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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

BAD NEWS? -The U.S. News & World Report law school rankings have not exactly gone swimmingly this year, with multiple last-minute revisions leading up to their official release today. Still, as Law.com's Karen Sloan reports, some things never change, including Yale Law School's stranglehold on the top spot. In fact, there was no movement among the top five schools this year. There was, however, a fair amount of shakeup among the top 20 schools, along with the introduction of a new student debt metric and the first-ever HBCU law school to crack the top 100. But the shifting rankings this year have also brought far more hand-wringing and scrutiny than previous iterations, emboldening U.S. News skeptics who say that the methodology of the rankings are flawed and that assigning numerical rankings to law schools does more harm than good. So did the rankings' credibility take a hit among academics? Yes. Will that ultimately erode the rankings' power over law schools? That's… less likely. As Sloan wrote in her Ahead of the Curve column yesterday, "One person actually laughed for a good 10 seconds before answering that question."

HIGHWAY TO THE DANGER ZONE - Let's rev up the racecar metaphors, shall we? The legal industry (and the rest of the world) was blindsided by the pandemic last year. Still, many firms managed to not only stay the course but to far outpace the previous year. This year, however, spending too much time gazing in the rearview mirror or easing up on the accelerator for a premature victory lap could still end in a wreck if firms aren't careful. As Bill Ingram, CEO of Up or Out, recently put it to Law.com's Patrick Smith, firms should be taking a NASCAR-esque approach to getting under the hood, even (or especially) when the engine seems to be running smoothly. "Race teams look at the car's performance when it is at its peak," he said. "The same is true for a good year at a firm: You can make real improvements when you know what your next level should look like." In this week's Law.com Trendspotter column, we examine the dangers of complacency and the challenges moving forward for the firms that made significant cuts in 2020, as well those that chose not to. I'm interested to hear from you: where do you think firms are particularly vulnerable after the wild ride of 2020? Let me know at [email protected].

IBM'S IP IMPASSE - IBM sued Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten and its U.S.-based affiliates for patent infringement Monday in Delaware District Court. The suit, filed by Desmarais LLP and Potter Anderson & Corroon, accuses Rakuten of willfully appropriating IBM technology to build its online retail network. "Rather than negotiate with IBM, Rakuten has used a series of delay tactics," the complaint alleges. "In July 2015, when IBM first informed Rakuten that its subsidiaries were infringing IBM's patents, Rakuten refused to take responsibility for the companies it controlled and told IBM to contact each of them individually. Then, Rakuten refused to meet with IBM by ignoring IBM's messages, claiming vague scheduling conflicts, or deflecting responsibility from one Rakuten representative to the next." Counsel have not yet appeared for the defendants. The case is 1:21-cv-00461, International Business Machines Corporation v. Rakuten, Inc. et al. Stay up on the latest deals and litigation with the new Law.com Radar.

EDITOR'S PICKS

Derek Chauvin Trial Puts the COVID-19-Altered Courtroom on Worldwide Display