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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

GET BUSY LIVING - Do you send late-night work emails on Saturdays? Do you start responding to work emails at 4 a.m. each day? Were new episodes of "Friends" still airing the last time you took a proper vacation? If so, your colleagues have a message for you: nobody cares. Look, by all means, you do you—just don't brag to everyone about how hard you work. It's not impressive and, actually, it's pretty concerning. That's the basic gist (with some paraphrasing) of a recent tweet by Canadian criminal defense barrister John Hale, which received more than 1,700 likes and has sparked a conversation about the dangers of what some are calling "performative busyness." The attitude that working nonstop (and talking nonstop about how much you work) is something to be lauded "seems to be embedded in the DNA of the profession, because the major metric for lawyers is the billable hour," Hale told Law.com International's Rose Walker. But Hale added that he worries about the message being sent to young lawyers who think they have to burn the candle at both ends every day and completely forego a personal life to be successful. The reality, he said, is that working insane hours does not always translate to being an effective lawyer. Or, as he put it: "A well done steak is not more valuable to me because it took longer to cook."

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR LAWYERS - Thanks to the rising popularity of remote work coupled with Delta-variant-delayed office reopenings, law firm leaders are more concerned than ever about how their young lawyers will learn the ropes, Law.com's Justin Henry reports. "There's a lot of anguish when it comes to the loss of training that is done when you have in-person arrangements, because training is really a team sport and a mentoring sport," said Brad Hildebrandt, chair of Hildebrandt Consulting, who provides consulting services for Am Law 100 firms. "When you talk to the leaders at firms, one of the things they will say every time is they are concerned about a lost generation of lawyers who have not been trained properly." While hand-wringing over this issue has been happening since the start of the pandemic, others have argued that training lawyers remotely is entirely doable (and, not to mention, necessary). I'm interested to hear what you think: was in-person work really that much better for young lawyers' development than the current remote environment or are firm leaders looking back at the pre-pandemic profession with rose-colored glasses? Let me know at [email protected].

NETFIX - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued Sung Mo Jun, a former software engineer for Netflix, and other defendants Wednesday in Washington Western District Court for allegedly gaining $3.1 million in profits from insider trading of Netflix securities. Jun is accused of accessing nonpublic information concerning Netflix's subscription levels and sharing it with friends and family members, who in turn allegedly traded Netflix securities in advance of announcements of quarterly earnings. Counsel have not yet appeared for the defendants. The case is 2:21-cv-01108, Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jun et al. Stay up on the latest deals and litigation with the new Law.com Radar.  

EDITOR'S PICKS

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

CALL TO ACTION -  Top global law firms have rallied to collaborate on a joint response offering pro bono support for displacement relief efforts in Afghanistan, after the Western-backed Afghan government surrendered to the Taliban over the weekend, Law.com International's Anne Bagamery and Hannah Roberts reported. According to several people with knowledge of the matter, European lawyers at a number of large law firms including the likes of Orrick, Dentons, Weil Gotshal & Manges and Debevoise & Plimpton have been contacted regarding a co-ordinated response to the events unfolding in Afghanistan. One person said that "every major law firm" had been contacted about getting involved in the pro bono response to provide legal advice to those seeking repatriation and asylum. One lawyer with knowledge of the talks said that pro bono lawyers are set to hold a group call in the coming days to share information and discuss the possibility of a joint response in the region in conjunction with non-governmental organizations. They added that 25 firms had signed up to the call, at the time of writing. "It is very early days, but we are all coordinating," another person said.

WHAT YOU SAID

"We will not accept presidential pardons as get-out-of-jail-free cards for the well-connected in New York."