Cara Rhodes
Principal
Cara Rhodes has been advising law firms on strategic, management and financial issues for nearly thirty-five years. Her clients include international, national, regional and boutique firms. She has worked with roughly two-thirds of the AmLaw 100, half of the AmLaw 200 and numerous mid-sized firms. Cara also has a niche practice working with Intellectual Property firms.Cara began her career in Law Firm Management Consulting in 1990 with (then) Price Waterhouse LLP. She was one of the four founding Principals of Hoffman Alvary LLC which was formed in 1996, the predecessor firm to Archway Research Group LLC which was established in 2023.
In her nearly thirty-five years of practice, Cara’s consulting engagements have addressed:
- Merger and acquisition considerations including identifying target candidates, assessing the desirability of a combination and the strategic rationale, pro forma income statement and economic balance sheet analysis, deal structure and term sheet development;
- Strategic positioning, growth and investment priorities;
- Partner compensation system reviews, restructurings and blending compensation systems in combinations;
- Unfunded partner retirement programs including assessing the economic impact on current and future partners and reaching closure on modifications that minimize or eliminate future payments;
- Practice and client-based analyses to enhance firm positioning and profitability;
- Earnings improvement programs;
- Financial / management reporting practices and profitability analysis;
- Partnership structure alternatives, admissions criteria, processes and career tracks;
- Governance and organizational structures;
- Partner capital systems as stand-alone structures as well as blending systems in firm combinations;
- Succession planning programs;
- Issues unique to first- and second-generation firms including governance, accrual-based compensation and founders’ benefits;
- Demand / capacity assessments for right-sizing the practice; and
- Firm dissolutions and bifurcations when stand-alone and/or combination options are not viable.
Education
Harvard University - 1986
B.A. in Economics, Cum Laude
Boston College - 1990
Masters in Finance
Cara Rhodes
Principal
Main: 774-435-3200
Direct: 774-368-1330
Email: cara@cjrhodesconsulting.com