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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

OFFICE SPACE VS. HEADSPACE -  Law firms are taking advantage of a lessees' market and either re-upping and redesigning their spaces or, in many cases, relocating altogether. So the pandemic didn't kill the office after all, but firms are quick with assurances that they've changed how they view the workplace—it should invite collaboration and communication, they say, recognizing that the days of working five days a week in your own office with the door shut are gone. These physical changes appear to be a step in the right direction for an industry whose workers have made it abundantly clear that they want flexibility. But, as we explore in the latest Law.com Trendspotter column, philosophical changes appear to still be lagging behind, as the conversation around office returns continues to focus less on how to truly make the most of hybrid arrangements and more on who currently has the leverage to dictate the terms of attendance policies. Many firm leaders still appear to view the rise of remote work as an unfortunate and unexpected turn of events rather than an inevitable—if accelerated—evolution. I'm interested to hear from you. Have law firms begun to accept that hybrid work is here to stay or are they simply waiting to regain the leverage necessary to re-establish the old status quo of in-person attendance? Let me know at [email protected].

MENTAL HEALTH MOMENTUM - The mental health of minority and women lawyers appears to have improved over the last year, according to the results of Law.com and ALM Intelligence's 2022 Mental Health and Substance Abuse Survey, which also showed positive wellness trends for all lawyers. As Law.com's Dan Roe reports, this year's survey, sent to over 3,400 lawyers at law firms around the globe in March and April, indicated that some of the most significant disparities in mental health between white male attorneys and all others, particularly women and attorneys of color, had shrunk since the 2021 survey. Other disparities persisted, as white and male attorneys felt more comfortable pushing back on client demands and taking time off without fear of hurting their careers. The greatest disparities existed in lawyers' relationships with their firms, a realm where white lawyers and male lawyers appeared to feel advantaged compared with their peers. However, both groups seemed to dislike the shift to remote work more than women and minority attorneys, who reported better quality of life and less likelihood of burnout. Male lawyers were both most likely to feel negatively about remote work and most likely to say it didn't impact them as directly as it did women, who saw their output and hourly commitment increase at a greater rate than men.

WHO GOT THE WORK?℠ - Paul L. Bittner and Angela Courtwright of Ice Miller have stepped in to defend an owner and operator of Jet's Pizza franchises in a pending wage-and-hour class action. The suit, filed April 27 in Ohio Southern District Court by Sanford Law Firm and Barkan Meizlish Derose Cox, pursues claims for alleged overtime violations on behalf of hourly paid delivery drivers. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Michael H. Watson, is 2:22-cv-02048, Morrow v. Ohio Pizza 17, LLC. >> 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.