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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED -  Big Law attorneys are more fearful of a COVID-19 infection than attorneys at small firms, as large firms grapple with returning their attorneys to the office full time, the COVID-19 Delta variant and the profound popularity of remote work, Law.com's Dylan Jackson reports. Ru Bhatt, a partner in the associate practice group at Major, Lindsey & Africa, said lagging vaccination numbers and rise of the new Delta variant have caused safety concerns to flare up again. Other recruiters have noticed the same. "I've been hearing from a lot of people that they do have safety concerns because of the number of people who aren't vaccinated," Bhatt said, adding that concerns about Delta variant have led to "reluctance to go back into the office and, especially, travel again." Alex Su, an attorney influencer and former Sullivan & Cromwell associate, said he has been taking greater precautions such as wearing his mask more often outside of his house in the past few weeks. He added that he has "heard rumblings" that many firms are now considering pushing back their office return plans. "I was feeling very comfortable and heard about this Delta variant and started putting my mask back on in certain places," Su said.

DATA DEARTH - Yesterday, we discussed how law firms could ingratiate themselves to clients by simply asking for feedback once in awhile. Here's another relationship hack for firms: give your clients the gift of data. Data on budgets. Data on risk. All. The. Data. As Law.com's Dan Clark reports, GCs are increasingly looking for law firms that can collect and synthesize information that will help corporations improve their decision-making about legal strategy and spend. But relatively few firms are able to actually deliver, according to in-house sources. Lindsey Haswell, chief administrative and legal officer of crypto exchange Blockchain.com, said it's perplexing how law firms are still analog, saying she is "really frustrated" with them. Clients need data to better understand their own outside counsel spend and to assess the risk involved in particular legal strategies. For example, rather than settling for an anecdotal answer about the potential risk in pursuing a certain legal avenue, Haswell pushes her outside counsel to discuss "the percentage likelihood of an occurrence." "Too often the law firms put the general counsel and her team in the middle of having to interpret that to the business client," she said.

NOT-SO-PRIVATE EYES - Counsel at Greenberg Traurig on Wednesday removed a biometric privacy class action against Alcon, the Texas-based eye care company, to Illinois Northern District Court. The complaint, filed by Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane & Conway and Siri & Glimstad, arises from the company's virtual try-on feature for purchasing eyeglasses. The case is 1:21-cv-04019, Taylor et al v. Alcon Vision, LLC. Stay up on the latest deals and litigation with the new Law.com Radar.  

EDITOR'S PICKS

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

HIGH FINANCE IN HONG KONG -  Rimon Law has set its sights on Asia, having applied to open an office in Hong Kong with two potential partners in the pipeline, Law.com International's Jessica Seah reports. A Hong Kong office launch will mark its third Asian office, after Shenzhen in 2019 and South Korea earlier this year. The firm's plan is for its Hong Kong offering to focus on advising high-value financing work, and its presence in the city will fulfil what the firm sees as the three pillars of global finance, alongside New York and London.  "A lot of law firms are leaving Hong Kong which is why we see an opportunity to go in," said Michael Moradzadeh, Rimon's San Francisco-based founding partner and chief executive officer. "A lot of our China practice has been led by our tech practice so Hong Kong will be our finance practice. Those are our biggest practice areas—high tech, high finance, and entertainment."

WHAT YOU SAID

"Five weeks ago, it was announced there was no need for masks for vaccinated individuals. We saw that as a pathway to going back to a practice that we have known. With the current variant and guidance on wearing masks, it's changed the circumstances. We're paying close attention."