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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

THE BIG COME DOWN - Law firms have entered the "Uh oh, we bought too many lawyers" phase of the economic cycle. As a result, they're pumping the breaks on lateral hiring from the unprecedented heights of last year, but, as Law.com's Justin Henry reports, there's an open question as to how far this slowdown will go: Is the legal industry careening toward the layoffs and hiring freezes of 2008 or 2020, or is it normalizing to a point of pre-pandemic stasis? It's not just the lower volume of lateral movement that's indicating a cooling of the legal industry's hiring environment; recruiters interviewed for this report said firms are investing less in their talent acquisition teams and the sign-on bonuses offered to associates have been reduced to a minimum. Firms are also reportedly becoming more circumspect about the productivity of their associates and business generation of their partners, pushing out those who aren't worth the inflated personnel costs that firms have incurred. Jeff Lowe, global managing partner of legal recruiter Major, Lindsey & Africa, told Henry that the recruiting for all practice areas and levels of practice was in a "feeding frenzy" in 2021 and at the beginning of 2022, which was especially pronounced in associate hiring, as firms did not want to turn down work from clients because they didn't have enough support from that class of attorney. By contrast, Lowe called today's lateral hiring market "very level"—not cratering, but it's far from the anomalous levels of demand in 2021.

RETAIL REPERCUSIONS - The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has cordially invited national employers to "mess around and find out." The EEOC filed disability discrimination lawsuits in recent weeks against a trio of employers with big retail operations, moves that may signal the agency under the Biden administration is taking a tougher stance on how far businesses must go to accommodate disabled workers. As Law.com's Hugo Guzman reports, the commission in July sued Hobby Lobby and last month sued Walmart and The Salvation Army, alleging the employers failed to meet their obligations under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act to provide reasonable accommodations to disabled workers unless doing so would pose an undue hardship. The flurry of disability-discrimination cases may be an indication that additional cases from the commission are in the offing, said Mara Levin, a Blank Rome partner in New York who helps lead the firm's labor and employment practice. "The EEOC does not normally bring actions against private employers unless they see that there is pervasive discrimination," Levin said. "That the EEOC has brought litigation against three significant retailers shows that the EEOC is becoming more aggressive."

WHO GOT THE WORK?℠ - OpenText, a Canadian developer of information management software, has agreed to purchase software company Micro Focus International plc for $6 billion. The transaction, announced Aug. 25, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2023. Waterloo, Canada-based OpenText is advised by Allen & Overy and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton. The Cleary Gottlieb team was led Jim Langston and Chris Moore. Micro Focus, based in Newbury, United Kingdom, is represented by Cravath, Swaine & Moore. The Cravath Swaine team is led by partners Philip J. Boeckman, G.J. Ligelis Jr. and George F. Schoen. >> 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 - Richard H. Hatch Jr., winner of the first season of the CBS reality show "Survivor," was hit with a tax lawsuit by the United States of America on Friday in Rhode Island District Court. The suit seeks to enforce tax liens against real property owned by Hatch, who served five years in prison for tax evasion after failing to report his $1 million winnings from the show. The complaint also names various financial institutions and other defendants who may have competing lien claims. Counsel have not yet appeared for the defendants. The case is 1:22-cv-00332, United States of America v. Hatch et al. Stay up on the latest deals and litigation with the new Law.com Radar. 

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