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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

VARIABLES – Even though most law firms are deemed essential services, they're in no rush to refill their offices with lawyers and staff. Samantha Stokes and Patrick Smith report that for Big Law offices, with dozens of locations, turning the lights back on will be a complicated process, especially with differing return-to-work approaches state-to-state.

FINANCIAL WOES – Pay cuts, salary freezes and furloughs are hitting law schools as university systems grapple with massive budget shortfalls caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Karen Sloan reports that the University of California system, Harvard University and the University of Michigan, among others, are projecting massive budget shortfalls, and law schools are feeling the impact. Harvard Law School dean John Manning has told students that the financial fallout on the university is expected to be bigger than that of the 2008 recession.

GEARING UP – Anticipating a flood of business-interruption lawsuits against insurance firms in the wake of COVID-19, two groups of lawyers are pushing to create an MDL proceeding that would coordinate all the cases. Amanda Bronstad reports that efforts to coordinate the suits focus on 16 cases so far filed in federal courts against eight insurance firms. Mark Lanier and other plaintiffs lawyers have filed a motion for MDL in Illinois federal court. Meanwhile, plaintiffs lawyer Richard Golomb and others have filed a motion that would send the cases to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.