Professional Services: Advanced Topics: Seminar
Spring term, Block H
M 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Professor Ashish Nanda
2 classroom credits LAW-98165A
This seminar course aims to delve in depth into topics related to the management of professional service firms (PSFs) and the careers of professionals. It is meant to be useful if the students plan to work in a PSF, such as a law firm, a consulting firm, or a financial services firm, or if they plan to study human-capital intensive organizations.
The seminar will meet once every week for two hours. Each session of the seminar will focus on one research topic in depth.
1. Professionalism - Professional ethic, conflict of interest, firm scale and scope, boundaries between and across Professions
2. The Professions - History of the professions, comparison across the profession, proto-professions, professional associations, self regulation, transparency, public oversight
3. The Service Market - Competitive landscape of the professions, drivers of superior performance, positioning on the practice spectrum, disruptive innovations, commoditization
4. Mergers & Acquisitions - M&A frequency, performance, and impact on professional careers
5. Economics of Professional Services - Practice economics, capacity planning, service market/ labor market linkages
6. Organization Strategy - Ownership structures, governance structures, compensation systems, decisions rights
7. The Labor Market - Drivers of firm reputation in the labor market, movement of star professionals, regretted turnover, exit from a profession & reentry
8. Team Dynamics - Effective teaming, barriers to teamwork, leading teams effectively, teaming across boundaries
9. Client Service - Client Value Proposition, Service Profit Chain, drivers of purchase decisions of legal and professional services
10. Change Management - Barriers and gateways to change, leading change
11. Non-traditional Professionals - Internal Service Providers, not-for-profit professionals, government professionals, innovative professional careers
12. Professional Work - Drivers of Satisfaction and fulfillment in professional work, work-life balance, career arcs
13. Legal Profession Roundtable - Review of the current state and projection of future direction of the legal profession, law firms, and legal departments
Through review of existing research, discussion of case studies, critique of student papers, analyses of current developments and past events, and deliberations with invited guests who have conducted research in the field, students will develop a deep appreciation of the structure and dynamics of PSFs and the career trajectories of professionals. Discussions will focus on law firms, as well as legal service organizations that are not law firms (corporate counsel offices, government departments, etc.) and non-law professional service firms (consulting, accounting, financial services, and medicine).
Readings will include case studies, research articles, news articles, and student papers. Classes will be discussion-based.
It is a two-credit course. The seminar class will be limited to 22 participants. Grading will be based on class participation (30%), one in-term written submission (20%), and a final paper (50%). The final paper can be a research paper or a case study.
Although there are no formal prerequisites and 1L's will be allowed to take the class, students will be encouraged to take the "Professional Services" course before taking this seminar.