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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

INNOVATION INTERPRETATION - Clients want their law firms to be innovative and law firms want clients to view them as innovative. A match made in heaven, right? Problem is, as Law.com's Zach Warren writes in the most recent Barometer newsletter, legal departments and outside counsel have very different definitions of "innovation." "For law firms, innovation means servicing clients in a new and unique way, leading to new practice areas, legal business services units, and even tech products that help them stand out from their peers," Warren writes. "But that may not be what corporate legal departments are looking for—they want cheaper and faster, at a maintained high quality, even if it's not necessarily a revolutionary idea or tool. Corporate legal departments want results, not differentiation." To receive the Law.com Barometer directly to your inbox each week, click here.

CRAZY RICH CLIENTS- Turns out you can make boatloads of money helping people who have boatloads of money figure out what to do with their boatloads of money. Many large law firms have ditched their trusts and estates capabilities in recent decades, but that may have been a miscalculation on their part. As Law.com's Dan Packel reports, the involvement of several elite law firms, including Paul Weiss and Munger Tolles, in the pending divorce of Bill and Melinda Gates demonstrates the renewed value of being able to cater to the needs of high-net-worth individuals. Plus, even if T&E isn't necessarily a major revenue driver on its own, it can feed other practices. For example, Reed Smith trusts and estates partner Cheryl Hader said that her roughly 400 to 500 clients generate work that ultimately gets spread across the firm and to more deeply leveraged practices in particular. "The firms that don't have trusts and estates departments are missing out on a great opportunity to bring in more business," she said.

SPAC PAYBACK? - Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani filed a $4 million breach-of-contract lawsuit Friday in New York Southern District Court on behalf of Stifel, Nicolaus & Company. The suit pursues claims against Shift Technologies Inc., an automotive e-commerce platform, in connection with its 2020 merger with a special purpose acquisition company. The suit contends that Shift engaged Stifel to help raise capital and now owes Stifel fees based on the SPAC transaction under the terms of an engagement letter. Counsel have not yet appeared for the defendant. The case is 1:21-cv-04135, Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Inc. v. Shift Technologies, Inc. Stay up on the latest deals and litigation with the new Law.com Radar.

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