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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

OUT OF THE RUNNING - Legal and corporate compliance departments expect to outsource more work in the next three years, but law firms probably shouldn't bother waiting by the phone. According to a new Wolters Kluwer CT Corporation and ELM Solutions report, CLOs plan to continue favoring legal tech and corporate compliance providers over law firms. And Wolters Kluwer director of legal operations and industry insights Nathan Cemenska told Law.com's Dan Roe that the preference for tech-enabled specialization could have consequences beyond the work that law firms weren't getting anyway. For instance, legal tech companies are bundling in services like contract review to their legal invoice review and technology strategy offerings. "Big Law sometimes uses contract review and other lower-level work as a loss leader to up-sell higher-end services," Cemenska said. "That might not be as much of an option going forward."

LOOSE LIPS SINK SHIPS - Even for an institution that is not exactly known for stellar optics, the leak of a draft SCOTUS opinion overruling two major abortion decisions is a particularly bad look. Court scholars and others agreed that whoever leaked the draft opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito did the court no favors at a time when its public approval is on the decline, and when a number of justices have raised concerns about the institution's legitimacy in the public's eye. "The fact that this draft opinion was leaked to the press—an unprecedented breach, to my knowledge—is an assault on the institutional legitimacy of the court, a naked political act that disregards the rule of law and the integrity of the court's decision-making process," Tobias Wolff, deputy dean of the University of Pennsylvania's Carey Law School, told Law.com's Marcia Coyle. "We should not have this draft in front of us. But we do, and if the final opinion looks substantially like this draft, it is a grave moment in our constitutional history."

WHO GOT THE WORK?℠ - High school sports media company PlayOn! Sports, backed by KKR & Co. and Panoramic Ventures, announced that it has agreed to merge with GoFan, a ticketing platform for high school events. The transaction, announced April 27, is expected to close in the second quarter of 2022. Financial terms were not disclosed. Atlanta-based PlayOn! was advised by a Kirkland & Ellis team led by partners Ravi Agarwal, Francisco Barrón, Matthew Leist, Jennifer Perkins, Seth Traxler and Eric Wedel. Counsel information for GoFan, which is based in Alpharetta, Georgia, was not immediately available. >> Read more 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.

SWING AND A MISS - Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr filed a lawsuit alleging breach-of-contract and trademark infringement Tuesday in Florida Middle District Court on behalf of LocoTrips.com, BuildRealBrands and Bret Fencel, originators of the "YoungSwingers" and "Hedonism" adult-themed events. The complaint accuses PB&J Resorts of refusing to refund hotel room bookings amid cancellation of 2020 Hedonism events due to COVID-19, and withholding nearly $1 million the plaintiffs required to refund customers. The hotel is also accused of marketing its own Hedonism events as of February 2021, misappropriating the plaintiffs' "Hedonism" and "YoungSwingers" marks and misrepresenting to customers that the defendant had rightfully acquired the Hedonism brand. Counsel have not yet appeared for the defendant. The case is 6:22-cv-00833, Fencl et al v. PB&J Resorts II (Jamaica) Limited d/b/a Hedonism II. Stay up on the latest deals and litigation with the new Law.com.   

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