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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

MEGA MARGINS -  By now, there have been plenty of consultancy reports detailing how law firms were able to slash their way to huge profit growth and salvage their 2020 fiscal years. But actually seeing what that profit growth looks like on a firm-by-firm basis is still liable to make you spit out your Folgers. As Law.com's Dan Packel reports, a number of U.S. law firms posted equity partner profit boosts that were double the rate of their revenue growth, according to an early analysis of nearly half the names from last year's Am Law 200 rankings. And while pandemic-induced cost-cutting was surely a major driver of those increases, it's also worth noting that in both the Am Law 50, and in the Second Hundred, a notable number of firms saw the size of their nonequity partnership tier expand by a significant amount over the past year.

GET YOUR IN-HOUSE IN ORDER - As Law.com's Christine Simmons wrote in a recent edition of the Barometer newsletter, clients are increasingly taking note of their outside counsel's succession plans—or lack thereof. But training the next generation of leadership can be a fraught proposition for some in-house legal departments as well. Turns out, the key to succession planning is to have—you guessed it—an actual plan. As Law.com's Dan Clark reports, a general counsel could identify his or her successor by expanding the role of associate or deputy in-house counsel. But for the succession plan to be a success, the process of preparing that person to take the reins must be deliberate and consistent "Succession planning happens every day, just by enabling those around you to continue to develop skills," said Brian Salmo, the GC of LMI Aerospace in St. Louis, who was recruited from Polsinelli by then-LMI GC Renee Skonier specifically to be groomed as her successor.

DISENFRANCHIZED - McDonald's was hit with a civil rights lawsuit Tuesday in Ohio Northern District Court. The lawsuit, filed by Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane & Conway, centers on allegations of racial discrimination and retaliation against a Black franchisee. "In addition to redlining Black franchisees into largely low-volume stores in impoverished communities, McDonald's has consistently discriminated against Black franchisees," the complaint, filed on behalf of plaintiff Herbert Washington, alleges. "Black owners average around $700,000 less in annual sales per store than White owners. This is not a coincidence. Nor is it because Black franchisees are comparatively worse at running businesses. The precipitous decline in Black franchisees and persistent disparity in cash flow are the direct and proximate result of McDonald's ongoing policies of racially disparate treatment." Counsel have not yet appeared for the defendants. The case is 4:21-cv-00367, Washington v. McDonald's USA LLC et al. Stay up on the latest deals and litigation with the new Law.com Radar.

EDITOR'S PICKS

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

BRUSSELS OR BUST - Brussels has plenty of lucrative antitrust work to offer, but it's a tough nut to crack for outside law firms. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett was undeterred, however. In fact, as Law.com International's Linda A. Thompson reports, the firm, which plans to open in the city later this year, viewed entry into the Brussels market as a post-Brexit necessity. If the firm wanted to continue advising clients on EU regulatory matters, it didn't really have an alternative—to practice and represent firms before the European Union institutions, their lawyers would need to be EU qualified. "We needed to be present on the continent and Brussels was the obvious choice," said Bill Dougherty, chairman of the firm's executive committee.

WHAT YOU SAID

"What they're doing is they're chilling my client's Sixth Amendment right to counsel. They are violating the Constitution they claim to uphold. I'm not going to stay around with a group chilling the right to counsel when it's an unpopular person."