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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

DEAR LANDLORD – While the legal industry debates whether law firms even need offices, the fact remains that most still have them and they still cost plenty of money, regardless of whether they've sat vacant for the past few months. But is there any relief law firm leaders can seek from their landlords at an unprecedented time like this? Altman Weil principal Tom Clay tells ALM's David Thomas it would be "managerial malpractice" not to look for a break. But as a recent lawsuit against Jenner & Block by the owner of its 416,200-square-foot Chicago office space illustrates, those conversations don't always go so smoothly.

TRIAL BY TRIAL -  There's pressure, and then there's being the first judge in Texas, and perhaps the nation, to hold an in-person jury trial since March. Chief Judge Barbara Lynn of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas earned that distinction last week and came away from the experience with a message for other courts across the country attempting to restart trials post-COVID: it won't be easy and it won't be cheap. "I used three courtrooms," Lynn told ALM's Angela Morris. "We spent significant money purchasing supplies, and it will become more and more challenging when we have a trial, with multiple defendants, multiple counts, and greater length." Fortunately, there is now some additional guidance: Ross Todd writes that the federal judiciary's COVID-19 Judicial Task Force has released a 16-page report titled, "Conducting Jury Trials and Convening Grand Juries During the Pandemic."

CLERK WORK – Let's take another trip back in time to 2019, when life was relatively normal and law grads seeking federal clerkships hopped on airplanes, rather than Zoom, to meet with judges for interviews.  As Karen Sloan reports, the ABA's most recent law jobs data has Stanford Law School unseating Yale Law School as the campus with the most grads clerking for the federal judiciary. But perhaps even more interesting is the shakeup that occurred beyond the top 5 usual suspects: Notre Dame moved up to No. 7 in the rankings from No. 15 the year before and Washington University shot to No. 10 from No. 26. 

EDITOR'S PICKS

Minnesota Supreme Court Backs Paid Sick Time Requirement

'We Need Good Judges': Keith Ellison Urges Progressives to Consider the Judiciary

Former Baker McKenzie Chief Paul Rawlinson Died by Suicide, Inquest Hears

From $111,000 to Zero? South Florida Ruling Shows How Insurance Litigation Can Go Wrong

UnitedLex Acquires Paul Hastings Data Analytics Team

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

EVERYONE'S A SUSPECT - If ever there were a test case for the "everybody did it" defense… Eva von Schaper reports that the number of individuals and firms under investigation in Germany's "cum-ex" tax scandal, in which organizations are alleged to have double-dipped on tax rebates, has ballooned from around 400 to more than 800 over an eight-month period. 

WHAT YOU SAID

"People who do not believe that we have a racial injustice problem are entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their own facts. Simply put, the facts are with me."