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Practice Management

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Ronda Muir is a senior consultant at Robin Rolfe Resources, specializing in the area of law firm and law department organizational development and dynamics.
By Ronda Muir

Post Frequency: 1.1/day

Last Entry: March 23, 2011 at 19:58:24

Muir Participating in CCM Audio Conference on Associate Compensation

Posted on May 18, 2009
Ronda Muir is participating in an audio conference on Thursday, June 11, at 2pm presented by CCM on the topic of Retooling Associate Pay: Key Strategies to Adapt to the New Economy. To register, go to http://www.c4cm.com/lawfirm/associatecompensation...

Seafaring through the Recession of 2009

Posted on May 14, 2009
In the April 20, 2009 issue of The New Yorker, James Surowiecki recalls that during the Depression (the one in the 1930s) Kellogg and Post, but primarily Post, dominated the cereal market. In response to uncertainty, Post reined in expenses and cut back on advertising...

Three Degrees of Influence

Posted on May 07, 2009
How far does your influence reach? The February 2009 Harvard Business Review reported research by Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler indicating that while all kinds of behavior and attitudes spread through social engagement, with each additional degree of separation a person's influence progressively diminishes...

Building Teams that Work

Posted on May 01, 2009
Collaboration in the form of teamwork may be the 21st Century's technology, in that it promises strides in greater productivity--but only when done well. It can also veer from chaos to constipation. David Maister's famous article Are Law Firms Manageable? questions whether lawyers can make the transition from "a managerial approach based on partner autonomy to new approaches that can create a well-coordinated set of team players...

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Running From the Law

Posted on April 27, 2009
In the final tranche of a triad of bad news over the last few weeks, two recent reports--one about associates and another about partners--point out how, despite the current abysmal employment market, there are still lawyers of various stripes who, given the chance, would choose to jump overboard rather than hang on to their position...

Life Without Lawyers: Taking It on the Chin

Posted on April 20, 2009
A well-known investment banker confided recently that lawyers are partly to blame for the financial meltdown. Why, apart from wanting to deflect the responsibility to someone other than bankers? The reasoning was that, particularly with the advent of Sarbanes-Oxley, lawyers have become such an integral part of the business process that their bias toward risk-aversion has seeped into the bones of corporate decision-making, making those decisions technically compliant but shortsighted from a policy and business standpoint...

Are You Kind or Competent?

Posted on April 15, 2009
An article by psychologist Amy J.C.Cuddy in the February 2009 issue of the Harvard Business Review reports that we make fast assessments of people on two bases: their intentions and their competence. And more importantly, we assume one is related to the other...

We're Not Getting Smarter Either?

Posted on April 03, 2009
In another blow to our already wilting sense of competence, the UK reports that according to research from the Centre for Market and Public Organisation, lawyers surveyed there who were born in 1970 (now climbing the legal ranks) have lower IQs than lawyers assessed in 1958 (and now either in very senior management or already out the door)...

Muir to Participate in Swarthmore Lax Conference on Entrepreneurship

Posted on March 26, 2009
Ronda Muir will participate as a panelist and breakout leader in the Jonathan R. Lax Conference on Entrepreneurship on Sunday, March 29, 2009 at Swarthmore College in Philadelphia. The topic of the conference is "Building a Strong Enterprise: Critical Skills for Successful Entrepreneurs...

Muir to Lead Audio Conference on Leadership for the Downturn

Posted on March 13, 2009
On Thursday, March 26, at 2:00 pm EST, Ronda Muir will lead an audio conference sponsored by the Center for Competitive Management entitled "Turning Lawyers Into Leaders: How to Survive the Economic Slide." The discussion will cover who leaders are, what skills and attributes they should have in this economic climate and how to develop them...

Law Schools, Applicants and Graduates on the Move: Grades, Money and Fire

Posted on March 12, 2009
In a review of law school news, applications are holding steady but expected to go up, tuition is up, letter grades are being changed to pass/fail, big law firms continued through 2008 to hire apace, law schools are having it out with the ABA over accreditation, and then there is the case of the graduate who burned his Harvard Law School diploma...

Muir Discusses Downturn Management with Patent Law Firms

Posted on March 08, 2009
On Wednesday, March 25, at 12:30 pm EST, Ronda Muir and Robin Rolfe will lead a roundtable discussion of "How Progressively Managed and Adaptive IP Firms Can Gain an Advantage in a Down Economy." Offered at no charge to APLF members only, additional information on this program can be obtained by contacting admin@plf...

Innovation during the Downturn

Posted on March 06, 2009

February is the Cruelest Month: Tracking Layoffs

Posted on March 02, 2009

Five Great Things About the 2009 Depression

Posted on February 20, 2009
OK, the news has been relentlessly bleak these past few weeks-- Black Thursday followed by just as black Monday through Friday. To keep things in perspective, here are five great things about the 2009 depression: 1. You don't have to worry about keeping up with the Joneses or the Cravaths...

Women of 2008: Their Accomplishments and Their Discontents

Posted on February 17, 2009
How did women in the spotlight fare in 2008? Here's a sweeping and eclectic review of women in business, politics and law--Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Governor Sarah Palin, Caroline Kennedy and Michelle Obama, among others--before the year is too far behind us...

Mistresses of the Universe

Posted on February 13, 2009
In a February 8, 2009 New York Times op ed column entitled "Mistresses of the Universe," Nicholas Kristof notes that senior staff meetings of Wall Street types resemble “a urologist’s waiting room” and suggests that "Wall Street could use an infusion of women as well as cash...

Fearing Fear

Posted on February 09, 2009
What happens to our ability to make good decisions going forward when we and all the world are gripped in fear of what we might lose (or already have lost)? Gregory Berns, director of the Center for Neuropolicy at Emory University, makes a good case in a recent New York Times article for the profound impact fear has on our decision-making...

Muir Lectures on Improving Management Decision-Making

Posted on February 06, 2009
On February 18, 2009 Muir will lecture students at Northwestern University's Business Institutions Program on how to improve management decision-making. Based in part on the article "Promoting an Effective Board or Management Group," the discussion will explore, among other subjects, optimal personality traits for good decision-making, constructing effective teams and avoiding extreme decisions.

More Diversity for the Diverse

Posted on February 06, 2009
A 2008 ABA Journal survey, with reponses from more than 1400 women lawyers, produced some interesting results as to who they prefer to work with. Of the 42% of women who expressed a preference in the gender of colleagues, that preference was different depending on the age of the respondent...

Contemplating Radical Steps

Posted on January 31, 2009
The news is out: "Law is becoming more of a business." That was the headlights line by David Lat, founding editor of AboveTheLaw.com, in a January 25, 2009 New York Times article about the salary freezes, layoffs and dropping profits in the legal marketplace...

Psyching Out the New First Lawyers

Posted on January 23, 2009
What does behavioral science and our expertise about lawyers tell us about President and Mrs. Obama, who are both Harvard-educated lawyers? Assessments. A number of assessment tools give us a profile of what a typical lawyer's attributes are...

High Performance Coaching for Low Performing Times

Posted on January 13, 2009
This is the time of year when many of us take stock of our direction and goals and make plans to step up our effectiveness. This particular year, 2009, many lawyers are facing an extremely difficult once-in-a-century marketplace for which no one has been truly prepared...

Coping With More Bad News

Posted on December 30, 2008
Results from two surveys show growth at the country’s largest law firms to be down significantly in 2008 although employment is generally still on the rise. The National Law Journal’s 31st annual survey of the NLJ 250 reports that those firms added 4...

Bringing Behavioral Science to Economics

Posted on December 26, 2008
David Brooks' editorial in the October 28, 2008 New York Times predicted that the current financial crisis would "amount to a coming-out party for behavioral economists and others who are bringing sophisticated psychology to the realm of public policy...

Bringing Behavioral Science to Economics

Posted on December 22, 2008
pDavid Brooks' editorial in the October 28, 2008 emNew York Times/em predicted that the currentnbsp;financial crisis would quot;amount to a coming-out party for behavioral economists and others who are bringing sophisticated psychology to the realm of public policy...

Narcissists Abound--And Need A Coach

Posted on December 19, 2008
pWhat do you know?nbsp;Narcissists--big personalities with big egos who like to exert control and reject collaborative decision-making--are the ones leading many law firms through these perilous times.nbsp;/p pquot;Narcissistic leaders are distinguished by their big ideas...

Narcissists Abound--And Need A Coach

Posted on December 19, 2008
What do you know? Narcissists--big personalities with big egos who like to exert control and reject collaborative decision-making--are the ones leading many law firms through these perilous times. "Narcissistic leaders are distinguished by their big ideas...

Repairing Broken Windows

Posted on December 15, 2008
pAccording to the ldquo;broken windowsrdquo; theory of social science, addressing small concerns (like broken windows) that matter to individuals eventually produces major improvements in the overall sense of community and belonging, which in turn fuels a more committed, dedicated group...

Repairing Broken Windows

Posted on December 15, 2008
According to the “broken windows” theory of social science, addressing small concerns (like broken windows) that matter to individuals eventually produces major improvements in the overall sense of community and belonging, which in turn fuels a more committed, dedicated group...

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