Want to get this daily news briefing by email? Here's the sign-up.

WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

HOME ALONE – Working from home is working fine for many law firms—from a technical standpoint at least—but how to you keep remote lawyers from becoming alienated lawyers? As the pandemic wears on, firms are increasingly wrestling with how to train, coach and develop their talent in an effective and equitable manner, Patrick Smith reports. This is becoming especially complicated as segments of their workforce return to the office, while others remain remote for a variety of reasons. How do firms avoid falling into the trap of giving more work to the people who are physically present simply because it's more convenient? According to Mark Beese, president of Leadership for Lawyers, a consulting firm focused on training for leadership skills and business development in the legal industry, it's up to those in leadership positions to be deliberate about equitably allocating work. "The role of a leader is to create a culture and an environment where everyone is being developed," Beese said. "That is the definition of inclusion. If you are neglecting that leadership role, you might lose those people."

MAKING A LIST, CHECKING IT TWICE –  As an in-house leader, whittling down your list of preferred outside counsel may sound like a major undertaking—and it definitely is—but just know that if General Motors could do it, anything is possible. According to Suzanne Miklos, GM's assistant general counsel and a recent panelist at the ILTA>ON virtual conference, the company narrowed its preferred provider list down from 900 law firms to only 19(!). How did they do it? If you guessed single-elimination breakdance competition—you're wrong, unfortunately. But as Frank Ready reports, what GM's legal department did do was build a task force comprised of one member from all of the different practice groups, who leveraged data to help redefine the scope of their outside counsel network along key parameters such as geographic location, expertise, diversity, hourly rates and the alignment of strategic goals.

UNDERHANDED UNDER ARMOUR? – Under Armour, the sportswear brand famous for a handful of NBA stars' signature shoes and also some very tight shirts, has been hit with a lawsuit by UCLA alleging the company used the pandemic as a convenient excuse to back out of the largest athletic apparel sponsorship deal in the history of American college sports. The complaint, filed yesterday by Kendall Brill & Kelly and the Regents of the University of California on behalf of the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics, alleges Under Armour breached its contract with the university "by fabricating a 'Force Majeure Event' and disingenuously citing the COVID-19 pandemic as a pretext for its purported termination of the Agreement." 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

Always Braced for a Storm, These Louisiana Firms Knew How to Cope Amid COVID-19