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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

NO FIRM PLANS - As we've noted in this space several times, many law firms have had trouble committing to and/or clearly communicating their return-to-office policies. To the extent that this tentativeness is the result of the ever-shifting nature of the pandemic, it's probably understandable—but it's still not doing firms any favors. As Law.com's Dylan Jackson reports, The American Lawyer's 2021 Midlevel Associates Survey found that respondents are uneasy about a perceived lack of communication from their firm's management, especially as it relates to return plans that vary widely in terms of both in-office requirements and the detail firms have provided. "[My firm] has given us the freedom to work remotely; however, they have not clearly communicated a criteria for which return to the office is expected, leading to uncertainty and related anxiety," said one fourth-year associate in the Washington, D.C., office of a firm near the top of the Am Law ranking. Another respondent—a fourth-year associate at an Am Law 100 firm in New York—said their firm held "biweekly meetings with associates to update them on new developments, firm strategy, and on-the-ground impact on associates" but has, up until very recently, "refused to provide any kind of meaningful explanation of how/when/where we will return to the office."

HYRBRID HOW-TO - For those firms that actually do have a plan for returning to in-person work, Law.com's Victoria Hudgins has put together a handy guide for navigating a hybrid environment in which some attorneys and staff are in the office while others work remotely. I'm not going to give away the whole article, which features advice from law firm leaders, consultants and GCs. Instead, I'd encourage you to give it a full read. But since there's been a lot written in this space recently about hand-wringing over whether and how professional development can happen in a virtual setting, I thought I'd highlight deputy Dominion Energy GC Carlos Brown's tip for engaging promising, but typically underrepresented, attorneys: make the effort to seek out virtual one-on-one interactions. Brown suggested, for example, following up with diverse attorneys after productive meetings. "If you're trying to support a new lawyer, and you can't sit beside them or meet face-to-face, that's going to become more challenging for lawyers of color," Brown told Law.com. "But it'll be challenging in development, not necessarily in the practice of law."

TARGETED SOLICITATIONS - Kirkland & Ellis and Jackson Lewis filed a trade secret lawsuit Monday in Nevada District Court on behalf of Byrna Technologies Inc., a manufacturer of .68 caliber non-lethal defense technology. The complaint accuses Duke Defense and other defendants of soliciting Byrna's senior employees and misappropriating confidential information to form a Byrna competitor. Counsel have not yet appeared for the defendants. The case is 2:21-cv-01559, Byrna Technologies, Inc. v. Duke Defense USA, Inc. et al. Stay up on the latest deals and litigation with the new Law.com Radar.  

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EDITOR'S PICKS

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WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

BUILDING A PRACTICE - An infrastructure building boom in Australia is keeping firms' construction disputes partners busy and leading to an uptick in partner poaching as firms position for more disputes, Law.com's Christopher Niesche reports. "There's a huge program of infrastructure work being undertaken … and inevitably disputes arise when unforeseen risks eventuate," Alison Close, a construction partner Clayton Utz, said. Australian lawyers are still seeing disputes resulting from the country's last mining and oil and gas boom. But much of the increase is due to additional infrastructure investment in recent government budgets and private investment in the mining and utilities industries. The government is upgrading transport in Melbourne and Sydney, for example, and resources companies are developing new projects. All this building work will likely lead to more disputes in the future,  Glen Warwick, a Perth-based construction partner at Clyde & Co, told Niesche. "The market seems busy across all major centers in Australia, given the appetite of both federal and state governments to invest in infrastructure," Warwick said. "COVID has caused some disruption but this seems unlikely to reverse the general trend towards increased construction activity and resultant disputes."

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WHAT YOU SAID

"Before you step into a conference room or jump on a call or log into a Zoom meeting, take the time to ask yourself, 'What value will I be adding?' If you cannot easily answer that question—go back to the drawing board."