I hear most often from chairmen and their CMOs. Regardless of how satisfied they are with their marketing departments, there is an undercurrent: With such high turnover in the field, will organizations be able to retain talent when there is…
In college, I remember taking two separate courses: micro and macroeconomics. While neither of them sparked my desire to become a mathematician, they did demonstrate the collegiate version of interdependence between the micro (how much it would cost to buy a coveted pair of jeans) and the macro (why I likely couldn’t afford to go backpacking in certain countries wearing…
As originally featured in Forbes on September 8, 2017 A few months ago, I shared a cab with one of the country’s most successful lawyers. Clients treasure his intellect and young lawyers jostle for the chance to learn from him. His practice consistently handles a number of very high-profile matters. For the entirety of the cab ride, I observed as…
