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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

PROBLEM PARTNERS - Ooooh, this must be that law firm culture we keep hearing so much about! A recent American Lawyer survey of 4,000 midlevel associates included almost 200 responses from associates who said they were being bullied, demeaned, overworked or ignored by their managers. Now, as demand and productivity dip, law firms have even fewer incentives to change the behavior of difficult—but productive—partners, who are also helping firms manage excess capacity through attrition. But, as Law.com's Dan Roe reports, long-term, firm leaders' apathy toward bad managers also breeds resentment between associates and partners and risks driving out preferred associates who firms would like to promote to partner, creating a leadership vacuum for future generations. "The excellent partners and other attorneys who are role models, mentors, and decent human beings do not cancel out or compensate for the partners who are terrible to work with," said one Big Law associate. "The rotten few ruin what would otherwise be a great place to work."

OPPOSITES ATTRACT - According to reports, lawyers aren't exactly tripping over each other to represent former President Donald Trump in the classified documents investigation. Still, by most accounts, he seems to have landed a few decent ones anyway, including M. Evan Corcoran, a former federal prosecutor and current lawyer at the Baltimore firm Silverman, Thompson, Slutkin & White. As Law.com's Andrew Goudsward reports, the role has put an attorney former colleagues described as reserved, low-key and methodical at the center of an unprecedented investigation into whether a former president improperly held onto closely guarded national security secrets. "In some ways, President Trump and Evan is a study in contrasts. Trump has a very uncomfortable relationship with the truth, he's flamboyant, he's bombastic—and Evan is none of those things," said Douglas Gansler, a partner at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft who was in the same class of incoming prosecutors with Corcoran, and has remained friendly with him. "So it's an interesting yin and yang relationship, I would imagine." But maybe that tension will end up being beneficial. "A lawyer who needs to advise him to do something that he's disinclined to do has a challenge in terms of persuasion," said Ty Cobb, a former Hogan Lovells partner who worked on Trump's legal team during Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. "So, it requires somebody of strength and the ability to communicate effectively the legal reasons for proceeding in a particular way."

WHO GOT THE WORK?℠ - Ballard Spahr partner Thomas B. Sullivan has stepped in to represent the owner of the Daily Mail newspaper in a pending copyright infringement lawsuit. The complaint, filed July 14 in New York Southern District Court by photographer Robert Miller, accuses the Daily Mail of posting Miller's photographs of SNL star Pete Davison without authorization. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl, is 7:22-cv-06008, Miller v. Associated Newspapers Ltd. et al. >> 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.

ON THE RADAR - CenturyLink, a Lumen Technologies company, and a slew of other telecommunications providers were slapped with a lawsuit Wednesday in Louisiana Western District Court arising from the U.S. federal government's 'FirstNet' project, a contract to build a wireless network for first responders. The lawsuit was filed by Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick and McMichael & Carter on behalf of AT&T, which was awarded the contract by the U.S. Department of Commerce, and New Cingular Wireless PCS. The defendants accuse the defendants of breaching network infrastructure agreements by failing to provide AT&T customers with 'geographically diverse,' reliable service. Counsel have not yet appeared for the defendants. The case is 3:22-cv-05172, AT&T Corp et al v. Central Telephone Company of Virginia et al. Stay up on the latest deals and litigation with the new Law.com Radar. 

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