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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

OFF THE RAILS - For many lawyers, the daily commute has gone from a 30-minute train or car ride into the city to a 30-second walk down the hallway. But while that may seem like an obvious notch in the "life" column of the work/life balance sheet, the reality is more complicated, Law.com's Patrick Smith reports in part 2 of "On the Clock," a series about how lawyers' work habits have changed in the age of remote work. For many, the commute functioned as a divider between work life and home life, even if it did mean rubbing elbows with that guy whose headphones were so loud you could hear every word of "Careless Whisper." With that buffer gone, it's easy for the workday to bleed into the rest of the day (and night). "I like the demarcation between work and home," said Virginia Milstead, a litigation partner in Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom's L.A. office. "During the pandemic, I felt like I was always at work at home. It's been harder to compartmentalize." Still, the idea of going fully back to the daily commute is not exactly thrilling either. "I don't hate the idea of a commute again," said Bianca Madrigal, a business development manager at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan in Manhattan. "I just don't want to do it five days a week."

OUTSTANDING CLIENT SERVICE - Conventional wisdom says it's dangerous to lend money to family and friends because things could get awkward if they don't pay you back. Unfortunately, as close as you may be with your clients, monetary transactions are kind of an essential part of the relationship. Still, when clients don't pay their bills, the awkwardness can set it in quickly—and that often leads to unrealized collections. But, as Law.com's Justin Henry reports, that may be changing. Economic pressures accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic have forced many law firms into difficult conversations with clients, as they aim to balance flexibility during an economic downturn with their own budgetary constraints. The result is that an increasing number of firms are going from serving their clients to serving their clients with lawsuits. "Partners are under pressure to bring in as much money as they can, and that has led to more aggressive behavior in terms of fee collections and those kinds of disputes," said Ronald Minkoff, a litigation group partner at Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz, who represents law firms in fee collections disputes.

MEDIA MEGAMERGER - Grupo Televisa S.A.B. and Univision Holdings Inc. announced a merger agreement to create the largest Spanish-language media company in the world. The transaction, announced April 13, is expected to close in 2021. Televisa was advised by Wachtell Lipton, Rosen & Katz; Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman; and Mijares, Angoitia, Cortés y Fuentes S.C. Univision was advised by Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; Sidley Austin; and Covington & Burling. Investors included SoftBank Latin America Fund and The Raine Group, and were advised by Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and Pillsbury, respectively. Stay up on the latest deals and litigation with the new Law.com Radar.

EDITOR'S PICKS

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

COMMISSION OF OFFENSE - U.K. lawyers are not happy with the EU Commission's decision to block the U.K. from joining the Lugano Convention, a legal cooperation pact that would ensure the U.K. continues to get mutual recognition of court judgments in Europe, Law.com International's Meganne Tillay reports. Robert Gardener, director of government affairs within the Hogan Lovells global regulatory practice, said the Commission has made its decision "based on a mixture of politics and constitution," which now means everyone will need to "wait a little longer before seeing a much-needed spritz of the relationship between either side of the English Channel." James Palmer, senior partner at Herbert Smith Freehills, meanwhile, said the Commission is improperly treating the Lugano Convention as a trade law issue when it's really a consumer rights measure. "Lugano is all about providing better justice to citizens of member countries," he said.

WHAT YOU SAID

"We're not going to remember last year based on the fact that the financial numbers were on every measure the best they ever were. We're going to remember that we came together, that we respected our people, that we didn't do across-the-board layoffs."