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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

FLEXIBILITY'S BREAKING POINT - From amped-up amenities (Personal trainers! Free food! Naptimes? Uh… showers?) to special accommodations for parents of young children, law firms are pulling out all the stops to ease the transition back to the office after a year-and-a-half away. But even these perks and policies, paired with more flexible hybrid work arrangements, may be failing to address the trauma attorneys and staff experienced during the pandemic and the difficulty some are having with returning to in-person work. What's more, law firms are battling extremely high levels of attrition just as some of their less traditional competitors fully embrace remaining remote. For those firms pushing forward with office reopenings, is making the workplace feel more homey a suitable substitute for actually letting people work from home (or from Starbucks? Or the beach)?  As we explore in this week's Law.com Trendspotter column, there's evidence to suggest that for many attorneys, legal professionals and staff, the answer is no. I'm interested to hear your thoughts: Despite their current preference for hybrid work arrangements, do you anticipate more legal industry employers will ultimately decide to go fully remote or at least make office attendance completely optional? Either way, what, if anything, can law firms do in the meantime to make in-person work more worthwhile? Let me know at [email protected].

CREDIT WHERE IT'S DUE -  Origination credit—specifically, how it's awarded to women and minority attorneys—is often cited as a key factor causing continuing inequity within many law firms. Yet, as Law.com's Dylan Jackson reports, the legal industry is still fairly unorganized in how it doles out credit and many firms don't even have written policies on the subject. Firms and clients are looking for a change. "It's important for me as the legal team to ask, who is getting credit?" said Marie Ma, vice president and deputy general counsel at Gap Inc. "You have to know what's going on. You have to know whose position you're supporting with your dollars." Origination credit and billable hours are the two primary factors in the compensation and promotion of attorneys, and ensuring that diverse attorneys are given due credit is essential to their advancement, and thus, retention. But due to several factors, women and minority attorneys often have a disproportionally difficult time obtaining origination credit, which leads many to become disillusioned and leave their firms.

BAD BOUNDARIES - South Carolina Governor Henry D. McMaster, the South Carolina State Election Commission and a slew of other state officials were hit with a class action Tuesday in South Carolina District Court alleging that the state's U.S. congressional and state house districts are malapportioned. The complaint, which challenges the state legislature's decision to suspend the redistricting process, was brought by Arnold & Porter, the NAACP, the American Civil Liberties Union and Boroughs Bryant LLC. The case is 3:21-cv-03302, South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP et al v. McMaster 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

SEEING RED (TAPE) - Once upon a time, European lawyers could jump on a plane or train and start working as soon as they landed in the U.K. But these days, as Law.com International's Linda A. Thompson reports, there's nothing jaunty about work jaunts to the U.K. Post-Brexit, these once-quick trips now require extensive advance planning, with new immigration rules creating headaches, additional costs and red tape for continental firms that used to regularly second associates and trainees to their London offices. "For huge firms that are used to freely move their employees, it is much more difficult," said Gabriella Bettiga, director of MGBe Legal, a London firm specializing in personal and business migration. "There are no advantages; it's just a burden for them. So, of course, they're not happy."

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WHAT YOU SAID

"Don't be an amateur; amateurs practice until they get it right. Professionals practice until they can't get it wrong."