Business of Law

Out-Of-Town Firms Keep Eye On NY Growth, Despite Virus

Once the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, New York, as the world's leading financial center, has continued to draw the eye of out-of-town and national firms, several of which picked up local talent in recent weeks.

Landmark LGBT Ruling May Create Change In Law Firms

Lesbian, gay and transgender attorneys say they see broad improvements on the horizon when it comes to the workplace experiences of LGBT lawyers after the U.S. Supreme Court sent a strong message to employers Monday that discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity is illegal.

Law Firms Speak Out Amid Turmoil Over Police Brutality

Some law firms have chosen to address the topic of police brutality and systemic racism head-on this week, with both internal and external statements expressing their support for justice, something diversity professionals say can go a long way toward creating an inclusive workplace.

Law Firm Succession Isn't New, So Why Is It So Hard?

Like other firms, Boies Schiller is working to transition to the next generation, but that process has come with a wave of attorney defections. It speaks to the kind of growing pains that, according to experts, make succession planning easier said than done.

July 02, 2020
In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.
July 02, 2020
DNC, Perkins Coie Must Face Defamation Suit, Page Says

Former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page has asked an Illinois federal judge not to dismiss his defamation allegations against the Democratic National Committee and its Perkins Coie LLP legal team, arguing that his suit over the infamous "Steele Dossier" was timely and that the court should have jurisdiction over the matter.
July 02, 2020
Justices Dim Dems' Hopes Of Seeing Mueller Docs By Election

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to hear arguments on whether the Trump administration has to give the House Judiciary Committee access to grand jury materials produced by former special counsel Robert Mueller has dealt a significant blow to Democrats' yearlong legal bid to secure those records before the November election.
July 02, 2020
Shackelford Adds 6 Winstead Attys In Houston, Dallas

Shackelford Bowen McKinley & Norton LLP has added to its Dallas and Houston offices six attorneys previously with Winstead PC who work in the areas of intellectual property and corporate law, the firm has announced.
July 02, 2020
US Atty In EDNY To Depart For Main Justice Role

Richard Donoghue is leaving his post as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York to take a job at the U.S. Department of Justice headquarters, a development that comes on the heels of the messy recent ouster of Donoghue's Manhattan-based colleague Geoffrey Berman.
July 02, 2020
Ex-ICE Atty Tapped As Chief DOJ Immigration Judge

Tracy Short, who worked most recently as the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement principal legal adviser and as senior adviser to the ICE acting director, has been named as the nation's chief immigration judge, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday.
July 02, 2020
Law360's Pro Say: Federal Watchdog Agencies, Beware

The Supreme Court took a bite out of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau this week by allowing the at-will firing of its director, but the justices stopped short of dismantling the Obama-era watchdog completely.
July 02, 2020
K&L Gates, Ex-Worker Settle ADHD Discrimination Suit

K&L Gates LLP has reached an undisclosed settlement to resolve allegations that the law firm violated federal anti-discrimination law by failing to accommodate an employee with anxiety and ADHD before firing him.
July 02, 2020
117 Firms On Board For Fourth Version Of Mansfield Rule

Diversity Lab announced Thursday that 24 more firms have signed on to seek certification under the fourth and latest iteration of the Mansfield Rule, which aims to increase the representation of historically underrepresented lawyers in the field, adding up to 117 firms overall.
July 02, 2020
The Term: It's Roberts' World

As the U.S. Supreme Court edges closer toward the finish line of the term, Chief Justice John Roberts' sway on the bench was increasingly apparent this week in a trio of opinions on abortion, agency independence, and the separation of church and state.
July 02, 2020
Facebook Taps Ex-HPE, Amazon Atty To Lead App Legal Team

Facebook has recruited a former Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., Amazon and IBM senior attorney to head the legal team responsible for its core app, according to a recent post on LinkedIn.
July 02, 2020
Dem Bill Would Make Judicial Advocacy Groups Name Donors

Senate Democrats introduced a bill Thursday that would require donor disclosure from groups that sponsor political advertisements about federal judicial nominations, targeting the hundreds of millions in "dark money" raised from unknown donors and spent without limits.
July 02, 2020
Texas Licensing Board Wants To Nix July, Sept. Bar Exams

The Texas Board of Law Examiners, which administers the state's bar exams, voted Thursday in favor of canceling both the July and September in-person exams and replacing them with an October online exam, as the Lone Star State experiences a surge of COVID-19 cases.
July 02, 2020
Coronavirus Litigation: The Week In Review

Grocery delivery service Instacart is suing to block a Seattle ordinance requiring coronavirus hazard pay for gig delivery workers, New York police officers and Las Vegas resort workers claim they haven't been provided with adequate protections during the pandemic, and the ACLU says California courts can't block public access to trials, despite the virus.
July 02, 2020
Virtual Arbitration Hearings Prompt Witness Coaching Fears

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the arbitration world to move hearings entirely online, prompting concerns that, unbeknownst to opposing counsel and arbitrators, witnesses could be getting subtle — or not-so-subtle — coaching from their attorneys.
July 02, 2020
GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to reopen the Paycheck Protection Program through Aug. 8, and the largest U.S. franchisee of Wendy's and Pizza Hut restaurants filed for Chapter 11 protection amid the pandemic. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.
July 02, 2020
Alito Sees Inconsistency In How Justices Address Bigotry

Justice Samuel Alito Jr. suggested there is a double standard with how the U.S. Supreme Court deals with the legacy of bigotry in modern law, contrasting Tuesday's decision in a Montana tax case with one from earlier in the term involving nonunanimous juries.
July 02, 2020
Can BigLaw Dump Its Drinking Habit?

At many law firms, alcohol consumption at social and networking events is standard, but experts say firms can help combat high rates of problem drinking among attorneys by moving away from a culture where tying one on is commonplace to one where alcohol is de-emphasized.
July 02, 2020
Legal Jobs Continue Upward Tick After COVID-19 Clobbering

The legal industry added another 7,500 jobs in June, a cumulative increase of 14,500 positions since employment plummeted in April due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to U.S. Department of Labor data released Thursday.
July 02, 2020
Justices To Decide Whether DOJ Must Turn Over Mueller Docs

The Supreme Court will decide whether the DOJ has to give the House Judiciary Committee unredacted materials from former special counsel Robert Mueller's grand jury investigation, taking up the Trump administration's appeal on Thursday morning.
July 01, 2020
Firm Defends Retaining Credit For Former Atty's Work

An attorney for a Philadelphia-based personal injury firm told a federal judge during a hearing on Wednesday that he could be opening a floodgate of litigation if a former associate were allowed to move forward with claims that the firm was improperly taking credit for his work on its website.
July 01, 2020
NY Court Cops Sue Over Inadequate COVID-19 Protections

The union representing more than 1,500 New York state court officers hit Chief Judge Janet DiFiore and the Office of Court Administration with a putative class action in federal court for allegedly not providing enough protective measures against COVID-19 and threatening to discipline the union's president for raising the issue.
July 01, 2020
Florida Bar Exam Moves To Online Format In August

As Florida grapples with a dramatic upswing in COVID-19 cases, the Florida Board of Bar Examiners said Wednesday that it is canceling the in-person general bar exam scheduled for later this month and will instead administer an online exam on Aug. 18.
July 01, 2020
US Leans On Law Firms For Trade Deal Dispute Panelists

The Trump administration on Wednesday tapped trade and labor law experts from BigLaw fixtures like Skadden and Clark Hill to serve on panels that will be tasked with resolving disputes under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
July 01, 2020
It's Official: Troutman Sanders, Pepper Hamilton Are Now One

Troutman Sanders LLP and Pepper Hamilton LLP officially merged Wednesday, launching as Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP after the deal was delayed three months due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Editor's Picks

Law360 Names Practice Groups Of The Year

Law360 congratulates the winners of its 2019 Practice Groups of the Year awards, which honor the law firms behind the litigation wins and major deals that resonated throughout the legal industry in the past year.
Law360 MVP Awards Go To Top Attorneys From 76 Firms

The elite slate of attorneys chosen as Law360's 2019 MVPs have distinguished themselves from their peers by securing hard-earned successes in high-stakes litigation, complex global matters and record-breaking deals.
The 2019 Law360 Diversity Snapshot

U.S. law firms have long touted their commitment to diversity and inclusion. But those goals still seem far from being realized. Law360’s annual Diversity Snapshot indicates only marginal progress on racial and ethnic diversity in the attorney workforce from year to year, even as demands grow from clients expecting more diverse legal teams.

Expert Analysis

Opinion

Time To Consider Percentage Rental Agreements For Lawyers

It has long been the law that attorneys cannot use percentage rental agreements because doing so would constitute an impermissible sharing of fees with nonlawyers, but such arrangements can help lawyers match expenses with revenues in lean times like now, say Peter Jarvis and Trisha Thompson at Holland & Knight.
'Settle And Sue' Malpractice Cases Have New Clarity In Calif.

A California state appellate court's recent decision in Masellis v. Law Office of Leslie F. Jensen provides a road map for proving causation and damages in settle-and-sue legal malpractice cases — an important issue of long-standing confusion, says Steven Berenson at Klinedinst.
What You Say In Online Mediation May Be Discoverable

Mediation conducted online with participants in different states makes it harder to determine where communications were made, increasing the risk that courts will apply laws of a state that does not protect mediation confidentiality, say mediators Jeff Kichaven and Teresa Frisbie and law student Tyler Codina.
Opinion

Texas Should Cancel Its 2020 Bar Exam

An in-person bar exam in July would pose unacceptable health risks and put applicants at an unfair disadvantage, so the Texas Supreme Court should instead initiate a COVID-19 diploma privilege for this year, say professors Renee Knake and Dave Fagundes at the University of Houston.
10 Tips For A Successful Remote Arbitration Hearing

As I learned after completing a recent international arbitration remotely, with advance planning a video hearing can replicate the in-person experience surprisingly well, and may actually be superior in certain respects, says Kate Shih at Quinn Emanuel.
Opinion

To Achieve Diversity, Law Firms Must Reinvent Hiring Process

If law firms are truly serious about making meaningful change in terms of diversity, they must adopt a demographically neutral, unbiased hiring equation that looks at personality traits with greater import than grades and class rank, says Thomas Latino at Florida State University College of Law.
Cybersecurity Steps For Law Firms Amid Heightened Risks

With large swaths of the population indoors and primarily online, cybercriminals will be able to exploit law firms more easily now than ever before, but some basic precautions can help, says Joel Wallenstrom at Wickr.
Opinion

It's Time For Law Firms To Support Work-From-Home Culture

Now that law firms are on board with fully remote work environments, they must develop policies that match in-office culture and align partner and associate expectations, says Summer Eberhard at Major Lindsey.
Opinion

Republicans Keep Confirming Unqualified Judicial Nominees

What emerges from the group of 200 federal judges confirmed by the Senate under President Donald Trump is a judiciary stacked with young conservative ideologues, many of whom lack basic judicial qualifications, says Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Tips For Crafting The Perfect Law Firm Alert

As lawyers have had more time to write in recent weeks, the number of law firm alerts has increased massively, but a lot of them fail to capture readers and deliver new business, says Richard Torrenzano at The Torrenzano Group.
Series

Judging A Book: Elrod Reviews 'Shortlisted'

Renee Knake Jefferson and Hannah Brenner Johnson's new book, "Shortlisted: Women in the Shadows of the Supreme Court," is a service to an overlooked group of nine women who were considered for the U.S. Supreme Court before Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was confirmed, and offers constructive tips for women looking to break through the glass ceiling, says Fifth Circuit Judge Jennifer Elrod.
Mandatory State Bars Likely To Remain Intact, For Now

A Texas federal judge’s recent holding in McDonald v. Sorrels that mandatory bar memberships do not violate members' constitutional rights indicates that such requirements survive the U.S. Supreme Court's 2018 decision in Janus, but it may mean that the Supreme Court will address the issue in the not-too-distant future, say Majed Nachawati and Misty Farris at Fears Nachawati.
The Law Behind The Strange Departure Of US Atty Berman

In the wake of this weekend's confusing, contradicting statements regarding the removal of Geoffrey Berman as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, it is useful to ask what law governs here, why the standoff with Attorney General William Barr ended the way it did, and what history teaches us about these circumstances, says Daniel Levy at McKool Smith.
11 Keys To Success At Remote Mediation

Attorneys should accept that remote mediation may be their only current option for resolving a dispute and take steps to obtain a fantastic outcome for their clients, including making sure the right people attend the remote mediation and beginning the session with an apology, says Eric Meyer at FisherBroyles.
Pandemic Could Bring Student Exodus From Legal Profession

A recent survey shows that law and prelaw students have serious concerns about the quality and value of remotely provided legal education, and rapid action from the legal community is necessary to prevent promising young people from leaving in favor of other professions, says Mehran Ebadolahi at TestMax.