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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

REAL TALK - In an industry that continues to grapple with profound pandemic-induced transformation amid continued global economic turmoil, one guiding principle, aglow in the darkness like the North Star, will illuminate a path for law firm leaders toward a better tomorrow: secrets, secrets are no fun—secrets, secrets hurt someone. As Law.com's David Gialanella writes, the level of transparency employed by law firm management implicates more than just the flow of information. "It implicates the power dynamic at a law firm (or any organization) and puts to the test any claims made about administering a democracy versus maintaining an oligarchy (or worse)," he notes. And it's not just about pay transparency, either. As one midsize law firm associate told Gialanella: in the COVID-19 era, "now people expect to have a dialogue on things." "If you can't talk to people genuinely … then you don't have the transparency," they said.

COUNTERINTELLIGENCE - In recent months, the brouhaha around ChatGPT and other generative AI-powered tools has shined a new, brighter light on the risks that artificial intelligence poses to users around the world.  As a result, Law.com International's Cassandre Coyer reports, the U.S. and European Union are increasingly looking to each other on how to regulate emerging technologies. One option, perhaps, is to transport a cybernetic organism—living tissue over a metal endoskeleton—from the future to present day Los Angeles in order to ensure the future of humanity. But before we get to that, the U.S. and EU will need to get on the same page—and legal professionals say policy alignment on AI is still unlikely. That doesn't mean there will be no coordination, however. "…[W]hat there can be alignment on, for example, is to make sure we're discussing the same thing. So we can create a common understanding of what we actually mean by AI," noted William Long, global co-chair of Sidley's Privacy and Cybersecurity practice and head of the EU Data Protection group.

ON THE RADAR - The U.S. Department of Education was hit with a lawsuit Friday in District of Columbia District Court challenging a federal agency decision granting an extension on a student loan moratorium enacted during the onset of COVID-19. The complaint was filed by Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer on behalf of SoFi Technologies subsidiaries SoFi Bank and SoFi Lending Corp. The court action seeks a declaration invalidating the extension of the moratorium and requiring repayment by borrowers. The case is 1:23-cv-00599, Sofi Bank, N.A. et al v. Cardona et al.  Stay up on the latest deals and litigation with the new Law.com Radar. 

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