Paula Alvary

Paula Alvary was one of the four founding Principals of Hoffman Alvary, the predecessor firm to Archway Research.  She has been advising law firms on strategic and management issues for more than thirty years.  Her clients include most of the AmLaw 100 and 200 firms across the US as well as UK and European firms.

In her years of practice, Ms. Alvary’s consulting engagements have included the following topical areas:

• Firmwide and practice-specific strategic planning that captures investment and growth priorities whether for a global or single-office firm;
• All phases of the merger and acquisition process from assessing the desirability of a combination and identification of suitable targets through strategic and financial analysis, term sheets, decision processes and implementation;
• Top leadership and governance design to achieve strategic and partnership goals;
• Earnings improvement programs, including enhanced practice and client base analyses to improve profitability;
• Partner compensation system reviews, from check-ups through combinations in mergers and complete restructuring;
• Partnership structures and classes/levels of partners and their alternatives, admissions criteria and career implications;
• Resolutions to unfunded partner retirement programs;
• Governance and organizational structures to promote a prosperous balance between collaboration and accountability across disciplines and time zones;
• Succession planning, given that most large firms continue to have excess reliance on aging baby boomers;
• First-generation firm issues, including governance, succession, accrual compensation and ownership considerations;
• “Next level” practice group structures and planning processes;
• Alternative pricing approaches and techniques to manage to such approaches; and
• Law firm retreat design and/or participation.

Ms. Alvary speaks widely at organizations interested in trends within the legal profession.

Prior to starting Hoffman Alvary in 1996, Ms. Alvary was a partner for seven years at (then) Price Waterhouse where she was partner-in-charge of services to law firms in the Northeast.