WHAT WE HAVE WRITTEN

Smock Law Firm Consultants' partners have written extensively on law firm topics and our clients and those we are meeting/serving for the first time have all spoken positively of the practical and useful advice we provide – before they even knew us or hired us.

Our usual approach is to have one of our partners author the original draft of a monograph, but then the other three partners weigh in with extensive critiques and suggestions. While we keep the topics current, we find that most have a much longer shelf life than we originally envisioned. For instance, it has been over 25 years since effective practice group management became a staple of law firm management's "best practices," but the monographs we have written during the ensuing period on this topic are still both viable and valuable.

Thus, we have included all of our law firm monographs in this section. They are listed below from the most to least recent and can be viewed by clicking on the title.

Living By the Rules
May 2012

Our Law Firm Management Consulting Qualifications
March 2012

Smock Law Firm Consultants’ Legal Marketplace Outlook for the Remainder of 2012 and Beyond
March 2012

Near and Longer Term Considerations for 2012 (and Beyond) Planning – What’s on the Horizon? November 2011

Smock Law Firm Consultants' Legal Market Outlook for 2011 – Building on a Good 2010 in an Era of Continuing Uncertainty January 2011

An Update on the 2010 Legal Marketplace October 2010

Effective Practice Group Management – A Return to Prominence as a Critical Law Firm Management Priority July 2010

A Look at the Legal Marketplace Through 3/31/10 May 2010

Our 2010 Legal Market Outlook: Strategic Thinking for a Fragile Recovery February 2010

The Legal Marketplace in Late 2009 – What Law Firm Leaders Are Saying Now

Between a Rock and a Hard Place Clients Demand Greater Value, Partners Want More Income August 2009

The Current Economic Environment – What Law Firm Leaders Are SayingApril 2009

Flying Blind at a Critical Time: Do Your Partners Know What Your Strategy Is?February 2009

Maintaining and Expanding Profitability Without Raising Rates – Law Firm Management's Pressing Challenge February 2009

The Looming Recession: The Glass May Be Half Full By Peter Giuliani January 2009

We Are Optimists – We See the Cup at Least Half FullNovember 2008

Setting Managing Partner Pay It's a Two-Way Street By Peter GiulianiOctober 2008

No Chicken Little, The Sky Is Not Falling August 2008

The Legal Marketplace in 2008 – Time for the Industry to Jump Out of the Sauce Pan

The Seven Deadly Sins of Law Firm Mergers and Combinations By John Smock December 2007

The Legal Marketplace in 2007 – Rip Van Winkle Would Not Recognize ItMarch 2007

What's Happening Out There? The State of Legal Management in 2005

Implementation – the Gutsy Challenge in Strategic Planning

Over the Top – Law Firm Strategic Planning Excesses and Mistakes in 2003December 2003

Confessions of a Law Firm Management Consultant – My Twenty Plus Years Before the Mast By John Smock

Dispatches From the Merger Front

The Evolution of Law Firm Strategic Planning: Darwin Would Have Been Proud

Law Firm Management in 2002

FOCUS – Our Strategic Planning Methodology

Strategic Planning in Law Firms – From "Nice to Do" to "Essential for Future Success"

The Four Stages of a Successful Law Firm Merger

To Merge or Not to Merge – That Is the Question

The Seven Deadly Sins of Law Firm Management in the New Millennium