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Law firms will need to adjust staffing and billing approaches to thrive in what has become a buyer’s market for legal services, according to a new report analyzing the state of client demand, firm finances and shifts in the legal market since 2009, our colleague Karen Sloan writes.
The report said lackluster demand for transactional work, ongoing efforts by clients to reduce spending, and the rise of artificial intelligence will create intertwining challenges for law firms this year. The report was produced by Georgetown Law’s Center on Ethics and the Legal Profession and the Thomson Reuters Institute, which shares the same parent company as Reuters.
Overall, average demand for legal services last year grew just 1.1% for the 179 U.S. based law firms surveyed, the report said, with midsize firms faring better than firms in the 100 top-grossing segment. The authors warned that law firms can no longer depend on transactional practices to prop them up, as many did throughout the 2010s when low interest rates fueled an increase in mergers and acquisitions and firms staffed up those practices in response.
“The fundamental shifts in the market that we have seen over the last 15 years are really coming home to roost,” said lead author James Jones, a senior fellow at the Georgetown center.
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- Davis Polk faces a federal jury trial in Manhattan this week in a lawsuit by a former corporate lawyer at the firm who claims he was fired after he complained of racial bias. Kaloma Cardwell, who is Black, is seeking between $16 million and $30 million in compensatory and punitive damages and attorney fees for retaliation, claiming the firm fired him from his associate position in 2018 because of his bias allegations. The firm has said Cardwell was fired for poor performance.
- U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan is the latest victim of an apparent “swatting” incident, when police responded to a call falsely reporting a shooting at her home. Chutkan is presiding over the criminal case charging Donald Trump with attempting to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
- Attorneys from Boies Schiller couldn’t convince the U.S. Supreme Court to take up a dispute over a defense pact among major chicken industry suppliers. Attorneys for Tyson Foods, Perdue and others told the justices the challenge to the liability-sharing agreement was not ripe and could be brought later in the litigation. Plaintiffs in the case include Target and Campbell’s Soup.
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Bank of America and several other big banks named as defendants in a rate-rigging lawsuit asserted a radical theory last month that might have fundamentally altered class action litigation in federal court, especially in securities fraud cases involving state pension funds. The banks got a chilly reception for their eleventh-hour theory, and they have only themselves to blame for asserting it late in the process. But Alison Frankel writes in her latest column that we probably haven’t seen the last of the bank theory that sovereign states cannot participate as absent class members in federal-court class actions. If the theory gains traction, Frankel says, the implications could be vast.
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“The NRA allowed Wayne LaPierre and his group of insiders … to operate the NRA as ‘Wayne’s World’ for decades.“
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—Monica Connell of the New York attorney general’s office, in her opening statement in the state’s corruption trial against the National Rifle Association and its former chief executive Wayne LaPierre, who resigned last week. New York Attorney General Letitia James sued the NRA and its longtime leader in August 2020, saying the group diverted millions of dollars to fund luxuries for top officials, including travel expenses for LaPierre to several resorts. The NRA, founded in 1871, has denied wrongdoing and said it has made reforms.
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- Google is set to go before a federal jury in Boston in a trial over accusations that processors it uses to power artificial intelligence technology in key products infringe a computer scientist’s patents, Blake Brittain writes. Singular Computing claims Google copied its technology and used it to support AI features in Google Search, Gmail, Google Translate and other Google services. A Google court filing said Singular has requested up to $7 billion in monetary damages, which would be more than double the largest-ever patent infringement award in U.S. history. Google said it looks “forward to setting the record straight in court.”
- Donald Trump’s lawyers will try to convince a D.C. Circuit panel that the former president cannot face criminal charges for seeking to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election. Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing the prosecution, said creating such a legal shield would place presidents above the law. Dean Sauer will argue for Trump, and James Pearce will represent the DOJ. D.C. Circuit Judges Karen LeCraft Henderson, J. Michelle Childs and Florence Pan will hear arguments. Our colleague Andrew Goudsward has more on the argument here.
- A trial is set to begin in federal court in Georgia involving a group of activists who want to force the state to overhaul its electronic voting system, operated by Dominion Voting Systems. U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg will decide whether the voting system is constitutional after the activists said several security vulnerabilities affect their constitutional right to vote.
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- Netflix defeated a lawsuit filed by shareholders that accused the streaming entertainment company of hiding the extent to which account-sharing was hindering its growth. U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar ruled the 2022 lawsuit included no evidence that the company was aware of the extent of the problem for as long as the investors alleged.
- A consumer class action accused HP of antitrust violations in alleged curbs on the use of third-party ink cartridges. The plaintiffs firm Milberg filed the lawsuit in Chicago federal court.
- The 8th Circuit revived an Iowa law that substantially increases the financial penalties and jail time for individuals who surreptitiously record videos and photos on private property. Animal welfare groups have vowed to continue arguing the 2021 law should not apply when they record instances of cruelty on industrial farms.
- Radio broadcaster Audacy said it is seeking to complete its bankruptcy case in under two months and that it had already lined up lender support for a $1.6 billion debt reduction deal. Audacy is one of the country’s largest radio and podcast companies.
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- Linklaters hired dealmaker George Casey in New York as global co-chairman of the firm’s corporate group. Casey previously was Shearman’s global managing partner. (Reuters)
- O’Melveny added partner David Kelley in New York from Dechert, where he previously co-led the white-collar and securities litigation practice. (Reuters)
- Wilson Sonsini added former FTC Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen and Taylor Owings as antitrust partners in D.C. They were both previously at Baker Botts. (Wilson Sonsini)
- Sidley hired David D’Urso and Elazar Guttman for its M&A and private equity group in New York. The pair arrives from Akin Gump, where D’Urso was head of the U.S. PE M&A practice. (Sidley)
- Brown Rudnick brought on Steven Tyrrell as a D.C.-based partner from Weil, where he was co-head of the firm’s white-collar defense practice. (Brown Rudnick)
- Allen & Overy brought on Boston-based corporate and life sciences partner Nicole Daley. She arrives from Goodwin. (Allen & Overy)
- IP firm Finnegan rehired D.C.-based partner Anna Chauvet to lead its copyright practice. She most recently was vice president of public policy at the National Association of Broadcasters. (Finnegan)
- McGuireWoods hired insurance recovery partner Mikaela Whitman in Century City and New York from Pasich. (McGuireWoods)
- Proskauer picked up IP partner Craig Whitney in New York from Frankfurt Kurnit. (Proskauer)
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