Want to get this daily news briefing by email? Here's the sign-up.

WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

A CHANGE IS GONNA COME - The past few years have made two things abundantly clear: (1) you can't stop progress and (2) the legal industry is going to keep trying anyway. While the American Bar Association's policymaking body this week rejected proposals for lawyers to share law firm ownership and legal fees with other professionals, the issue is far from settled, say some observers, who note the legal industry is increasingly facing rivals from other industries and must transform to keep up. Impeding legal fees from being shared with non-J.D. holders won't stop tech companies, the Big Four and management consultants from offering their services to law firm clients, observers told Law.com's Justin Henry and Bruce Love. By discouraging nonlawyer ownership from the market, law firms may feel they can fend off competition pressures from external forces. But they would be gravely mistaken, said Tomek Jankowski, director of the Pacesetter Research team at ALM Intelligence. "Change is coming," said Jankowski. "And while the most dramatic form of that change would be amendments to ABA Rule 5.4, it's already happening—through technology and through client demand. Change is a reality."

IT'S NOT ME, IT'S YOU - Corporate legal departments continue to reduce the number of outside law firms they use. In the process, Law.com's Andrew Maloney reports, some clients appear to be "ghosting" law firms they've previously worked with. Nathan Cemenska, director of legal operations and industry insights at ELM Solutions, told Corporate Counsel earlier this month that while he wasn't totally sure why clients continued dropping firms out of the rotation once the pandemic had settled in, he suggested that it might be because some clients found they could make do without some of those firms they left right as COVID-19 struck. "I think some law departments are using it as a springboard. They're like, 'Oh, we haven't used this person for two years. Let's not ever use them again. Let's just not call them back,'" he said, describing the dating practice known colloquially as ghosting. "Then you don't have to end the relationship formally. You just don't call them anymore." In other words, they're just not that into you.

ON THE RADAR - Kia Motors and parent company Hyundai Motor were hit with a class action on Thursday in Ohio Northern District Court on behalf of Kia and Hyundai owners who claim their vehicles contain a defect that makes them easy to steal. The complaint, filed by Payne Law and the Harrington Firm, is part of a wave of cases alleging that 2011-2021 Kia and Hyundai models lack engine immobilizers, a security device that makes it more difficult to start a vehicle without a key. Counsel have not yet appeared for the defendants. The case is 3:22-cv-01432, Slovak et al. v. Kia America Inc. et al. Stay up on the latest deals and litigation with the new Law.com Radar. 

EDITOR'S PICKS