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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

SO LONG, TRADITION – Throughout most of its history, the legal market has encompassed two driving forces—clients and law firms. How times have changed. Today, clients are supplementing or even replacing firms with a host of legal and technology service providers. These "New Law" entrants, also known as alternative legal service providers (ALSPs), come in all sizes and flavors, from those focused solely on e-discovery or contract management, to others tackling clients' staffing or compliance needs. But it's an open question where New Law fits into the legal ecosystem. Today, Law.com releases its Breaking Tradition series that, over the next 12 months, will shed light on how New Law came about, its impact on the current market, and what it portends for the future.

CENSUS BATTLE BEGINS – A hearing is set for this morning on the constitutional challenge filed by New York and a coalition of states and localities against President Donald Trump's move to exclude undocumented immigrants from the U.S. census. The lawsuit, which accuses the Trump administration of trying to "weaponize the census against immigrant communities," is one of several legal challenges to Trump's July 21 order directing the Commerce Department not to include undocumented persons for the purposes of congressional apportionment in the decennial count. Attorneys for both sides are expected to appear by phone for the initial pretrial conference before U.S. District Judge Jesse M. Furman of the Southern District of New York.

CYBER SCARCITY – Long gone (hopefully) are the days when basic necessities like toilet paper and disinfectant are nowhere to be found. But the COVID-19 pandemic is still limiting the supply of at least  one other necessity: cybersecurity professionals. While these experts have always been hard to come by, Frank Ready reports that for law firms and legal departments, the current situation has made them even harder to find and hire. The reasons are multipronged: recruiters that legal clients work with are closing up, while demand for cybersecurity staff is at an all-time high due to the unprecedented move to remote work. The situation may lead some to foster cybersecurity professionals in-house, and place less of a premium on formal cybersecurity training.