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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

RAINMAKING ON YOUR PARADE - Hiring hotshot laterals who command stratospheric pay is an increasingly common tactic for ambitious Am Law 200 firms. But as the classic song goes, when you wish upon a star—sometimes that star turns around and leaves with their giant book of business after just a couple of years. Take, for example, Jim Woolery, a highly connected New York dealmaker who joined Atlanta-based King & Spalding in May 2017, only to roll out last fall so he could start his own boutique. As Law.com's Meredith Hobbs reports, landing a big-name rainmaker can lead to a huge payoff, but an early exit can make it more difficult for a firm to convince the rest of its partnership to hire other marquee names. Still, that doesn't mean firms should stop trying—it just means they need to take steps to increase the odds that the next big hire will stick.

CLASS ACT? - After last year's white-knuckle ride for the legal industry, there was some speculation that Big Law partner classes might shrink, with firms perhaps being cautious about diluting their 2020 partner profits. Instead, new partner class sizes have mostly remained static, Law.com's Patrick Smith reports. But why? Bruce MacEwan and Janet Stanton of legal consulting firm Adam Smith, Esquire, posited that some firms might have maintained their class sizes (and sacrificed PEP) in order to try to project strength to the market. But that's just one theory. The consultants also noted that some firms may have been seeking to avoid a talent gap in the future like the one so many firms experienced after the Great Recession. Still, they added, holding steady on partner promotions may have been the result of an even simpler calculation: more partners = more partner billables.

ILL COMMUNICATION - Locke Lord and Nexsen Pruet filed a lawsuit Wednesday in Texas Western District Court on behalf of Nephron Pharmaceuticals Corp., and Nephron Sterile Compounding Center LLC. The suit brings defamation, unfair competition and business disparagement claims against Denver Solutions LLC, doing business as Leiters Health, and Prodigy Health Supplier Corp. The complaint alleges the defendants falsely told customers that Nephron had stopped producing phenylephrine, an emergency drug used to prevent cardiac arrest. The plaintiffs allege the harm caused by these statements was particularly acute given that all sales communications with customers during the pandemic have been conducted remotely. Counsel have not yet appeared for the defendants. The case is 1:21-cv-00081, Nephron Pharmaceuticals Corporation et al v. Prodigy Health Supplier Corporation et al. Stay up on the latest deals with the new Law.com Radar.

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EDITOR'S PICKS

Boies Schiller's London Administrative Partner Is Headed to King & Spalding, Sources Say By Dylan Jackson