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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

FOUL LINES - The New York Mets' dismissal of GC David Cohen and HR head Holly Lindvall in response to allegations of sexual harassment and other misbehavior within the organization highlight in-house counsel's responsibility to help drive company culture, including setting clear behavioral boundaries and fostering an environment where those boundaries are respected, Law.com's Phillip Bantz reports. Rob Chesnut, former GC and chief ethics officer for Airbnb Inc., said he views Cohen's firing as part of an "increasing sign that if you're the GC of a company, you've got a responsibility to develop not only a check-the-box approach with compliance but also ensure that there's a culture within the organization that does the right thing."

BECOMING CENTERED - Fox Rothschild's recent move to reduce support staff and reorganize those remaining into firmwide support hubs was far from the first in Big Law, and it won't be the last, Law.com's Justin Henry reports. Fifteen months of remote work have made many firms realize that their support teams are overstaffed. Now, an emerging model is taking shape among Am Law 100 firms in which nonlegal support needs are being reallocated to practice assistants, allowing highly skilled legal secretaries to handle the more specialized work. These teams could support as many as 40 or 50 attorneys, said Mark Santiago, a partner at law firm consulting company SB2 Consultants, who has worked with roughly a half-dozen Am Law 50 firms on staffing realignment. "People are looking at the support services they've had for years and years and saying 'We do a lot of stuff that we don't need to do,' and I think COVID has highlighted a lot of that," Santiago said.

SENIOR WEEK - Welltower Inc. has agreed to acquire 86 senior housing properties from Holiday Retirement for $1.6 billion. Simultaneously, Atria Senior Living has agreed to acquire Holiday's management services business. Both transactions, announced June 21, are expected to close in the third quarter of 2021. Holiday, which is based in Winter Park, Florida, was represented by a Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison team including partners Ariel Deckelbaum and Harris Freidus. Louisville, Kentucky-based Atria was advised by a Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson team led by partner Lee Parks. Counsel information for Welltower, which is based in Toledo, Ohio, was not immediately available. Stay up on the latest deals and litigation with the new Law.com Radar.  

EDITOR'S PICKS

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

AUSSIE ASSOCIATES' APPEAL - Recruiters say U.S. law firms, struggling to keep up with surging demand for legal services, are hiring associates from Australia and doubling or tripling their salaries, according to a report by Law.com International's Christopher Niesche. Associates with experience in banking and transactions, including M&A, private equity and leveraged finance, as well as in technology, are in high demand in New York and San Francisco in particular, but also in Chicago, Houston and Boston. Recruiters say demand is coming from all the top-tier U.S. firms, including Davis Polk & Wardwell, Kirkland & Ellis and Latham & Watkins. "The market over in the U.S. is going gangbusters, and Aussies are relatively easy to sponsor to bring in, and so it's natural hunting ground for the U.S. firms," said Tom Stretton, managing director of Major, Lindsey & Africa in Australia.

WHAT YOU SAID

"The takeaway is you better have lawyers that know what they're doing."