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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

SHARED INTEREST – All eyes are on Utah right now—and not just because of Donovan Mitchell and the Jazz. Members of the legal industry, at least, are watching with interest to see how the state's recently enacted two-year pilot "regulatory sandbox" program plays out. The program, in which applicants can seek approval to experiment with new legal business models and approaches such as allowing nonlawyers to share fees with lawyers, is a litmus test for the rest of the country. But is Utah's approach too radical? As E. Lynn Grayson, who co-chairs the Chicago Bar Association/Chicago Bar Foundation Task Force on the Sustainable Practice of Law & Innovation, told Victoria Hudgins,other states may be more hesitant to embrace a concept like the regulatory sandbox. "Law is very much cloaked in a lot of history and tradition, and any type of change is challenging and to the extent there will be change or proposed improvements, it's a slow, deliberate process," Grayson said. "I think the sandbox is a jump in with both feet that may be a little startling and shocking to some state supreme courts."

BANKRUPTCY BUDDY SYSTEM –  Speaking of unorthodox ideas that could catch on more broadly, Brenda Sapino Jeffreys reports that Kirkland & Ellis and Jackson Walker have been making a habit of teaming up as co-counsel in bankruptcy cases. The arrangement is proving to be particularly beneficial now, as the pandemic has led to a surge in bankruptcy filings, and consultants say more law firm collaborations could be on the horizon. "It's a great deal," said William C. Cobb, a Houston consultant at Cobb Consulting. The arrangement benefits both firms, he said, as well as clients, which get a team of experienced bankruptcy lawyers from both firms in addition to Jackson Walker's lower billing rates. "You are going to see more and more of it," he added.

LITIGATION INSPIRATION - As we've discussed recently in this space, pandemic-related business interruption litigation remains white-hot (skeptics be darned), and a recent ruling out of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri has given plaintiffs lawyers nationwide some hope to hold onto. That case, Studio 417 v. Cincinnati Insurance Co., appears to now be leading to other similar suits. On Monday, in what is listed on the Missouri Western District Court docket as a related case to Studio 417, a Kansas City distillery filed its own putative class action against the Cincinnati Insurance Co. The suit alleges the insurer "appears to be taking a uniform approach to the current pandemic: deny coverage even when the policy they drafted…does not contain an exclusion for pandemic- or virus-related losses." It was brought by Stueve Siegel Hanson, Miller Schirger, Langdon & Emison and Shaffer Lombardo Shurin. Counsel have not yet appeared for the defendant. Read the full complaint and stay up to date on major litigation nationwide with Law.com's Legal Radar.

EDITOR'S PICKS

Black Ex-NFL Players Sue League Alleging Racial Bias in Administration of Concussion Settlement By Max Mitchell