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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

IN-HOUSE, OUT - Oddly enough, it's starting to seem like in-house lawyers are no longer happy toiling away at jobs they hate. According to the Future Ready Lawyer Survey 2022 released last week by legal software maker Wolters Kluwer, 70% of corporate lawyers surveyed say that they're at least somewhat likely to leave their current position in the coming year. In fact, 26% of lawyers surveyed said that they're very likely to do so, Law.com's Hugo Guzman reports. "There are big numbers here in terms of what the Great Resignation is doing in terms of impacting how people will move or switch [positions]," Ken Crutchfield, vice president and general manager of legal markets and regulatory U.S. at Wolters Kluwer, said at a seminar launching the report. Corporate legal teams seem woefully unprepared for this level of attrition. Only 33% of corporate lawyers told Wolters Kluwer that their department is very prepared to recruit or retain legal staff, with technology staff recruitment and retention in similarly dire straits. According to Wolters Kluwer, much of this churn is driven by employee needs. Opportunity for career development was ranked as the top workplace expectation for corporate lawyers. Other priorities for lawyers were work-life balance, technology investments, and a clear sense of purpose. But lawyers generally said that their departments weren't very good at delivering any of that.

PAY DISCREPANCY - Yesterday, we told you about a frustrating step backward for female GC pay. Unfortunately, a new study by ALM Intelligence on the compensation of marketing and business development professionals in the legal profession contains similarly sour news. As Law.com's Patrick Smith reports, the study found that salaries and bonuses for first-chair director and C-suite personnel have soared over the last several years, but that the increases favored males and widened the pay gap between men and women in those roles. The 2022 Marketing and Business Development Compensation Survey, which examined data from 2021 and was conducted in the first quarter of 2022, showed that women make up more than three-quarters of the marketing and BD professionals at law firms, but that they overwhelmingly receive a smaller share of revenue per lawyer (RPL) than their male counterparts. Patrick Fuller, vice president and general manager of ALM Intelligence and another author of the study, said that while firms have focused on achieving greater equity for female attorneys on a variety of issues, business professionals are often left behind in those efforts. "Over the past decade, law firms' concerted efforts to improve diversity and inclusion amongst FTE attorneys produced steady year-over-year improvements," Fuller said. "As the marketing and business development compensation survey data shows, law firms must also focus on compensation equity for business professionals. It is beyond unacceptable that women comprise 75% of large- and mid-market chiefs or first-chair directors, yet earn, on average, 30% less than their male counterparts."

WHO GOT THE WORK?℠ - AmerisourceBergen Corp. has agreed to acquire PharmaLex Holding GmbH, a specialized services provider to the biotech and pharmaceutical industries, from funds advised by AUCTUS Capital Partners AG for approximately 1.28 billion euros ($1.3 billion) in cash. The transaction, announced Sept. 12, is expected to close by March 2023. Conshohocken, Pennsylvania-based AmerisourceBergen is advised by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Sidley Austin. The Freshfields Bruckhaus team is led by partners Damien Zoubek, Dr. Lars Meyer and Dr. Philipp Puetz. PharmaLex, based in Germany, is represented by Noerr and an emnay Rechtsanwaltskanzlei team. >> 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 - Fulgent Genetics, a diagnostic lab which provides COVID-19 and genetic testing services, and its top officers were hit with a securities class action on Tuesday in California Central District Court. The suit accuses the company of failing to inform investors that Fulgent was under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice over allegations of unnecessary lab testing, improper billing practices and receipt of kickback payments. The complaint was filed by Pomerantz LLP and Bronstein Gewirtz & Grossman. Counsel have not yet appeared for the defendants. The case is 2:22-cv-06764, Pugley v. Fulgent Genetics Inc. et al. Stay up on the latest deals and litigation with the new Law.com.   

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