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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

DON'T LOOK UP - The sky-high legal demand law firms have enjoyed over the past two years may now be on its arcing descent—and when it returns to Earth it's going to hit some firms like an asteroid. Deep down, everyone knows the pandemic-driven legal services boom can't last forever. Unfortunately, just because the legal industry can see something coming doesn't mean it always does a good job of preparing for it. That's especially true at a time when the industry is just beginning to emerge from a 24-month period that played out in a way that no one foresaw. Instead of Great-Recession-esque mass associate layoffs there was an unprecedented talent war. Instead of a downturn in demand, clients sought legal counsel at a historic pace. But, as we explore in the latest Law.com Trendspotter column, if what goes up must come down, firms that went all-in during this prosperous period may be headed for dangerously diminishing returns. I'd like to hear from you. Are you concerned about demand decreasing in the near future? If so, what do you think will drive that dip and how can firms prepare for it now? Let me know at [email protected].

SCREENING CANDIDATES -  The on-campus law firm interviewing process that had been turned upside down by the pandemic in 2020 returned to its regular schedule last summer, but the bulk of the interviews remained virtual. And, as Law.com's Christine Charnosky reports, law schools do not appear to be in any rush to return to in-person meetings, at least when it comes to the initial round of law firm-job candidate contact. "We anticipate that 'on-campus' screening interviews will continue in a virtual format with employers holding callbacks either in-person or virtually as they prefer," Tamara McClatchey, director of career services at the University of Chicago Law School, told Charnosky. Meanwhile, Mandie LeBeau, assistant dean for career development & public service at Boston University School of Law, said it is the school's "hope that virtual recruitment programs will continue, as it helps to expand the geographic range of opportunities for which our students can interview seamlessly." Still, not everyone is content to remain remote. "We are, of course, excited to get back to interviewing fully in person, whether on law school campuses or with students coming to our office for interviews with our attorneys," said Peter Van Name, director of talent & recruiting at Selendy Gay Elsberg. Explore the entire 2022 Go-To Law Schools report.

WHO GOT THE WORK?℠ - Alyssa Sones of Sheppard Mullin has entered an appearance for Running Warehouse, Skate Warehouse, Tackle Warehouse and Tennis Warehouse in a pending data breach class action. The complaint, filed Jan. 21 in California Central District Court by George Gesten McDonald PLLC; Faruqi & Faruqi and Calcaterra Pollack LLP, accuses the defendants of failing to adequately protect customers' payment card information. The suit arises from an alleged cyberattack on the defendants' websites in Oct. 2021. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Dolly M. Gee, is 2:22-cv-00460, Erik Solter et al v. Sports Warehouse et al. >> Read the filing 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.

WASTED TIME - PepsiCo Inc. and Bottling Group were hit with a wage-and-hour class action Wednesday in New York Southern District Court. The suit was filed by Klafter Lesser LLP on behalf of current and former non-exempt hourly employees who allege they were not paid for all hours worked after a ransomware attack led to an outage on the timekeeping software used by the defendants. Counsel have not yet appeared for the defendant. The case is 7:22-cv-02370, Marshall v. Pepsico, Inc., et al. Stay up on the latest deals and litigation with the new Law.com Radar.  

EDITOR'S PICKS

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

NOTHING BUT TROUBLE - Legal problems continue to surface for Chinese telecommunications equipment maker ZTE Corp., even after a U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade of the Northern District of Texas ended the company's five-year probation from a 2017 guilty plea and billion-dollar fine. The ruling was issued March 22, the final day of ZTE's probation for illegally shipping U.S. technology to Iran and North Korea. ZTE pleaded guilty in 2017 and paid a penalty of $892 million to the U.S. But, as Law.com International's Jessica Seah reports, ZTE has not steered clear of trouble since its 2017 guilty plea. In 2018, the U.S. Commerce Department found that ZTE had made false statements about disciplining executives who were involved in orchestrating illegal shipments to Iran. Also in 2018, ZTE was separately accused of violating its probation over an alleged conspiracy to bring Chinese nationals into the U.S. to conduct research at ZTE. The company also faces a pending personal injury lawsuit. The action, brought on behalf of American service members and civilians who were killed or wounded while serving in Iraq between 2011 and 2016 and their families, accuses ZTE of aiding terrorists in Iraq by evading international sanctions. Even the recent favorable ruling in the Northern District of Texas came with encouragement from Kinkeade for the U.S. government to pursue any reasonable charges and criminal or civil penalties against ZTE.

WHAT YOU SAID

"I wanted to hide and crawl into a cave and be ashamed. But I'm stronger than that. What people need to realize is there's no shame in having a mental illness. We can't all be hiding in a cave."

— Tara Trantham, a former legal and compliance chief based in South Carolina, sharing her own story of mental health struggles and recovery.