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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

IS NEW YORK OLD NEWS? - New York has long set the standard for the rest of the legal industry on everything from salaries to workplace culture to industry status and practice area focus. But, as Law.com's Patrick Smith reports, more and more firms are beginning to realize that they're doing themselves no favors by trying to keep up with the Wall Street elites. "Everything is benchmarked after New York," Jennifer Johnson, CEO and founder of legal consulting firm Calibrate Legal, told Smith. "Many are still chasing that. But New York will always lead with money, and that isn't the way the rest of the country operates." Kent Zimmermann, strategy consultant to law firm leaders at Zeughauser Group, suggested that a healthier strategy for law firm leaders would be to simply look slightly up-market from where they happen to be. "All firms are somewhere on a ladder, and what that looks like depends on where you are starting your climb from," he said. "If you are in St. Louis, you might be looking at some Chicago firms. If you are in Chicago, maybe then it makes sense to look to New York, London and Northern California. You don't want to be an also-ran in New York."

WHAT ARE THE CHANCES? - The oft-repeated claim that spontaneous run-ins with colleagues in the office tend to spark great innovations is a little like saying people tend to meet their soulmates on Tinder. Sure, it probably happens, but it's not exactly the norm. In fact, according to a recent New York Times article, academics and corporate leaders who study the workplace have found no empirical evidence that ties office attendance to creativity and collaboration. Still, as Law.com's Dan Packel writes in his most recent "Law Firm Disrupted" column, it may not be innovation so much as education that firms are after in trying to push attorneys back to the office. After all, chance encounters in the hallway may not be leading to as many incredible breakthroughs as some law firms leaders would have you believe, but it's easy to imagine them leading to teachable moments for younger attorneys. Even so, it's clear firms are going to need to figure out a way to make professional development work in an environment in which not everyone is physically together at the same time. "In the end, lawyers are going to be working from home far more than they did prior to COVID-19," Packel writes. "Given a competitive talent market and the clear appeal of flexible work, it's going to be impossible to get the toothpaste back into the tube."

COLD SWEAT - Growth stage tech company Swoop Search sued Sweat Equity Partners, TurbineOne and TurbineOne co-founder Matthew Amacker on Friday in Wisconsin Western District Court for alleged breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets. The suit accuses Sweat Equity Partners, which provides engineering support to startups in exchange for equity, of violating a confidentiality agreement and using Swoop's proprietary information and technology to launch a competing company. Swoop Search is represented by Fredrikson & Byron and Quarles & Brady. Counsel have not yet appeared for the defendants. The case is 3:21-cv-00417, Swoop Search, LLC v. Sweat Equity Partners, LLC et al. Stay up on the latest deals and litigation with the new Law.com Radar.  

EDITOR'S PICKS

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

DUTCH FIRM DITCHED - Just eight years after launching the Amsterdam-based boutique firm Rutgers & Posch, a third of the six founding partners are jumping ship, Law.com International's Linda A. Thompson reports. Founding partner Hendrik Jan Schimmel is joining Taylor Wessing's real estate practice along with three corporate real estate lawyers: Fabian Stevens, David Weinstein and Adriaan Quist. Founding partner Gerard Endedijk, partner Maarten Vink and counsel Romée Reitsma are leaving to establish their own litigation boutique firm—Lennox Litigation. Endedijk was previously head of litigation for DLA Piper in Amsterdam, before leaving to establish Rutgers & Posch.

WHAT YOU SAID

"As a lawyer, I can't fix what is irreparable. But what I can do is fight to immediately fully compensate these victims so that they can focus all of their energy on healing as best they can."