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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

CHIEF UNDER FIRE – Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. is a "disappointment to conservatives," according to Vice President Mike Pence. Mike Scarcella and Marcia Coyle report that in a new interview Pence assailed Roberts by name, contrasting the Republican-appointed judge with "principled conservatives" the Trump administration has picked for the federal courts. Roberts has faced new criticism from conservatives over the past few weeks after a spate of rulings in which the chief justice aligned with the court's liberal wing on issues of immigration, gay rights, abortion and virus-era restrictions on public gatherings for worship.

DRY SPELL - There's good news and bad when it comes to law firm innovation amid COVID-19. Frank Ready reports that innovation is picking up momentum in law firms across the country as attorneys struggle to adapt to the ongoing business impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. But while lawyers may be primed to accept change, are law firms too preoccupied by client demands to capitalize on the moment innovation is having?

FEE AWARD – Amazon might have another revenue stream heading its way. Scott Graham reports that U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman of the Northern District of California indicated she will be finding PersonalWeb Technologies LLC and Level 3 Communications LLC's sprawling patent infringement litigation against the e-commerce giant exceptional, and awarding at least some portion of the $6.1 million in fees Amazon is seeking. Amazon accuses PersonalWeb of framing its cloud computing case against 85 Amazon Web Services customers one way before the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, then repeatedly changing theories after the MDL was assigned to Freeman in order to maintain settlement leverage against the individual companies.


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EDITOR'S PICKS

UK-Based Virtual Firm Launches in US With Grand Plans