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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

CRAM SESSION - You wouldn't always know it from watching the finished product, but a lot of work actually goes into preparing the Senate Judiciary Committee for judicial confirmation hearings. Veteran Capitol Hill lawyers on both sides of the aisle have been busy readying senators to question President Joe Biden's historic SCOTUS nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, whose hearings begin this morning. Both parties typically bring in a team of outside lawyers and law students to work with attorneys assigned to the Judiciary Committee to pore over a nominee's record, review past opinions and orders as well as legal writings, and develop talking points for senators, according to people familiar with the process. It's a weeks-long project that involves review of thousands of pages of material. Law.com's Andrew Goudsward has the rundown of the big names that have been working behind the scenes ahead of this week's proceedings.

'E' IS FOR EXHAUSTION - The discussion around mental health in the legal profession often focuses on two segments of the industry: law firms and in-house legal departments. But, as Law.com's Victoria Hudgins reports, legal tech professionals are by no means immune from burnout. This issue is particularly acute in the realm of e-discovery, where tight deadlines and understaffing have become the norm. And while the pandemic and remote working have exacerbated e-discovery professionals' stress, observers told Hudgins that mental health challenges existed well before COVID-19. "I feel like there were mental health issues around, 'People don't care about what I do [in e-discovery],'" said Jared Coseglia, founder and CEO of privacy, e-discovery and cybersecurity staffing agency TRU Staffing Partners Inc. "[Now, what] I hear more from the community is, 'We are understaffed, please help me. I cannot get enough people to support what we have and that's causing strain on me.'"

WHO GOT THE WORK?℠ - Yahoo has agreed to sell Edgecast Inc. to for $300 million. The transaction, announced March 7, is expected to close in the third quarter of 2022. Edgecast is a business unit of Yahoo, which is owned by funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management. Scottsdale, Arizona-based Limelight was advised by Goodwin Procter. Apollo was represented by Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison team led by partners Justin Rosenberg and Taurie M. Zeitzer. Counsel information for Yahoo was not immediately available. >> Read the press release on Law.com Radar and check out the most recent edition of Law.com's Who Got the Work?℠ column to find out which law firms and lawyers are being brought in to handle key cases and close major deals for their clients.

EPIDEMIC INDEMNITY - Giant Eagle, a regional supermarket retailer, sued a fleet of insurers Thursday in Pennsylvania Western District Court to recover costs associated with the defense and settlement of lawsuits arising from the opioid epidemic. The lawsuit, which takes aim at affiliates of Chubb, Travelers, Liberty Mutual and American Financial Group, seeks declaratory judgment that the defendants have a duty to defend and indemnify Giant Eagle against claims related to its dispensing of prescription opioids at grocery store pharmacies. The suit, brought by Marcus & Shapira and Miller Friel PLLC, states that Giant Eagle has incurred more than $30 million to date in attorney fees and costs. The case is 2:22-cv-00468, Giant Eagle, Inc. et al v. American Guarantee And Liability Insurance Company et al. Stay up on the latest deals and litigation with the new Law.com Radar.  

EDITOR'S PICKS

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

LEGGO MY CEO - In Big Law, the phrase "attorney-client relationship" typically refers to the interactions between a law firm partner and a company's GC. But partners frequently bypass in-house teams to pursue a separate connection with the CEO—and, as Law.com International's Varsha Patel reports, that's a no-no. "To go over the heads of GCs is just bad practice", one retailer GC said, recalling several instances of this taking place with their external firms. They added it was "happening all the time." A banking GC in London also experienced this in their previous role, where an external firm "tried to undermine me" and go to the CEO in a bid to gain more legal work. Meanwhile, CEOs are no more fond of this move than GCs are.  Natalie Prosser, CEO at newly established government environmental body, the Office for Environmental Protection, said partners going over a GC's head to reach the CEO "feels really clumsy" and that she would not want to be in this position as a CEO. "I've got a GC on my exec team for a reason," Prosser highlighted. Should a law firm partner reach out to her, she said she'd find it a "nuisance" and is firm in saying that she'd redirect the partner to her GC, insisting: "It won't get anybody anywhere."

WHAT YOU SAID

"Judge Silberman is absolutely right. Those who can't tolerate the free expression of political thought should be nowhere near the administration of justice. Signed, a former federal law clerk."