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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

SECOND CITY, FIRST CHOICE - In a year defined much more by its office shutdowns than its office openings, Chi-Town remained a sought-after destination for law firms looking for growth opportunities. As Law.com's Andrew Maloney reports, New York-based Willkie Farr & Gallagher; Detroit-based Dickinson Wright; Milwaukee-based von Briesen & Roper; Washington, D.C.-based Venable; and New York-based financial services boutique Murphy & McGonigle all opened in the city during the pandemic. Like other markets, Chicago saw a dip in lateral and merger growth in 2020, said Kent Zimmermann, a Chicago-based law firm consultant at Zeughauser Group. But the city remains an attractive option for law firms because it has a surplus of attractive sectors, such as private equity and life sciences, and because of its profit potential. "It's on a shortlist of cities where you can command healthy rates. You can raise your rates relatively quickly," Zimmermann said in an interview. "And it's perceived as less picked-over, in terms of both high-quality lawyers and high-quality firms to join forces with."

TRANSACTION YEAR - Transactional lawyers had a lot of curveballs thrown at them this year, from learning to do deals remotely to dealing with COVID-19′s impact on existing deals, all while attempting to track which party would ultimately take majority control over the federal government. Meanwhile, a rough first half of 2020 gave way to a more productive and promising latter half. Now, dealmakers are hoping they can take the lessons they learned this year and really get back to business in 2021, Law.com's Patrick Smith reports. "The whole 'the sky is falling' theory is done. People have started to get comfortable," Charles Ruck, an M&A partner at Latham & Watkins, says. "I have never been busier than I have been in the last six months, and I have been doing this for 30 years. The pipeline is full and the fundamentals are still out there: Debt is cheap and corporate balance sheets are full, and debt is cheap for them, too. The stock market has rebounded, and those all are positive signs."

FINDER'S KEEPER'S - Twitter was hit with a lawsuit Monday in Florida Southern District Court. The complaint alleges that the defendant made defamatory statements by classifying information obtained through the plaintiff as "hacked material." The court action was brought by Harvin & Harvin and Compass Law Partners on behalf of John Paul Mac Isaac, the owner of the computer repair shop that performed data recovery services for Hunter Biden. "Plaintiff is not a hacker and the information obtained from the computer does not [constitute] hacked materials because plaintiff lawfully gained access to the computer, first with the permission of its owner, Biden, and then, after Biden failed to retrieve the hard drive despite plaintiff's requests, in accordance with the Mac Shop's abandoned property policy." Counsel have not yet appeared for the defendant. The case is 1:20-cv-25264, Isaac v. Twitter Inc. Stay up on the latest litigation with the new Law.com Radar.

EDITOR'S PICKS

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

EVENTFUL YEAR - Latin America was among the last regions to succumb to the full impact of COVID-19, but when the pandemic did hit, it combined with political upheaval in many parts of the continent. Still, as Law.com International's Amy Guthrie reports, the region's top law firms have been kept busy amid the chaos. "2020 has been an interesting year, to say the least in a number of areas," said Michael Fitzgerald, chair of the Latin America practice at Paul Hastings. Law firms found themselves busy helping aviation and tourism-related companies file for bankruptcy and restructuring, and governments tap debt markets or restructure. Meanwhile, as weeks of quarantine turned into months, a window opened for Brazilian companies to tap equity markets, resulting in that country's busiest year for initial public offerings since 2007.

WHAT YOU SAID

"In our view, our equity partners have enjoyed the benefit of great years we had in 2018 and 2019. To me, it was a no-brainer that the owners of this business have to take care of our people."