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WHAT WE’RE WATCHING

AT ODDS – The DOJ today is expected to tell the U.S. Supreme Court justices that federal civil rights laws don’t protect gay, lesbian and transgender workers from workplace discrimination. Main Justice has advanced that argument in lower courts, at odds with the EEOC’s litigation and policy stance. It remains to be seen whether the EEOC will sign on to the government’s brief at the high court. The cases, which the justices agreed to hear in October, have attracted a substantial number of friend-of-the-court briefs. More than 200 companies signed one amicus brief that said ending discrimination against LGBT workers is “good for business, employees and the U.S. economy.”

FINDING HOMES – LeClairRyan lawyers are dispersing amid the firm’s collapse. Among the latest moves, Lizzy McLellan reports that K&L Gates has brought aboard a four-lawyer litigation team in Newark. Other hires come from Clark Hill in Houston and in California, where that firm has three offices. Lewis Brisbois this week announced the hire of 11 attorneys, including five partners, across several of its offices, and FordHarrison has scooped up LeClairRyan two lawyers for its Hartford, Conn., office. LeClairRyan, which had its largest office in Richmond, Va., last year had 273 lawyers.

APPY DAYS – Think of it as the Big Law App Store. A newly created partnership between alternative legal services provider Elevate and legal tech platform Reynen Court aims to provide law firms with a single platform to install, use and manage the abundance of legal tech products available to firms from various vendors. As Krishnan Nair and Zach Warren report, it’s similar, in theory, to creating an App Store for legal tech. Reynen Court was established last year, supported by 19 law firms with backers including Latham & Watkins, Clifford Chance and Paul Weiss.

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EDITOR’S PICKS

Chief Legal Officer of IPO-Bound WeWork Made Almost $900K Last Year

Baseball’s ‘Pitching Ninja’ on Big Law, Spotting Talent and Why the Billable Hour Is for Suckers

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WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

DEPARTURE – Kirkland & Ellis London corporate partner Joel Arnell is leaving to join a private equity firm Triton Partners, one of Kirland’s key clients. Hannah Roberts reports that Arnell’s move is part of a spate of departures from Kirkland’s London office in recent months, including tax partner Mark Ingram who joined Capital Group this month, and private equity partners Gavin Gordon and David Arnold, who joined Willkie Farr & Gallagher in May.

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WHAT YOU SAID

“My calendar quickly went from full to overflowing. I have had to develop a new routine to manage my time even more granularly and efficiently.”

—  FIONA MORAN, PARTNER DAVIS POLK & WARDWELL, ON HOW HER LIFE CHANGED ONCE SHE MADE PARTNER.

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