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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

HEY, MUST BE THE MONEY! - "In the M-I-crooked-letter- crooked-letter-O-U-R-I no one could do it better." Multi-platinum hip-hop artist Nelly's astute assessment of Missouri's legal market has perhaps never rung truer. As Law.com's Andew Maloney reports, several big firms in the Show-Me state last year posted solid profit or revenue gains. These Kansas City or St. Louis-based law firms in the Am Law 200 were often supported by high demand in labor and employment, health care, mid-market transactional activity and product liability practices. And while the firms' profit margins are often lower than their East and West Coast rivals in the Am Law 200, they benefit from lower overhead costs, while their Midwest billing rate structure often attracts clients. Some Missouri firms even outperformed industry averages for 2020. "The legal market in St. Louis has been pretty stable over the last couple of years," Joan Newman, a legal consultant based in the Gateway City, told Maloney. "Not to say there aren't certain pockets of firms that have struggled, but I think by and large they're still going pretty well."

NO GOING BACK - Law firms have long had a problem with effective leadership, but if ever there was a time to step up and figure out how to adapt to a radically shifting industry landscape, it's right now, Scott Westfahl, a professor at Harvard Law School and the director of its executive education program, said yesterday during ALM's LegalWeek(year) 2021 virtual event. "I just think the talent market and the world of talent is changing dramatically. Organizations that take a strict, hardline, 'You have to be in the office every day,' are going to attract a narrow band of people, and I don't think they're going to be able to scale and grow," Westfahl said. Instead, he explained, law firm leaders who feel strongly about bringing people back to the office five days a week should stop and think about what they really want. "That partner who is insisting that learning has to happen in the office, underneath that is a core value that says, 'We're a learning organization,'" Westfahl said. "Let's tap that core value and think about how we move that person, recognizing the sense of loss and despair they're going to feel. You really have to account for that loss."

GOING BLANK - Another private equity firm has formed a SPAC. Leo Holdings V Corp., a blank check company formed by British private equity firm Lion Capital, filed with the SEC on March 15 for a $250 million IPO. The company, which has applied to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange, is advised by Kirkland & Ellis partners Christian O. Nagler and Peter S. Seligson and Maples and Calder. The underwriters, led by Deutsche Bank, are represented by Ropes & Gray partners Christopher J. Capuzzi and Paul D. Tropp. Stay up on the latest deals and litigation with the new Law.com Radar.