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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

NEW APPROACH – Imagine this:  A legal market that competes on the quality of outcomes rather than the quantity of effort. That radical notion, Roy Strom reports, is the direction that legal departments and—often begrudgingly—law firms are moving. But first, the industry needs a reliable data-tracking system that works. But how? Baseball, “fingerprints” and coding hold some of the answers.

DOUBLE TROUBLE – While special counsel Robert Mueller's team is pushing for a prison term ranging between 17.5 years to 22 years for what they say are Paul Manafort's “bold” violations of law in connection with the probe into Russia's election meddling, Manhattan D.A. Cyrus Vance Jr. is grappling with potential double jeopardy problems in his own potential case against the former Trump campaign chairman aimed at keeping Manafort in jail even if President Trump pardons him. Colby Hamilton and Dan M. Clark report that even as some state lawmakers are trying to close the loophole in New York's double jeopardy law, Vance's team is looking to bring separate state charges against Manafort, to avoid the jeopardy problem.

HOME GROWN – Where do startups go when they need good lawyers? The West Coast, of course. Xiumei Dong reports on a recent study showing that the average start-up company spends about $77,000 per year on legal costs, and the go-to law firms for those companies include Fenwick, Gunderson Dettmer, and Orrick.

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EDITOR'S PICKS

ABA Delays Decision on Tougher Bar Pass Rule

Meet Big Law Attorneys Who Worked to Block Texas Execution

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DATA SNAP

GAVEL MONEY - Where does it pay to be a judge? Well, it depends. An analysis of data released in January by the National Center for State Courts shows that New York state trial court judges have seen pay rise most sharply among their peers over the past decade, but jurists down in Washington D.C. still raked in the most. Trial court judges in Texas, meanwhile, haven't seen a pay raise in a while. All that said, if you're thinking about a career on the bench, you may want to consider Tennessee. Click here for a closer look at trend lines across states.

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WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

REUNITED – Crowell & Moring's London office has brought aboard four Squire Patton Boggs partners. As Hannah Roberts reports, they join their former colleague, Robert Weekes, Squire London managing partner who jumped to Crowell last month to lead its London office. New to Crowell are Squire's U.K. litigation head Laurence Winston, London insolvency head Cathryn Williams, insolvency partner Paul Muscutt and infrastructure partner Robin Baillie.

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WHAT YOU SAID

“[I]t's important we think about what are the preconditions for real equality of opportunity that go past hiring. We need to be challenged to think about pay equity and the evaluation process and access to assignments.”

— KALPANA KOTAGAL, PARTNER AT COHEN MILSTEIN, WHO HELPED DRAFT THE SO-CALLED INCLUSION RIDER TO BOOST DIVERSITY IN THE FILM INDUSTRY, A PROVISION ADVOCATED FOR BY ACTRESS FRANCES MCDORMAND AT THE OSCARS LAST YEAR.

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