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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

IMPERFECT ATTENDANCE - Behold! The leaves are turning and the Ritual Hand-Wringing Over Office Returns has commenced! As Law.com's Patrick Smith reports, law firm leaders, like their corporate peers, are aiming to increase the number of lawyers and staff in the office during the upcoming fall and winter months, seeking to maximize all the training and collaboration benefits that (allegedly) come with it. But they're still struggling to enforce in-office work policies and afraid of the reputational hazards if they do, industry observers say. Meanwhile, many firms are struggling to get partners to buy into office returns, let alone more junior attorneys and staff members. Stephanie Biderman, a partner with legal recruiting firm Major, Lindsey & Africa, told Smith that the lure of mentorship and training for associates is gone if the partnership isn't there. And if that lure isn't there, what's the motivation for the associates to come in? "If people are being productive at home, firms don't want to lose those productive people," she said of attorneys who are hesitant to come back and also doing their job well. "Firms are trying to tow that middle ground of culture, training and mentorship, but they are also people and want to be nice and be flexible. In my mind, if the partners are not in, I think it is very hard to accomplish most of the goals achieved by having people in the office."

YOU DOWN WITH ESG? - GCs may not have much of a choice but to take the reins of their companies' ESG programs. But luckily, many of them seem fairly jazzed about these roles, which build off their intricate knowledge of the regulatory environment and the relationships many have established across their companies, Law.com's Trudy Knockless reports. "It also has a social and media and communications and branding component," said PJ Harari, a partner of in-house recruiting at Major, Lindsey & Africa. "It has an environmental component, which might deal with operations and efficiencies, supply chain issues. Those are all within the control of different departments, but legal brings people together." A survey of 79 in-house lawyers released in May by Corporate Counsel and Morrison & Foerster found that 54% of legal departments now have responsibility for leading environmental, social and governance strategy. Many legal chiefs say they welcome the new duties, despite the significant challenges that go with them. As John Albright, chief legal and compliance officer of Chicago-based insurance brokerage HUB International, put it: "ESG is of interest to your employees. It's of interest to your customers. It's of interest to your investors."

WHO GOT THE WORK?℠ -Barry Y. Freeman of Roetzel & Andress has entered an appearance for Falcons Management Georgia, a TGI Fridays restaurant operator, in a pending employment class action. The suit, filed July 11 in Ohio Southern District Court by Nilges Draher LLC, claims that the defendant improperly paid its servers the 'tipped minimum wage,' while requiring servers to perform non-tip producing work. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Walter H. Rice, is 3:22-cv-00182, Olade v. Falcons Management Georgia >> 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.