Pioneer Legal Consultant Robert I. Weil Has Died Following A Struggle With Lou Gehrig's Disease

(Newtown Square, PA, December 14, 2001) -- Robert I. Weil, founder of the management consulting firm Altman Weil Inc., died November 28 at his home in Villanova. PA. He was 73. With his partner Mary Ann Altman, Weil developed practices and disciplines that revolutionized law firm management in the United States. He was instrumental in persuading law firms to modernize their operations and to manage their practices using systems and methods developed by business and industry.

Founded in 1970, Altman Weil today is the nation’s leading provider of management consulting services exclusively to legal organizations and legal vendors. Weil worked with hundreds of law firms in North America, helping them to streamline operations to let them concentrate on the practice of law.  Through Weil's guidance, the company developed a large publications operation that is a major collector of economic and statistical data about the legal profession. Weil was instrumental in creating the firm's annual Survey of Law Firm Economics, which for the past 25 years has tracked the economics of law firms in this country.

With Mary Ann Altman, Weil co-founded the Association of Legal Administrators in 1971 to provide support to professionals involved in the management of law firms, corporate legal departments and government legal agencies. Today the ALA has grown into an international organization with more than 9,000 members representing 28 countries.

Commenting on Weil's career, Altman Weil Managing Principal Thomas S. Clay said "Bob was a true visionary and an entrepreneur. He was direct and firm in his advice to clients. He never held lawyers in awe. There is no doubt that he has left his mark on the legal profession."

Weil was co-author of How to Manage Your Law Office, a landmark management treatise published in 1973 by Matthew Bender & Co. He authored numerous articles and spoke frequently before legal and professional audiences. He was also a founding member of the Institute of Management Consultants.

He was born in Freiburg, Germany and immigrated to the United States as a young child. Growing up in San Francisco, Weil graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1950 with a BA degree in Economics. He served with the U.S. army during World War II and the Korean War.

Bob Weil retired from Altman Weil in 1991. He taught part time at the Camden New Jersey campus of Rutgers University. In recent years he battle damyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrig's Disease. He is survived by his wife Barbara, a daughter, a son and two grandchildren.

Headquartered in suburban Philadelphia, Altman Weil has regional offices in four other US locations. It is the only legal consulting firm to be named repeatedly to the Consultants' News list of the top 100 consulting firms. Altman Weil is also known for the many legal economics surveys it regularly conducts and publishes, including the Survey of Law Firm Economics and the Law Department Compensation Benchmarking Survey.