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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

BETTER BILLABLES? - Virtual law firms have been inundated with requests from attorneys eager to join their ranks over the last year and a half, even as more traditional firms have begun to loosen up on their office attendance requirements. So if it's not solely a desire to work from home that's driving interest in virtual firms, what is it? Three terrifying words: billable hour requirements. David Reidy, managing partner of Silicon Valley-born virtual firm Scale, told Law.com's Jessie Yount that it's hard for lawyers to innovate and find better ways to deliver legal services if they're spending 2,000 hours each year practicing law for the sake of meeting revenue targets. Virtual firms, Reidy and others said, offer attorneys an opportunity to be more entrepreneurial and to increase their focus on client service. "[W]hen you force someone to bill 2,000 hours a year, that starts to create an incentive that is in conflict with client interests," Reidy said. "Law firms have historically offered one, quantitative flavor of success, and we feel it is time for a top-tier firm that wasn't built on an hours-and-fees model."

JURY DUTY OF CARE - Some court administrators, judges and litigators have been pleasantly surprised by jurors' willingness to carry out their civic duty during the pandemic. But in Georgia, the recent surge of COVID-19 cases has potential jurors anxious about the potential safety risks of showing up to the courthouse, Law.com's Cedra Mayfield reports. What's more, a lack of hard data is making it difficult for the state's courts to reassure concerned members of the jury pool. The Administrative Office of the Courts of Georgia told Mayfield that COVID data, such as information regarding exposures across the state's system of superior courts, is not being formally tracked. And during a recent AOC meeting, state Supreme Court Chief Justice David Nahmias said that, while judges are talking to each other about COVID exposures happening in the courts, those discussions are "more anecdotal than any effort to collect data." "To my knowledge, no one is collecting data on any centralized basis. There is discussion of the general situation and particular cases in a variety of contexts," Nahmias said.  "I'm not sure what data we would collect, is part of the issue."

CLAWS OUT - The Maine Lobstermen's Association sued U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and the National Marine Fisheries Service on Monday in District of Columbia District Court over new conservation mandates aimed at protecting North Atlantic right whales. The suit, brought by Stoel Rives and Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith, contends that the 2021 action pursuant to the Endangered Species Act imposes unwarranted targets that would devastate the Maine lobster business. The case is 1:21-cv-02509, Maine Lobstermen's Association v. National Marine Fisheries Service et al. Stay up on the latest deals and litigation with the new Law.com Radar.  

EDITOR'S PICKS

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

DUBAI DISPUTE DISRUPTION -  In a shake-up of the Middle East's arbitration scheme, the government of Dubai has abolished the Dubai International Financial Centre-London Court of International Arbitration (DIFC-LCIA), which is now set to be replaced by Dubai's existing onshore arbitral institution, and will now also open offices at the DIFC, Law.com International's Peter Shaw-Smith reports. The Dubai International Arbitration Centre (DIAC) will act as sole arbitral chamber in the Emirate of Dubai, with the DIFC office serving as default location in the event that the parties do not designate a seat, according to a note by lawyers at King & Spalding's Dubai office. The decree, issued September 14, and set to take effect Monday, had taken many observers by surprise, the law firm said.

WHAT YOU SAID

"Working from home, if an email comes to me at 10 p.m., the expectation is not that I have to answer it. But I'm like, 'Eh, I could,' and I do, and it ends up snowballing."