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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

FUTURE-PROOFING - The bad news is that succession planning has gotten a lot more difficult during the pandemic. The good news is that law firms have never been very good at it anyway, so not much has changed. Still, there remains the small matter of what to do if you don't want your firm to go the way of the buffalo after all the senior partners retire. As Law.com's Jessie Yount reports, a desire to secure leadership for the future is driving a number of midsize firms to resume merger talks and strike deals that were largely put on hold over the past 18-plus months. The pandemic further exacerbated the need for the next generation of law firm leaders, as management confronts obstacles related to the virus itself and how to return to the office. But another consequence of COVID is that baby boomers aren't the only ones leaving the profession, according to Kristin Stark, a law firm consultant at Fairfax Associates. "To complicate matters, the pandemic has reduced the partnership glue, which has previously held many partnerships together," Stark told Yount. "It has also led more partners to disengage from the practice of law prematurely through early retirements or a shift to other types of work. This instability in the partnership composition has further contributed to a feeling by some smaller and midsize firms that they need to join forces with a larger firm in order to remain viable and avoid dissolution."

PREPARING PROSPECTIVE PRACTITIONERS - In October, as Law.com's Avalon Zoppo reported, data released by the National Association for Law Placement showed that first-generation law school students are worse off in the job market after graduating compared to their peers who have at least one parent or guardian with a law degree. Recognizing that all law students should have equal access to the information needed to succeed in law school and beyond, a number of law firms are increasing their outreach aspiring attorneys, especially at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Law.com's Dan Roe reports. But what should that outreach actually entail? Samendio Mathieu, a May 2021 graduate of the Florida A&M University College of Law who recently joined South Florida firm Rumberger, Kirk & Caldwell as associate, told Roe that firms looking to engage law students on campus can fill educational gaps left by the law school curriculum. "Coaching moot court, doing mock trials, sponsoring a law review, would create regular interactions with law students and build familiarity," he said. "A lot of students don't have familiarity with attorneys actually practicing law unless their parents, family members, and friends were lawyers. Considering FAMU is an HBCU that's not the case for a lot of students."

MARRIOTT'S MISUSED MURAL? - Marriott International and the owners of two San Diego hotels were hit with a copyright infringement lawsuit Wednesday in California Central District Court. The lawsuit, brought by Erikson Law Group on behalf of Greetings Tour, accuses the hotel chain of using a photograph of the plaintiff's iconic "San Diego" mural to promote its regional hotels on social media. Counsel have not yet appeared for the defendants. The case is 2:21-cv-09336, Greetings Tour Inc. v. Marriott International, Inc. et al. Stay up on the latest deals and litigation with the new Law.com Radar.  

EDITOR'S PICKS

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

GOING SMALL IN THE BIG APPLE - After 15 years, one of Canada's largest law firms is changing its cross-border strategy and dramatically downsizing its New York office, Law.com International's Gail J. Cohen reports. Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt is scaling back its New York team to four lawyers from 15 or 16 a year ago, shifting its New York focus to advisory work. Cross-border corporate and securities partner Rob Lando, who is licensed to practice in both New York and Ontario, is the new office managing partner. "After 15 years of [following] a full-scale transaction execution model, we looked at it and thought that on balance we would be better off to partner with U.S. firms going forward," Osler managing partner Doug Bryce told Law.com International. Osler originally opened its only American outpost as a strategic way to approach the U.S. capital markets, which "exercise such a powerful force of gravity on economies outside the U.S., and in Canada in particular," he said. But with the lease coming up on the firm's office space in The New York Times building, it was "a logical time in which to engage in a little bit of review," Bryce added. The plan to pivot the New York office has been in the works for a number of months and was discussed with the partners there well in advance, allowing them to "have a chance to figure out their futures," he said.

WHAT YOU SAID

"Don't make business decisions based on emotion."