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

WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

LEANING AND BULKING  – Some firms are looking to cut personnel on the staff side, while others are looking to add talent on the attorney (and C-suite) side. As Patrick Smith reports, data collected by consulting firm Decipher, covering Jan. 1 through Aug. 31, shows a number of firms have been active in the lateral market during that period. Alisa Levin, veteran legal recruiter and principal at recruiting firm Green-Levin-Snyder, said the pandemic has created an opportunity for firms that want it. "There are winners and losers, and the disparity between the winners and losers is getting broader," Levin said. "There are a number of firms that see this as an opportunity to get people or practice areas they have been trying to bolster for a long time." Meanwhile, Dan Packel reports that, since the start of the spring, at least 20 Am Law 200 firms have acknowledged cutting staff positions. While those moves don't necessarily signal financial distress at every firm, there are certainly those who are in danger of becoming one of the lateral market "losers" Levin described if they fail to get a handle on their expenses. "If they don't sustain profits per partner, they'll see an exodus of rainmaking partners to firms who do sustain PPP. They're constrained to look for ways to cut costs. Unfortunately for staff, that's an easy place to look," said Legal Mosaic founder Mark Cohen, who managed his own litigation boutique and was a partner at long-defunct Finley Kumble. "The result speaks for itself. It's a very sad situation."

TAXING DECISIONS  – Law firm leaders have recently displayed a newfound openness to hiring lateral partners outside their firms' existing geographic footprints. After all, the pandemic has proven that attorneys don't need brick-and-mortar offices to be productive and the prospect of bringing on new books of business in new locations without the accompanying overhead would seem to be a no-brainer. But as any "Price Is Right" prize winner can attest, the taxes are where they get ya. A new office, or new attorneys who are visibly working in a new state, means a new set of tax filing obligations. "Take a firm that has 15 offices," LegalSearch Inc. head Elan Keller told Dan Packel. "If four partners want to add an office in their states, all of a sudden the state tax issues shift for all of the partners."

STARS, THEY'RE JUST LIKE US – Contrary to conventional legal wisdom, having a #1 single with Ke$ha isn't enough to protect you from being hit with COVID-19 contract litigation. Hodgson Russ filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit Monday in New York Southern District Court on behalf of Power Within Corp. and Power of Success Inc. The complaint takes aim at speakers bureau agency Greater Talent Network LLC, actor Terry A. Crews, musical performer Armando "Pitbull" Pérez and other defendants who allegedly failed to appear at scheduled lectures due to pandemic restrictions. Counsel have not yet appeared for the defendants. Stay up to date on major litigation nationwide with Law.com's Legal Radar.

EDITOR'S PICKS