Collaboration — on a consistent basis at least — calls for more than good intentions. Real teamwork is promoted — or it’s discouraged — by the way we pay people for their work. In her “What Makes Minnesota’s Mayo Clinic Different?”, financial journalist Maggie Mahar interviewed one of its…
In Part 1 I described how the Mayo Clinic simultaneously achieved both the highest clinical standards and robust new efficiencies in its heart surgery department. In looking to the Mayo Clinic for ideas on how to better manage the work that lawyers do for our businesses, I’d like to look…
Last year the Wall Street Journal recounted how — eight years earlier — the Mayo Clinic’s heart surgeons had asked for two more operating rooms to meet skyrocketing demand. “No” – replied the Mayo Clinic’s CEO — himself a physician. Not only did he say “No” — CEO Dr. John Noseworthy then…
This last of three posts about a 54-page opinion in which U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of Illinois Judge Mary Gorman explained her reduction of a nationally prominent law firm’s $1.8 million fee down to $670,000 offers a case study of the billable hour’s perverse incentives. Today I address a case-study-within-a-case-study…
The 54-page opinion in which U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of Illinois Judge Mary Gorman explained her reduction of a nationally prominent law firm’s $1.8 million fee down to $670,000 offers a case study of the billable hour’s perverse incentives. Under “General Mistakes and Carelessness”, the Judge detailed…
On July 10, 2018 U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of Illinois Judge Mary Gorman issued a 54-page opinion explaining why she cut a law firm’s requested total hourly fee of $1.8 million down to an approved total hourly fee of $670,000. Judge Gorman was responsible to approve or…
With this post I conclude a 4-part analysis of positive alternatives to the status quo in legal services presented by the Big 4 accounting firms to U.S. businesses. In Part 1 I addressed survey results from law firms in which 69% of responding law firm leaders reported that “partners [in…
Earlier this month Lucy Endel Bassli wrote an article entitled: “Big 4 Are Not a Threat. They are a Reality”. In the post immediately preceding I described Ms. Bassli’s experience and credentials as former Assistant General Counsel of Microsoft and as founder of a new law firm and consultancy focused…
To summarize some of the positive alternatives that the Big 4 accounting firms offer U.S. business owners and executives in legal services, I’ve chosen the writings of a trusted guide — Lucy Endel Bassli. In these writings she’s described how the Big 4 accounting firms offer choices to businesses in…
For business owners and executives in the U.S. who contend with increasing legal and regulatory demands — there’s good news. Through the Big 4 accounting firms you might find more efficient — and for some jobs more highly skilled — choices for the conduct of your company’s legal affairs. ……