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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

YOU SAY YOU WANT A REVOLUTION… - Remember all that stuff about how the pandemic was going to change the legal industry forever? No more cavernous law firm offices! No more flying cross-country for hour-long client meetings! The remote revolution! That was cute, wasn't it? In the span of 16 months, the legal industry has gone from fearing remote work to begrudgingly accepting it as a temporary nuisance to embracing it as the wave of the future—and now, at least in some corners, back to fearing it again. Much handwringing has occurred recently—including in that controversial letter from Morgan Stanley Chief Legal Officer Eric Grossman—about how young lawyers will learn and how collaboration will occur in a setting where not everyone is present in the same office suite at the same time. But as we explore in this week's Law.com Trendspotter column, even with some big-name clients tugging firms back toward their office-centric pasts, a powerful talent market continues to demand a more flexible future. Professional development and firm culture can be fostered in a remote environment, but it will require this notoriously risk-averse industry to abandon "the way we've always done things" for longer than a year-and-a-half. And if more in-house counsel follow Grossman's lead, firms may also find themselves having to choose between alienating their clients and alienating their talent. I'm interested to hear what you think: Do law firms have an obligation to their people to figure out how to make flexible work arrangements viable in the long-term—even if clients object? Let me know at [email protected].

DECENT PROPOSALS -  A bipartisan committee of veteran U.S. Supreme Court practitioners on Tuesday disagreed with an array of proposals for reforming the high court before a special White House commission and warned that many pose serious constitutional problems. The practitioners committee, testifying at a virtual public hearing by the Presidential Commission on the U.S. Supreme Court, rejected expanding the size of the court, legislating cameras in the courtroom, imposing an ethics code on the justices, and requiring mandatory appellate review of all death penalty cases, among other proposals. But it wasn't all bad. As Law.com's Marcia Coyle reports, the 16-member practitioners committee did favor some proposals, including: a constitutional amendment to impose 18-year terms for justices; the continuation of live audio broadcast of oral arguments with an extension to opinion announcements; expansion of the pool of attorneys from which the justices draw appointments of amicus to argue a particular issue or to defend a lower court judgment, and a heightened standard for SCOTUS and lower courts to vacate a lower court's stay of execution.

702 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU - Law firm fight! Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie; and McKee, Voorhees & Sease filed a trademark lawsuit Tuesday in Nevada District Court on behalf of personal injury law firm Kane, Temple & Myers d/b/a The702Firm. The complaint contends that competitor Harris Law Firm has infringed on the plaintiff's trademarks by using the phrase '702 Lawyers' in its marketing. Counsel have not yet appeared for the defendant. The case is 2:21-cv-01364, Kane, Temple & Myers PLLC v. Harris Law Firm, LLP. Stay up on the latest deals and litigation with the new Law.com Radar.  

EDITOR'S PICKS

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

KUDOS ARE FOR CLOSERS -  High-value tech deals in Asia Pacific have propelled Skadden, Sullivan & Cromwell and Ropes & Gray to the top three spots for M&A legal advisers in the region during the first six months of 2021, Law.com International's Jessica Seah reports. M&A activity in Asia Pacific, excluding Japan, generated almost $600 billion in the first half of this year. Mergermarket data tracked 5,800 deals in the first half with a total value which marked an 82% increase from the same period last year. The number of transactions grew only by about 1%. Check out the full article to see the other firms that ranked among the top 10.

WHAT YOU SAID

"This is true at every business: people don't want to work with someone, no matter how smart they are, if they aren't nice."