WWPED (What Would Private Equity Do) - by Brad Blickstein (Paperback)

About the Book

Private equity unlocks enterprise value through repeatable operating principles. This book applies those principles to law firms to help improve performance, scale intelligently, and build lasting value.

Book Synopsis

Most law firms are profitable. Few are operating at their full potential. And private equity investors have noticed.

When they look at law firms, they see strong demand, talented professionals, and loyal clients paired with inconsistent pricing, informal decision-making, and enterprise value that is never fully captured. They see opportunity in the gap.

WWPED (What Would Private Equity Do?) borrows the operating lens that private equity applies to professional services businesses and turns it on the firm you already own. In it, legal industry futurist Brad Blickstein translates core private equity principles into practical law firm terms: how to think about profitability and pricing, how to build governance that actually drives decisions, how to develop talent and systems that outlast any individual partner, and how to use technology as a strategic tool rather than an expense.

The firms that will thrive in the years ahead are not necessarily the largest or the most aggressive, but those that operate with the most clarity and discipline. Your firm already has the assets. This book shows you how to unlock its value.

The firms that will thrive in the years ahead are not necessarily the largest or the most aggressive, but those that operate with the most clarity and discipline. Your firm already has the assets. This book shows you how to unlock its value.

Review Quotes

Praise for WWPED:

Having spent my career focused on law firm operations, pricing, and profitability, I found this book particularly relevant. WWPED challenges firms to think more deliberately about how they run their businesses, while offering a pragmatic roadmap for improving performance and scalability within the realities of legal practice. The question at the heart of this book, "what would a value-focused operator do differently," is exactly the lens law firm leaders should be applying today.

-Melissa Prince, Global Head of Revenue, Duane Morris

Private equity isn't a financial transaction; it's an ownership and operating mindset for value creation. In WWPED, Brad Blickstein gives law firms a new owner's manual-how to shift from the old-world cash-flow oriented mindset to the new-world enterprise value-oriented private equity mindset-and explains how making that shift will separate the law firms of tomorrow from those that get stuck in the past.

-Lee Minkoff, Managing Director, Renovus Capital Partners

Brad Blickstein's WWPED is a provocative and profoundly practical guide that strips away the mystique of private equity to reveal a set of repeatable operating principles any firm can use to unlock the 'unrealized enterprise value' it already owns. Whether you're seeking outside investment or fiercely guarding your independence, this book is essential reading for the modern law firm leader.

-Jae Um, Chief Growth Officer & Head of Knowledge, Lumio