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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

SLOWDOWN – Economic uncertainty stemming from Brexit is a big reason that growth at the U.K.'s largest law firms slowed in the 2018-19 fiscal year. Hannah Roberts reports that combined revenues across the U.K.'s top 50 firms grew by 9.6% to about $29.2 billion. The increase is a clear slowdown compared with 2017-18, when the total combined revenue number grew by 15.4%. It is also the lowest rise since 2015-16. The average profit per equity partner for a top 50 firm reached about $906,000, a 4% rise on the previous year, when the figure grew at the same rate.

OPIOIDS – A federal judge has rejected key defenses ahead of the first MDL opioid case next month. Amanda Bronstad reports that the rulings are a setback for opioid manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies, which sought to toss the claims ahead of trial, and could influence the outcome of nearly 2,000 other lawsuits in the MDL brought by cities and counties over the opioid crisis. Among the pre-trial rulings, Judge Dan Polster in Ohio found that a jury could reasonably conclude that the increases in prescription opioids proximately caused harm to plaintiffs. He also denied motions on federal preemption, another defense, and refused to toss civil conspiracy claims.

PROPERS – In-house lawyers say that the age-old system that gives lawyers who originally brought work to the firm the origination credit on a permanent basis is undermining their diversity efforts. As Kibkabe Araya reports, the system remains in place at many law firms, even if years later a woman or person of color is completing the client's work initially brought to the firm by a white male. Some GCs now are revamping their selection process to specifically learn more about which lawyers will receive origination credit to help determine if women and minorities are getting their fair share.

IN COURT – Lawyers for Jeffrey Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre, who include David Boies, are set to appear in Manhattan federal court this morning, as they continue to push for the unsealing of thousands of documents in a civil lawsuit involving luring young girls into the deceased financier's illicit underage sex ring. The status conference is scheduled for 9 a.m. before Judge Loretta Preska.

EDITOR'S PICKS

New York Jets Promotes General Counsel to Franchise President

Kirkland & Ellis Lands Diversity Executive From Orrick

Gun Rights Advocates Ask SCOTUS to Review Bump-Stock Ban

McCarter & English Names First New Executive Committee Chair in a Decade

My Weekday Workout: King & Spalding's Jules Quinn

10 Deals That Made This the Summer of Legal Tech M&A

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

DETAILS – Using the exchange rate as the reason for the collapse of merger talks between Allen & Overy and O'Melveny & Myers is not quite as ridiculous as it sounds, to Paul Hodkinson writes. Given that a failure to reach an agreement on a firm name or logo is often the death knell for a deal, it could at least be argued that the recent fluctuations in the pound and their impact to the firms' valuation came at just the wrong time, when other issues had finally been resolved.

WHAT YOU SAID

"I rebuilt a sense of self. Brick by brick. Painful self-discovery by self-discovery."