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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

'WHAT ARE THEY ALLOWING?' - Law firm efforts to create an equitable and safe environment for female attorneys have made progress over the last 30 years, especially since the #MeToo movement took root. But, as Law.com's Patrick Smith reports, interviews with female attorneys and a wide-ranging survey on the subject show that sexual harassment is still a daily struggle for many. The industry shift to remote work didn't halt harassment in the workplace, either. Other forms of harassment, such as bullying and inappropriate comments, may have actually flourished during the pandemic due to one-on-one interactions on video chats, said Cory Amron, a founder of the advocacy group Women Lawyers on Guard (WLG). A 2020 WLG survey highlighted that significant barriers to progress remain, allowing harassment to run rampant in the legal profession. These barriers to progress include a lack of reporting for fear of retribution, power dynamics between the harasser and harassed that put the latter in untenable positions, and workplace cultures that, while they may discourage the behavior, lack teeth to adequately enforce consequences. "Firms have to look at their cultures," said one female attorney, who asked not to be named in order to speak freely. "What are they fostering, what are they allowing? What are you allowing clients to do and say just because they may at some point give you some business and some money? Is that more important than the health [of the firm's attorneys]?"

IT PAYS TO KNOW PEOPLE - Turns out you don't have to keep working for the SEC to get paid by the SEC. The agency's widely hailed whistleblower program has paid millions in recent years to former SEC lawyers who have come to dominate the market for representing tipsters seeking payouts through the program, a new study found. As Law.com's Andrew Goudsward reports, an analysis by Alexander Platt, an associate professor at the University of Kansas Law School, found that whistleblowers who retained counsel received substantially higher awards on average than those without, and of those who hired lawyers, a small group of repeat players—many of whom once worked at the SEC—was by far the most successful. The study estimated that a quarter of the total award payouts the SEC issued from the inception of the whistleblower program in 2011 through 2020 went to clients of lawyers who formerly worked at the agency. Using a standard 30-40% contingency fee, Platt estimated that the SEC paid out between $53 million and $70 million to its own alumni. Repeat SEC whistleblower attorneys earned an average of $10.3 million in awards for their clients, compared with just under $6 million for whistleblowers counseled by lawyers who hadn't previously secured an SEC payout, according to the analysis.

WHO GOT THE WORK?℠ - Derek T. Rollins of Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart has entered an appearance for Sysco New Mexico in a labor grievance pertaining to COVID-19 work reductions. The case, filed July 14 by Youtz & Valdez on behalf of International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local Union 492, seeks to enforce an arbitration award requiring the defendant to pay all employees for a minimum 40-hour work week for the period from March 2020 to Dec. 2020. The suit, filed in New Mexico District Court, claims that Sysco New Mexico has refused to comply with the Aug. 2021 award. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jerry H. Ritter, is 1:22-cv-00520, International Brotherhood of Teamsters v. Sysco New Mexico, 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.