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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

PRO TIPS - It is, unfortunately, all too common for law firm partners to side-eye nonlawyer executives who are brought in to help steer an organization's strategy. But letting lawyers lawyer and leaving the rest to business experts can be incredibly effective. Still, without mutual respect and some level of trust between attorneys and other high-level professionals, a firm's efforts to expand its C-suite can go sour in a hurry. In this week's Law.com Trendspotter column, we examine why partnership buy-in can be so hard to come by in those situations, as well as how to go about trying to achieve it. Before we dive in, I'm interested to hear what you think: Should law firms be hiring more nonlawyer professionals to drive their business operations? Why or why not? And, if they do, what's the best way to get buy-in from the partnership? Let me know at [email protected] and I'll round up your feedback for a follow-up "Talking Trendspotter" column.

TIME'S YOURS? - For any skeptics that might still be hanging around a year-plus into a global pandemic (what's your deal, by the way?), it's worth repeating: burnout is a real thing that poses a real threat to both attorney wellbeing and law firm productivity. As Law.com's Dylan Jackson reports, the acknowledgment of this problem is leading many firms to try to address the root through various schemes and programs including, of course, simply asking their attorneys to take time off—because just turning on the beach-themed Zoom background every once in a while is probably not enough. "We've basically been telling them, telling our talent, you need to take a vacation," Margaux Trammell, director of professional development at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, said. "You need to take some time off." Still, Jarrett Green, a wellness consultant and former Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom attorney, said extra vacation time is meaningless if it's not accompanied by adjusted productivity expectations. "You can give people thousands of vacation hours a year. But if you don't want to decrease billable hours, then nobody will take it," Green said.

A PICTURE'S WORTH AN AMOUNT TO BE PROVEN AT TRIAL - Michael Best & Friedrich; and Nixon Peabody filed an intellectual property suit against Samsung Electronics and Samsung Electronics America Monday in Texas Western District Court. The lawsuit was brought on behalf of digital photo platform MemoryWeb, which alleges that the Samsung Gallery photo app infringes on five MemoryWeb patents. Counsel have not yet appeared for the defendants. The case is 6:21-cv-00411, MemoryWeb, LLC v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. et al. Stay up on the latest deals and litigation with the new Law.com Radar.

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