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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

BUILDING EQUITY - Large law firms law haven't exactly been in a bulking phase when it comes to their equity partner ranks recently, despite the fact that many of them made a ton of money during the pandemic. But as Law.com's Andrew Maloney reports, a potential recession may actually be what it takes to alter firms' calculus on holding back lawyers from the equity tier. As high associate turnover continues, some firms may benefit by pushing associates to the partnership, analysts say. Meanwhile, with demand slowing and a recession looming, it may appear firms will become more cautious about adding to their equity partnership. But firm leaders may be reluctant to go down the other path—winnowing their crops of potential partners—because it created other challenges after the Great Recession. "I think law firms are going to be very reluctant to shed capacity as they did in 2007, 2008 or 2009 because it left them with a bubble in their leveraged attorney population—a bubble in their associate ranks that was hard to close. So I think they're going to be very careful about that," said Michael McKenney, a senior client adviser and business development officer at Citi Private Bank Law Firm Group.

CORPORATE COMPLIANCE CRASH -  Corporate misconduct hasn't gone away during the pandemic, it's just gotten better at hiding. That's according to a new bulletin from Gartner Inc. The Stamford, Connecticut-based research and consulting firm found that compliance leaders are getting misconduct reports 30% less frequently than they did before the pandemic. Gartner also noted that remote employees observe 11% less misconduct than their colleagues who are working in offices.  Misconduct related to travel, gifts and entertainment dropped during the pandemic, but "bullying, intimidation and unwanted behavior are up 7% for remote workers; misuse of time and company assets is up 3%," according to Chris Audet, senior director of research for Gartner's legal, risk and compliance practice.  Remote working has resulted in employees not being quite as embedded in compliance culture and it's also given way to new forms of misconduct, including inappropriate video backgrounds and boorish online behavior, Gartner noted. "The world has changed so much," Audet told Law.com's Phillip Bantz. "We now have a new employer-employee value proposition and, in turn, we need a new reporting value proposition."

WHO GOT THE WORK?℠ - Elliott Advisors UK Limited has agreed to sell Associazione Calcio Milan to RedBird Capital Partners for 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion). The transaction, announced June 1, is expected to close in the third quarter of 2022. Elliott Advisors was represented by a Davis Polk & Wardwell team led by partners William H. Aaronson and Darren Schweiger. New York-based RedBird Capital Partners was advised by Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. The team was led by partners Richard Birns and Stefan dePozsgay.  >> 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.

ON THE RADAR - Coinbase, a digital currency wallet and trading platform, was hit with a class action Thursday in California Northern District Court in relation to its promotion of cryptocurrency TerraUSD. The court action, filed by Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman and Erickson Kramer Osborne, accuses Coinbase of failing to disclose the true risks inherent to TerraUSD and misled the class into believing that they were purchasing a 'reserve-backed stablecoin,' a distinct type of cryptocurrency that is generally less volatile than its counterpart. The complaint also contends that investors lost an estimated $18 billion in May from the devaluation of TerraUSD. Counsel have not yet appeared for the defendant. The case is 3:22-cv-03561, Pearl et al v. Coinbase Global, Inc. et al. Stay up on the latest deals and litigation with the new Law.com Radar. 

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