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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

'PRESSURE FOR PROGRESS' -  According to a new study, 20 of the 59 GCs hired by Fortune 500 companies last year were ethnically diverse. As Law.com's Trudy Knockless reports, that's a big improvement from past years that reflects the growing pipeline of minority talent and stepped-up efforts by companies to diversify their C-suites. The 2021 activity represents a 34% ethnic diversity hiring rate. By comparison, in 2019, 12 of the 49 GC hirings—or 24%—were ethnically diverse, according to the study by the management consulting firm Russell Reynolds Associates. With hirings, retirements and other departures, Fortune 500 companies closed 2021 with 85 ethnically diverse GCs and 174 female GCs. That compares with 73 ethnically diverse GCs and 161 female GCs a year earlier. "There is little doubt that this is the result of renewed energy and pressure for progress towards social justice, but also efforts by organizations to use every GC succession as an opportunity to search for a diverse slate of legal talent, and meaningfully diversify their leadership teams," the report states.

CAN'T MAKE IT THERE  - The rise of remote work and unprecedented competition has pressured firms to unify pay scales for associates. Well, some firms anyway. As Law.com's Andrew Maloney reports, NLJ 500 data published Tuesday shows that more than two dozen large firms still maintain a spectrum of salaries for their first-year associates. Among firms that reported salaries, much of the discrepancy comes from the Second Hundred, though some top 100 firms such as Baker & Hostetler (No. 59 in this year's NLJ 500 rankings) and Taft Stettinius & Hollister (No. 100) also reported multiple starting salaries. While analysts and firm leaders say the trend is toward nationwide compensation structures, some firms still see value in differentiating by the market or incentivizing competition among their lawyers. Other firms may have a unified salary scale, but lean on their bonus pools to distinguish performance. Josh Lorentz, chair of the the finance committee at Dinsmore & Shohl, the NLJ 500 firm with the largest reported spread between high and low first-year salaries, told Maloney the firm believes taking different markets into consideration is still the fairest way to compensate lawyers. "Chicago is different than Cincinnati. Los Angeles is different than Cleveland," he said. "Because we have such disparate geographies, we think compensating at an appropriate market rate is the way to go. Some firms, their offices are primarily in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, and it might be an easier decision there [to have a unified pay setup] because those markets are similar."

WHO GOT THE WORK?℠ - Squire Patton Boggs and Berkowitz Oliver LLP have stepped in as defense counsel to Kansas City Life Insurance Company in a pending class action alleging excessive fee deductions. The case, filed May 5 in Maryland District Court by Stueve Siegal Hanson; Joseph Greenwald & Laake; and Miller Schirger LLC, accuses the defendant of deducting charges from the value of class members' life insurance policies that are not specifically permitted by the policies. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Beth P. Gesner, is 1:22-cv-01100, McMillan v. Kansas City Life Insurance Company. >> 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.