Should Law Firms Follow General Electric’s Lead?

General Electric’s announcement last week that it plans to sell GE Capital, its finance arm, provided an opportunity to reflect on the banking industry’s declining profit margins.

But what if any lesson can law firms draw from GE Capital ?

Consultant Bruce MacEwen, president of Adam Smith, Esq, asked that question, and he concluded every law firm should take a hard look at its own profits and evaluate which practice groups are performing.

MacEwan, however, tempered his remarks with one caveat: Law firms are partnerships, and so shedding a group of underperforming lawyers isn’t always easy or possible. We caught up with him on the phone and ...