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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

DOSE OF MEDICINE – Big Law has an outsized part to play in the development of the COVID-19 vaccine, Patrick Smith and Dan Packel report. In the race to create coronavirus vaccines, Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer and Hogan Lovells are two of the firms guiding companies through regulatory and contractual obstacle courses. An attorney from Arnold & Porter says that its relationships within the life sciences and healthcare industries might be one reason the firm won the business of pharma companies such as AstraZeneca, which has attracted $1.2 billion in federal grants to team up with Oxford University on a vaccine.

EASING LEASES – As law firms continue to delay rent payments amid the pandemic, real estate professionals predict that the legal industry will begin padding leases with more rental protections, Dylan Jackson reports. Law firms have been seeking wiggle room on rent at a higher rate than other commercial tenants, one expert says. After "act of God," provisions in law firm lease agreements flopped, many have been left to negotiate with landlords. This pressure could make rent abatement terms, like the ones at issue in litigation over Jenner & Block and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett's offices, the industry standard going forward.

THREE'S COMPANY – A three-judge court could review a challenge to President Donald Trump's decision to nix undocumented immigrants from the U.S. census count, Tom McParland reports. It all hinges on a federal law that says challenges to the apportionment of congressional districts and statewide legislative bodies must come before a three-judge panel. But that could also put the case on a fast-track to the U.S. Supreme Court, as decisions from three-judge panels have a pipeline directly to 1 First Street.

EDITOR'S PICKS

MDL Panel Refuses to Coordinate Lawsuits Over COVID-19 Bank Loans